Some Quick Introductions

Alright, so I'm still working on my longer post about the first part of November, but in the meantime, per request from my family, I figured I would introduce my new host family!
I moved to my new home about a month ago (wow, that went really fast...). I now reside in the Setagaya ward of Tokyo, which is the biggest ward, and I believe lies in the western part of Tokyo. My house is kind of out of the way from everything (30 minutes by train to the nearest major station and about an hour from my house to my school), but the neighborhood is very quiet and relaxed which is a nice change from busy Chiyoda. Also, the major street of the area is fairly close to where I live, which has all the basic shops we need. On the weekends I walk with my host grandma to the supermarket to do the groceries.
Moving on to the family! My second host family, the Fujii family, is considerably smaller than my first family. It consists of my host dad, host grandma, host brother, and (host?) dog. And like my earlier blog post, I will give each of them a short introduction:

Jo Fujii (host dad): The head of a small funeral services company (although you wouldn't be able to tell that's what it was from his office). I think he's around 40. He is also an accomplished shamisen player (you should see his trophy room) and has a second job as a shamisen teacher. A shamisen, by the way, is a three-stringed, Japanese-style guitar (but it's shaped more like a banjo). It's a traditional instrument, and if you've ever heard traditional Japanese music, you've probably heard a shamisen in the background.

Remiko Fujii (host grandma): I call her Remi, for short. Although technically she's my host grandma, I think of her more as my host mom, since she does everything for me: cooking, cleaning, keeping track of all my activities, etc. I also spend the most time with her, since she's home most of the time that I am. She's a retired Japanese as a Second Language teacher, so her English is amazing! She still works now as an English tutor to a select few people. Despite her age, she runs the whole runs the whole house single-handedly and is, obviously, extremely good at it. Her cooking is the best! Also, her daughter (who unfortunately passed away recently) lived in Switzerland with her husband and two kids, which means my host grandma has spent alot of time in Europe, so she likes to enjoy her European food as well. That means she has a great taste in bread (goodbye Japanese wonderbread!) and a nice stash of Swiss chocolate which is almost exclusively for me, as I'm the only one who really eats sweets in this family. Life is good!

Remi-san and my host brother, Reigen

Reigen Fujii (host brother): a 20-year old college student who also just happens to be one of the best shamisen players in Japan! (you should see his trophy room) Each May there is a contest among the most elite shamisen players in the country, to see who is the year's best (although I don't think you can enter again once you've already won), and Reigen was this year's champion. He's also a talented piano player and singer, so I'm always hearing music around the house, especially jazz, which is his favorite (yes, you can play jazz on the shamisen too). Surprisingly enough, he's studying law at university.
Here's part of his performance from last May:

And last but not least:
Rikki the dog: My family's huge, adorable, Akida (at least I think that's the breed's name). He's around 7, so he's not super hyper, but he really likes being pet, and he comes to greet me at the door when I come home, and sometimes, if he feels like making the trip up the stairs (my room is on the third floor) he comes and sleeps in my bed with me! He's also really well trained, and can do basic tricks like sit, wait, and shake hands. I already love him so much!

So that's it for the new host family! I'll put more about my new house in the next post, because I still have to finish uploading the pictures, and blogger is being ridiculously slow at the moment (as is everything else on my computer). If my internet connection decides to start working like it should again, then I should have the new post up by next week, and if not...then we'll see...

じゃあね！