First week, and classes September 2, 2008

I am in the middle of my first week of classes!

噴火(funka): Volcano

Two days ago: I played some piano for the sisters today. Yuka has a terrible sounding casio keyboard.

Yuka made another great dinner too, we all three ate together. Miso with squash and onions, salad, fried pork and veggies, and rice (of course). Yummy. After, Yukina went to her room as usual and Yuka and I watched more TV. Then I gaver her an english lesson (after studying for my Japanese placement test tomorrow). I mainly try to focus on pronunciation with her. She can learn grammar and vocab and boring stuff in a class, but only a native can teach pronunciation. Besides, because of the misguided alphabet they use for english words Japanese people are all mixed up as to how to say our words. We had to spend some extra time on ‘Fox’ because I guess in Prison Break (her fav show) there is a place called Fox River and Yuka’s ‘fox’ sounded suspiciously like another word that begins with F that I wont print here. Unfortunately, that meant I had to spend a significant amount of time pronouncing said word veeeery slowly and clearly for her to hear. Many times. It was………… interesting. (omoshiroi). But better I say it like that now than she says it to her american friend’s dad someday when describing her favorite TV show!

~~ Apparently there is a confidential terrorist watch hotline you can call in America if you see someone engaging in suspicious activity. Well, in Japan, there is a confidential foreigner hotline. and this isn’t a line for foreigners to call.  If a Japanese person sees a ‘gaijin’ (rude word for foreigner) being weird in any way, they can call the number and the police will subsequently come and arrest you. I guess I will do my best not to do………. whatever bad things it is that we foreigners do!

Last night Yuka made OmuRice. It is my favorite dish. Ever. You thought I liked mexican food? No way, OmuRice is way way way way way way way better. I didn’t know such a delicious dish existed. Mom it is kinda like that fried rice I made, except perfected into a recipe. And it comes with awesome potato ham salad on the side. It was just…. I could cry thinking about it. Maybe i’m just hungry cause it is past lunch time right now lol.

Last night I also had brilliant and vivid dreams about going to Nagoya and seeing my friends there again… Maybe I am looking forward to that more than I thought. I think I may go down there in two weeks because there is a national holiday that monday so it will be a 3 day weekend!

“It was good for me to be afflicted
       so that I might learn your decrees.”

Psalm 119

Man, I realized this today. Temple makes SPU look like the promised land. This place is as organized as my and Mike Hensley’s dormroom.

Still, I think that it has been valuable for me to have to attend so many poorly put together institutions. I think that I am finally getting the hang of squeezing resources. If I had gone somewhere where everything fell into my lap, I would have learned nothing. But today when I forced my way into the Career center without an appointment and made a lady answer my questions about non temple related job opportunities, I realized that I have really learned an invaluable skill. The resource squeeze. No matter how poorly accessible, no matter hidden the information, I think that I am pretty good at grabbing what humble resources are available to me and making staff sweat until they give me straight answers.

I just hope my face doesn’t stick in a stern serious expression, cause I kinda feel like that is the road I am heading down :S :S :S

Still, even through the terrible structural organization of this place, my teachers seem knowledgable and classes seem valuable. You can tell the teachers are expecting most students to skip class all the time, and they don’t really care — but they still seem like they are prepared to make the classtime valuable for those who attend.

Oh! Last night I met my brother Fumiaki. He strolled into the living room in his underwear. I don’t know when he arrived. I said “Hey nice to meet you I’m Dan!” (In Japanese of course) he said “Dan?” I said “Yeah.” Then he strolled out and I haven’t seen him since!

LOL

Here are some more pics August 31, 2008

Doing laundry!

for cooking

to my room!

maybe you can also just look at my gallery, or maybe i have to post it? I’m still figuring this out…

Sunday, Weekend 1 August 31, 2008

Making Takoyaki Mix!

Today we had Takoyaki for lunch! It is pretty much the same thing as Okonomiyaki that we had when I was in Nagoya (the big pancake on grill thing) except you put it in this little special griddle that makes them into balls that you eat. It was yummy. And that ^ is Yuka, the younger sister.

Last night we ate gyoza, which was fun. I helped okaasan to make them! You make a mix of meat and veggies, then you get some small flat flappy bread circle type things, wet them down, put the mix on them, then you fold them closed in a special way, then you fry them or grill them. We did both! I liked fried better of course lol. I also tried natto, the sweet beans. Though I was able to eat a whole serving, it IS pretty gross and I wouldn’t recommend it. After dinner, independance day was on tv and I watched it.

Then, randomly, at around 9pm or so mom and dad were like ’see you!’ and headed towards the door. I was like ‘eh? you guys are leaving?’ and mom said ‘yeah, we will be back tuesday night, so Yuka and Yukina will take care of you till then!’

…

…

…

WTF?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Oh well, whatever I guess! So us three are fending for ourselves now!

I also watched Liar Liar with Yuka today (Yukina watched a little, but she stays in her room almost all the time unless she is doing chores, which she does most of them; cleaning, clothes washing, trash sorting (you have to sort trash into burnables, plastics, and bottles) she is pretty amazing! Yuka has been doing most of the cooking though. I wish I could help, but the name of the game for me at this point is usually just quiet observation.) Yes I did just have a parenthetical statement inside of a parenthetical statement. Yuka thought liar liar was funny, we rented it at the rental place last night at my suggestion so I was glad of that.

I was thinking:

Words can deceive, but actions never lie. In America we express politeness through actions (holding doors open, etc.) while in Japanit is expressed through different verb conjugation. However, in Japan people rarely say to another that they care about each other, it is shown through what you do FOR one another. Perhaps in America we are too quick to give words to our ‘love’ and we deceive even ourselves. What a tragedy. Perhaps in the future I will try and show my friends and loved ones how much I care before I say it.

Saturday, Weekend One August 30, 2008

8/30

Awesome times today. I gave Yuka and and Mom english lessons. Trying to describe the difference between ‘cloud’ and ‘crowd’ was hilarious. They can’t tell at all. We then talked about how mom wants to go to the states and needs a homestay – they were asking if my parents took homestay students, I said I didn’t know. They asked if my parents lived by themselves and when I said that they did, they both exclaimed at how lonely that must be. Then they said “oh but american people love each other, so maybe they aren’t so lonely.” Yuka said “my parent’s aren’t all ‘rabu rabu’ (love love)” “yes,” said host mom “dad and I don’t love each other, it is just a beneficial arrangement.” all in seriousness, then in joke: “the only thing dad loves is probably the TV.”

We went out to the supermarket this afternoon, there was a machine to change the brown rice into white rice – amazing! Then we bought ramen and snacks for lunch and came back! Yipeeeeeeeeeeeeee…

Tonight, I am going to try eating ‘natto’ … considered to be the one food that no foreigner can stomach without gagging. Even many Japanese can’t touch the stuff. It is basically sweet beans with a wierd sticky substance in the whole mix to connect it all. Apparently it smells really really strong. We will see what happens!

Journal for first two days August 29, 2008

8/28-29

Excerpt from journal follows:

懐かしい（natsukashi）: Brings back memories.

Family names are Yoshio (dad), Kiyoko (mom), Yuka (Sister 22), Yukina (Sister 24), Fumiaki (Brother 28, lives away from home). Well, I’m here once again. Things were so easy, I shouldn’t have worried. I talked to a Japanese ojii-san (old man, lit: grandpa) on the hikouki (plane) all in Japanese, and we were really able to understand each other! He was in America on the east coast to visit his daughter who is a junior at Berklee. She works doing sporting things (or maybe selling sporting goods) for rock climbing and canoeing, etc. I explained to him my situation and where Temple is, (he knew of it) and where my homestay family lives. He laughed when I said their house must be really small. Then when I went through customs the girl was amazed and spoke to me in Japanese. One guy even thought I was airline staff and had to send me somewhere else when he saw my American passport.

When I asked for a ticket to Shinjuku and added “Hilton Tokyo Hotel” in English the gay dude at the counter (he WAS gay) corrected me on my pronunciation haughtily as if I ought to have known better. LOL. Well, 9,000 out of 10,000 roadblocks overcome, but I still have the family to meet YIKES!

(In the limousine bus)

–AAnd the rain starts. As we were coming in, all I could say to ojii-san was ‘sugoi kumo, ne…’ (amazing clouds aren’t they…)

–AAnd it’s pouring now. Man it was just dry at the airport.

–Just saw “Japaren: THE Japanese rental car service!”

大丸：(daimaru) : Big circle, also name of 300 year old Japanese company

(Next morning)

It is about 5:20 am, my first morning. Wow, I can’t believe I am living in Japan with a Japanese family. It appears that I couldn’t really sleep more than 5 hours though… That is really going to catch up with me later today. It has been a riotous night, what with it deluging rain and a HUGE thunderstorm. Naturally all the windows in my room are open because it was really hot yesterday, so the sounds of weather are up close and personal. I didn’t feel hot because I have my own electric fan (there is no AC).

I’m a little worried because my family hasn’t given me any directions – I may be on my own to find Temple today. I would be REALLY worried if I hadn’t been there already, but still, slightly worried is the name of the game. I will try and look up a map.

Also – okaasan (mom) gave me SO much info last night, I think I have already forgotton it all. Trash days, wash days, futon airing days, schedules for everyone, schedules for myself, the place for food, place for towel, place for underwear, place for poop, yada yada. I will just figure it all out as I go I guess.

Boy am I going to be tired tonight.

It is not for me to know the times and seasons that God has fixed with his own authority, but I will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on me and I will be His witness throughout all the Earth. –Personalized from Acts

時差ぼけ：（jisaboke）: Jet Lag

Well, I am here at Temple, commute was really crowded, but still easy as a peasy in a breezy kaneezy. .. but no one else seems to have made it. Sept this one random Korean girl. We are sitting here in the room by ourselves. You would think a representative would be here at the orientation start time, but NOOoooo.

(Note-they were all waiting downstairs)

Orientation was so boring and useless… Oh well. Strange things happened this evening:

1.  I went out with the sisters before parents came home. We walked their tiny miniature something dog out and around the area, and went to two pet shops looking for a doggy raincoat and doggy 靴（kutsu）: shoes for her to wear when the pavement gets hot. (Dog’s name is Midori (green)) but none small enough were to be found. Many people stopped us on the road to say how cute she was however.

2.  I mixed up my sisters. I thought that each one was actually the other one. Prolly cause I saw so little of them the first evening. Also, in Japanese you sometimes refer to yourself in the third person so when Yuka said “Yuka is studying Dutch” it is conceivable that that statement may have led me to the grave misconception that Yuka was indeed Yukina. Much to my delight, the situation was resolved painlessly thus: I brought 2 CD’s, John Mayer and Maroon 5 to give to my sisters, I didn’t care who got what. At the last minute, I decided that since Yuka was younger she would like the more active music and put her name on the Maroon 5 CD.

雷：(kaminari): Thunder(and lightning)

Then later when I still thought she was Yukina, she thanked me for the ‘Rokku no Shidi’ (Rock CD) I said ‘rokku ja nai’ (it isn’t rock) She said “the one with the 5 guys?” I said “o yeah!” then I thought “o shiiiiiii……..”

3.  A call came in shortly after, the girls freaked out some, talking about their dead grandfather, then lots of bowing and praying and bell ringing at both shrines to both sets of grandparents was commenced. Then it was over. Don’t ask me if I ever figured that whole thing out. I didn’t.

–More thunder and lightning tonight; closer though. Shaking the windows close. This is by far the worst rainstorm I have ever been in, and loudest thunderstorm. This morning, like 15 trains were closed or stopped because of flooding, landslide, or lightning strike. Worst flooding was in west Tokyo. Right now it is raining so hard, I think we may see flooding here in Shinjuku tomorrow morning…

Tonight I watched a show with sisters and mom. It was called “kukingu papa” (Cooking Papa). About a dad. Who cooks to save the situation/day. Episode ended when he feeds some mentally retarded guy some fish that is so good it brings back memories of his childhood and makes him bawl like he was still a babe.