…

…

…

And breathe.

Despite all my worries, qualms, misgivings, and other blood pressure raising wastes of time, my home stay does not seem to have the potential for spectacular and inevitable calamity. It even started off okay, with me being all packed and ready to go so early that I was able to grab a sandwich from the Lawson's conbini down the street, and actually eat something before meeting my host family (for various reasons, I never did get around to breakfast this morning [and only one of those reasons was that I had eaten everything in my cupboard except for the curry cubes the night before]).

I did experience a little bit of recalcitrance at the start. Only my host mother (along with a friend whose Van she was borrowing to transport myself and my stuff) met me at the JCMU center, and after brief introductions (and a very broken conversation about whether or not I needed any immediate special considerations for my diabetes) we headed for Yasu (the city where my host family lives). It was a _long_ drive (in consideration of having to make a daily commute anyway), which I guess is a good explanation for why the kids weren't brought along. Having once been a small child myself, I can imagine how interminable the trip there and back would have been for them (do recall that my I now have two host brothers ( 12 and 10) and a host sister (8)). Anyway, on the drive back I was still feeling a bit over-apprehensive, and so didn't say much on my own, and answered only a few more questions that were sent my way (incidentally, it was an forty minute drive, about fifteen kilometers distant from JCMU). I was really grateful when we got home, and after a quick 'good afternoon' to my host siblings, and a short tour around the house, I was left in my room to unpack. I used this not only as an opportunity to put my stuff away, but also to realize that I had left my umbrella at JCMU. Err, I mean compose myself.

By the time I went back down stairs, my host father had returned home, and I went through the introductions again, this time in earnest. I had managed to mostly quash the butterflies in my stomach, so instead of mumbling and trying my very best to pretend I wasn't there, I threw my hat into the ring, and believe it or not, talked. Although my host family has apparently had several exchange students before, collectively they speak very little English, so if I wasn't going to make an effort, well, things would've gotten very quiet and very awkward very quickly.

I really hit on a sound strategy when I brought down my photo album (and this was the reason that I brought it along in the first place). We spent about an hour going through it, and since family terms are something that I am unusually competent with, I was able to keep up a fairly intelligible dialogue for almost the whole time.

I was a bit taken aback by the number of people coming in and out of the house (host siblings' friends, parents' friends, some people who I had no idea who they were…). I was taken a bit more aback, when, while dinner was being prepared, when my host father offered me a beer (which really shouldn't have been the least out of the ordinary, I am a twenty-two year old college student).

Dinner, Sukiyaki (which I don't really feel like explaining here) was simply delicious. It was a longer affair that I'm used to (even excluding the time taken by having the children eat first) because when the adults ate (surprisingly, that included me) there was a lot of talking as we slowly worked our way to the bottom of the pot of Sukiyaki. I retreated into silence a bit (one because I was hungry, two because there was a lot of talking flying around my head, little of which I could understand), although afterwards, finally with a decent amount of food in my stomach, I again tried my hand at competent idea exchange.

Afterwards, everyone sat down in front of the TV to watch a show that I think was called (translated) 'Lies' about real life (I think) incidents were ghosts were caught on film.

And now I am going to take a shower.

Ah, that was refreshing, and traditionally Japanese. Just as a tutorial in case anyone reading this should suddenly find themselves trapped in an ofuro (bathtub), here's how it goes. First off, for the love of Bobo, don't wash in the tub. I mean it. The tub is for soaking. You'll see a little stool in the middle of the bathroom floor. At this point you'll probably also notice that there is no discrete shower stall, and that there is a drain in the floor. Sit on the stool, pick up the shower wand and turn on the water (if you have not yet removed your clothes, congratulations, you're an idiot). Turn off the water, shampoo your hair, soap up, then turn the water back on. Rinse. Good job, you're clean. IF you washed behind you're ears, you're allowed into the tub for a nice relaxing soak.