Blast from the Past

My blog's all out of order, because I keep remembering everything out of order...

Orientation was on the 2nd, and it was...an orientation. Teachers came to talk to us about a bunch of things, we got a bunch of papers and our ID cards. It all took a while. But after that stuff, we met our monitor students. These are Japanese students at Sophia who are supposed to answer any questions we have and things like that. A lot (all?) are in the English "faculty" (department) and they took on the 'job' to practice English and meet foreigners. It was 2 exchange students per monitor student, so Mia and I ended up paired up with a girl named Asuka. It ended up being that a lot of us UVA kids were paired up with someone we knew. And it also turned out that my monitor student is friends with Greg/Jeannette's, and Hunter(/Mike, another guy from the DK House whom we met) so we all kind of hung out together. And they all have 'A' names...Asuka, Akiko, Ayano. They took us to the cafeteria and we all just talked and got to know each other. I was a bit antsy because I needed to try to make it back to DK by 630 to meet my host mom for dinner, but it was kinda hard to just leave by myself, and the others wanted to go back, and I had invited some to come to dinner with me, so I wanted to wait for everyone. We finally made it on a train by 6 (eek) because the line to get the commuter pass was really long (full of exchange students...) and I got to DK at 7pm, to find my host mom and brother (I guess he was able to come!) waiting for me already and when I asked, she said they got there a bit after 6pm (eek again!) So that was embarrassing and bad on my part.

But it was so good to see each other after...4 years that it didn't seem to matter. My host mom told me to invite some friends and I also wanted someone there with me, because I knew I wouldn't be able to hold a conversation by myself. So thankfully, Greg was up for the challenge of going out to eat with us (thank you Greg!) They talked about how I got so much taller, that seems to always be the thing to talk about when you haven't seen someone in a long time. My host brother was starting university the next day, well, having orientation and stuff. He's studying to be a teacher because he likes kids, and wants to teach elementary school in particular, which is very cool! He still doesn't like English, that much has not changed. We walked to the kaitenzushi place by the station, since they remembered how much I love sushi (for my goodbye dinner when I was last with them, we went to a kaitenzushi place and had a great time...and 16 plates of sushi...) Instead of sitting around the conveyor belt, we got a table and started to chow down. Soon enough, my host mom's cousin showed up because he actually lives in this area and she and him took seats at the next table, so we were the 'kids' table. Greg did a great job of initiating conversation with Takuro, as Takuro's very shy. I think my host mom and Takuro enjoyed Greg's company a lot too...she even invited him to Minabe, to their home, if I went to visit. She's very welcoming, which is evident from how much she likes hosting, but she told me she's not currently hosting anyone. Anyway, we had a lot of fun chatting and eating delicious food. I found out a lot about Takuro...his favorite music now is hip-hop and R&B, his favorite artists being Kanye West and Ne-Yo! He said he doesn't understand what Kanye and them say, but Greg said neither does he, hahaha. We told him he should come out to karaoke some time with us, and his university is only about 40 minutes away from here! So it's a definite possibility to be able to see him again!

Well, I didn't eat nearly as much as last time, but it was very enjoyable, and I was quite satisfied. My host mom and Takuro needed to leave though, because it was getting late, so we took some pictures, and my host mom treated us. By bus, it's a 10-hr ride to Minabe, so needless to say, my host mom had quite a ways to travel.

Her cousin started walking with us away from the restaurant/station, and we thought he was going to walk us home but...he kept saying "kotchi, kotchi" which means "this way" so we'd follow him (it was just a slight detour from our normal route). Earlier he had kept asking if we knew of "akachouchin" and making a gesture, but we had no idea what he was talking about...we found out later anyway). He took us to this hole-in-the-wall bar called Toncha (I think) and pointed out the akachouchin (red paper lantern) that was hanging outside, and those usually signify to passersby an "izakaya" or pub/bar that serves food. We headed inside and it really was this tiny smoke-filled bar. My...host uncle now...knew everyone there, they seemed like a family. He ordered us this cheese omelette and we all sort of started chatting. It seemed really easy to talk to him because he's pretty uninhibited and would just ask us things or tell us things. And he would get us talking to the other patrons too. He ordered us a grilled fish, and Greg and I were both surprised when the bartender/owner just pulls out this fish and starts grilling it in its entirety on this thing right in front of the bar. I told the uncle that in Chinese food, we eat fish whole like that too, but it was still interesting. I don't know what time it was but since we had that test the next day it was getting time to leave, but he walked us home, and told us to come back any time, because he's always there haha. And he told us we'd get better at Japanese if we did, and I believe it. By the end, Greg and I were feeling pretty comfortable just spitting things out, and I think my comprehension went up. Nothing compares to just really getting out there and talking to people in Japanese. No amount of studying can really prepare you for what it's really like. And the people were all really friendly to us, even though I'm pretty sure they were laughing at us a lot haha... Greg and I have yet to return or bring others there, but we still hope to. Uncle also said to let him know my contact info and stuff, so I have to do that. It's nice to have this kind of figure so nearby, so I'm really happy that my host mom introduced us.

Our buddy on the grill in front of us...

Our buddy on the plate in front of us...before we devoured him.

My host brother Takuro, my host mom, and me!

And before that...

Before orientation, we got to campus early to check it out, and here's the view right from the station.

That's the name of our university.


For lunch that day, after passing over many restaurants because they aren't within our budgets, we found this little place whose food display looked delicious for reasonable prices. Most of us got the katsudon, which is pork cutlets, and it also had egg, over rice. The food was good, we took up a good portion of the restaurant, the people were nice, prices were good, there were water coolers...we hope to go back there in the future.