My Host Family

I've been here nearly a month and I just realized that I haven't written much about my host family. They have been amazing and I do not know I will ever be able to say goodbye to them in three weeks.

Host Mom - My host mother is definitely the person with whom I have been the closest since I got here. She has done so much with me, and has shown me all over Sendai, and has been incredibly generous in teaching and showing me all that she can about Japan. In return, she has asked everything she can think of about America. It seems like everything we come across, she asks "In America, is similar?"
Every day after school she has afternoon tea waiting for me when I get home. During this time we talk about school, she teaches me some Japanese, and I teach her some English. I am amazed at what a determined learner she is! She has improved at English so much more then I ever could have imagined possible. It's amazing.

Host Dad - I haven't had much time to spend with my host dad
as he works at the clinic all week long. The weekends we have had together though have been great. He's shown me lots around Miyagi (the area of Japan or "prefecture" that Sendai is in.) Even though his English is very limited, he likes telling me about random things such as the history of this bridge, or the origins of that festival. When he's not around he occasionally leaves small gifts, such as my favorite green-tea ice-cream, or episodes of kids' Japanese shows for me to watch.

Midori - I'm beginning to think that my host sister, Midori, is the Japanese carbon copy of myself. We share many of the same likes and interests; she also plays the piano, our fashion sense is frightfully similar (her friends teased her the other day when she introduced me because we were wearing practically the same skirt and leggings,) and she studies NON-STOP. The other day I walked past her room after she had been studying for several hours, and saw that she'd fallen asleep at her desk. It's amazing how dedicated Japanese students are.
In just a few weeks, Midori leaves to study abroad in America for an entire year. When she's not studying, she asks me everything there is to know about American high school. She had a lot of fun looking through my yearbook from this past year, and now is all excited for Prom (they don't have proms here.) Also, we watched "High School Musical" the other night, which made her even more excited for life in America. I felt really guilty trying to explain to her that it wasn't a very good representation of American high schools.

Ojichan and Obachan - As I mentioned before, my host grandparents (my host dad's parents) live directly next door, and join us for dinner every night. The grandma doesn't speak any English, but still enjoys talking to me in Japanese whether I understand her or not, and has the most adorable laugh. The grandpa does speak English, and he is so sweet! He is easily impressed by everything, such as my piano playing, my poor Japanese skills, and the fact that I can read and write in Japanese characters. He is also very interesting to talk to. He tells me a lot about the history of Japan, and frequently mentions how sad he will be when I leave.

Sweet Irony

Japanese sweets are the best, mainly because they are not as disgustingly sweet and loaded with sugar as American sweets, and they are a million times more delicious.

Still, I've been eating way too much, and in a hopeless attempt to cut back a bit, I started giving the sweets that my host-mom packs with my lunch to my classmates. At first it was great; they were super appreciative, and couldn't thank me enough (even if it was nothing more then one of those little chocolate filled koala cookies).


Then it backfired on me.


The Japanese are extremely fond of giving gifts, and never pass up an opportunity to do so. Now I am suddenly bombarded by a parade of sweets from my classmates everyday. Not just little things either. Apparently one little koala cookie = an entire box of Elise Wafers in return. I'm going to have enough Japanese confectionery to last me a year by the time I go home. So much for trying to have less of it. lol

Gym

Gym class here is so much fun. Haha. I never thought I'd actually say that. But it's so random that you can't help but love it. Unlike in America where we have separate classes for different sports, here we have a standard "gym" class where you never know what you'll be doing. So far we've had relays, tennis, badminton, volleyball, and gymnastics. Volleyball is terrible; I've become an expert at running away from the ball when it's heading for me. Gymnastics is amazing though! I'm having so much fun! I haven't done gymnastics of any sort since I was about five, and yet I can actually do somersaults backwards and forwards, and the sensei actually applauded me, which was pretty cool considering I was surrounded by Japanese girls, all of whom are beyond tiny and on the verge of being contortionists. Okay, run-on sentence is over. Obviously I've been speaking one- and two-word sentences for too long.

4th of July

Happy July 4th everyone! No one here in Japan even knows what July 4th is and I'm beginning to suffer withdrawals from the complete lack of celebrating. And fireworks! I miss my fireworks!

I hope you all have a super day. Set off some poppers and sparklers for me!

The Consequences of Language Barriers

I'm beginning to think that language barriers deserve a bit more credit; they make life so much more amusing. Because of language barriers, I ended up singing in front of the entire school today. I'll explain.

During lunch breaks and after school the past few days, my class has been rehearsing choir songs, and not once have they let me sit out. They insisted (by way of hand gestures and body language) that I join them. It was so nice of them to include me, but I have no singing experience at all. I had absolutely no idea what we were singing, but apparently did a stellar job of BS-ing it. Okay, not entirely; I actually did manage to learn one of their songs, and the majority of the other one, which made them all very pleased and even more eager to include me in their practices. Then today the entire high school filed into the auditorium for their big choir competition! I probably should have seen that coming. I really didn't expect to be singing Japanese songs in front of the entire school though. The competition was a huge event. It took the entire day, and all of our classes were canceled because of it. We didn't win, but we still had a lot of fun.

So that's my story. The blond gaijin who can't really sing was in a Japanese choir competition today.