Home Stay Move-In Day!

Today is an exciting day! I got to move in with my host family today, and needless to say, I was worried about it all day (and I'm still worried about it now, post-move in). Anyways, we'll go in chronological order — though, I guess this being a blog, you can jump ahead and meet the fam if you wish. But the suspense is better this way, ne?

The day started off with a slow morning. I was awake for a while before my first skype with dad. It was great to see him again, and Bernie as well. We talked only for a bit though, since I had to go to breakfast soon. A slow morning felt good in the past few days. Really, it doesn't feel like I've been in Japan for only five days. So much has happened!

I had breakfast as usual, then went upstairs, showered and packed. Now the real day began. Leaving our bags at the front desk, we then went to explore the area that is Kichijoji, starting with the park nearby. I don't know what it's called, but it's a really nice park, complete with swan boats, fountains, live performances (every weekend in this park, there's live music and lots of things to do like sit around with other artists and draw manga), and even a shrine. Then there's a little forest path that leads to the Ghibli Museum, which we didn't have time to go to, but I wish we did. Perhaps later.

There were also vendors there who, well, vended. There was this cute kitten stand, and I really wanted to get one, but managed to have enough strength to withhold until I finally went to Harajuku to shop around. Then I could compare all the prices and get all the cute things I wanted.

Anyone see the Ghibli Museum?

We stopped at this old fashioned kakigori stand and got some, which made me so happy, because everyone had been telling me that I had missed kakigori season already, and that it had ended. I had given up hope, and then this stand came about! It saved me! And it was Julien and Ian's first time trying kakigori (which is shaved ice with condensed milk and flavor syrup). It's so delicious, though nevertheless decadent.

Really weird shaped ice cream I saw on the way out.
Makes me shiver a little for some reason.

We explored the rest of the park and went to that shrine I mentioned above. It was a very peaceful place, where everybody was quiet. I washed my hands with shrine water, and thus supposedly cleansed my soul. There were these cute ducks there as well, which looked like painted wood, because their colors were so even and so defined. They were really cool looking ducks.

After we walked around the park and I got attacked my mosquitoes, we returned to our area of Kichijoji and went to a cat cafe called Calico. A cat cafe is exactly like it sounds. They sell coffee and some other drinks, and you pay an hourly fee to sit around and play with cats. These places exist because most people who live in Tokyo live in apartment buildings that don't allow pets.

They were all really cute, and some learned to be my friend, while others ran away whenever they heard my approach. Nevertheless, it was a nice time to just relax and play around with something that didn't talk. Too much talking was so confusing sometimes, especially when switching between English and Japanese. My favorite kitty always involves the purple hat. The one sitting inside the pot is very nice, and very cute. The one on the pillow is equally nice and cute as well. Oh, they were just all so adorable! <3

Needless to say, I was very sad to leave, but we needed to go and get lunch, and then meet our host families! We were all nervous, and lunch didn't really sit well with me (and I don't think curry would have sat well with any of us — though Ian seems to have been perfectly calm and okay).

Antisocial kitties. 

SO CUTE

This guy knows how to do it right. 

We tried to get Indian food first, but the place was full. It was divine intervention. I'm not sure how I would have done with such decadent dishes. But we settled on Thai instead, which was great! I got some fried chicken and rice, Thai style of course, while both Shannon and Ian got pad thai. It was delicious, and we were starving, and thus, the whole thing was over quickly.

It's the front of a tuk-tuk! :D

These packets of cigarettes are really small. I'm not sure
if you can tell due to lack of reference, but they're tiny.

And then it was time. I was off. I was on my way to meet the family I would be with for the next nine months. I've done home stays before, but definitely not with somebody for nine months. A few weeks was fine, even, but two hundred and fifty something days meant a lot. Needless to say, I didn't take this lightly, and neither did they.

They have advertisements on the handles on the subway! Ingenious!

My host family has two really cute children. The younger one is four, and her name is Ayuka. The older one is seven, and his name is Ryosuke. They're both swimmers, and Ayuka has already taken to calling me "oneesan," which means "older sister" in Japanese. Apparently, she's the most excited about my presence, and hasn't stopped talking about it for days.

Ryosuke has taught me some baseball in the short time we've been together, and now I at least know how to catch and throw a felt apple with deadly precision and speed. They both are wonderful, and though sometimes a little loud, they're really cute.

This picture below is the rest of my host family. Yoshiko-san is the mother, and she is very talkative. She tries to make me feel at home, while I myself feel that I ask her too many questions. I'm a curious person, but hopefully I won't make her tired with how much I want to learn Japanese and grammar and meanings and stuff.

Masahiro-san is the father. I'm still a bit scared of him, and he hasn't talked to me much so far, but hopefully that changes as we move along through time. He's a tax accountant, but he doesn't speak much English at all, so I'll have to get better with my Japanese before much talking is done in the first place.

We ate some sushi for dinner, which was very nice. I had squid sushi for the first time, which is chewier than I'm used to, and very bland. I then went to watch some Japanese anime with the kids, while the two adults drank some wine and sake and took care of their night business. They have one shower and one toilet, so if I ever were to take a shower, I should do it in the timeliest manner, early in the morning before the rush. Like, 5:30 or so. Hopefully I can keep this early rising thing up.

Ja, tomorrow is church. I've never been to church before (at least church in English that wasn't an African American style church), so I'm not sure if I'm looking forward to it or not. But it'll be a new experience. It's either I go to church or take a walk around the park or something with Masahiro-san. I don't know which is better, but I'm sure that there'll be no conversation going on during the walk at least. Hm. They told me to think about it and get back to them tomorrow. We'll see.

This is my Japanese room. It's so old fashioned. I sleep on a futon on the ground, and my desk is close to the ground and does't have a chair or something, just  a cushion. The room has some very nice walls, and I think it was the prayer room before I came along.

Ja, sleep time! I'll be back tomorrow after some church and shopping. And I'm so tired.

Best,

Maggie