The GREAT BIG POST OF BLOG!
Episode 1: Host Family visits March 23-April 5, 2007, Yokohama and Shizuoka.
The following gigantic post was gradually written over the course of the above time period. Why not blog it all into one gigantic post???
I only linked some pictures here. If you want the rest, at each picture area I left a link to the correct photo bucket folder. If you are a friend of mine who doesn’t have my photo bucket guest password , let me know and I’ll send it. Sorry complete strangers!
So here it is. A big ol’ chunk of Blog. Sounds like some kinda gelatinous monster. Here it is none the less…
EDIT: To be convenient, here's all the photo bucket links here...
Ishii Family of Yokohama;
Aquarium:
Here. Zoo:
Here. Family, house, restaurant:
Here. If you know me you know the password! If you don't know it yet, ask!
Ichikawa Family of Shizuoka;
General pictures:
Here. Sakura Festival:
Here. March 23, 21:18
Hello Everyone!
It is now Host-Family time!
As of April 23rd, I am here in Yokohama with the Ishii family.
After spending about 3 hours blindly riding trains (and miraculously taking the right route!) I made it.
The mom picked me up, I came to the house, we went to a lunch with the brothers...
Hayato and Hikaru grew. I felt bad because I couldn't tell them apart at first.
Also... I helped Hayato walk their dog Miruku later. Wow, what an adventure. First of all, I didn't know dogs had to walk around half a town to do all their business. Second, they are speedy energetic little buggers.
The Wii. They have a Wii. Only multiplayer game they have right now is Wii Sports... but it eth awesome.
The Wiimote isn't hard to use as I thought. Of course your first golf putt and bowling ball toss will be laughs. But don't let that discourage you, the mote is really easy to learn after a minute of playing. You a stones throw from learning the Wiimote. Or at least a baseball throw.
Well, they liked my gifts, we had a nice dinner, and we watched something about high buildings and pandas on TV. Jurassic Park 3 is on right now. In Japanese, of course.
My typing might be bothering them while the movie is on, so time to go.
today’s pictures: dinner
March 24, 9:43pm
So, I slept on my own futon near the two brothers. It wasn't.... that bad. They didn't snore... but... there is just one thing about Hayato (14 now) I wanna be picky about.
Hayato rolls in his sleep. Like... onto me.
Somehow I had fallen asleep on my stomach, by some miracle. Around 4 am I woke up feeling something heavy on my back. Hayato.
It wasn't so bad. He woke up after like 10 minutes, moved, apologized, and fell back to sleep. Pretty fast. I wish I could fall asleep fast. It wasn't so bad though. During those 10 minutes, I thought that it could have been worse. There was this one time I went to Maine with my friend Ed. (last name withheld from "he-might-sit-on-me" reasons) Me and Ed shared a bed in a motel. He rolls in his sleep too. And he rolled on me. And he weighs twice as much as me.
The solution was simply waiting out for the next roll off and sleeping on the floor.
The problem last night? Futons are already on the floor.
Well, remembering the Ed-experience made Hayato feel like a feather, so I was ok until he got off.
Well, nothing against you Hayato, you didn't mean it.
Although, Ed? Hit the gym already. Your friend, Sean.
Rough night over, today’s agenda was:
1-Visit Nagai-sensei with Momoe. (A teacher I visited here 3 years ago)
2-Shopping with Momoe and her friend at Yokohama.
3-Volounteer English teaching at the place the Ishii mom works at.
1) Woulda been nice if he gave us a phone number or something. Even nicer if he went out to get his own phone then give us a number. Rant aside, Nagai is a nice gai. Er, guy. It was nice talking to him again, and he gave me a gift of little figure sets of Japanese food. Some may not see the point of little toy figures of food, but I liked it very much. 1, Its 1/something scaled figures of food that is foreign to me, which is cool to look at and 2, they would be kick-butt with my anime figure collection.
Also happens to be he's head of or coach of the baseball team here. Picture below.
I felt bad I didn't get him anything, but he'll be coming to TUFS in June and I have one Rhode Island lighthouse figure left... we have a winner folks.
2) Momoe the Ishii sister (I think she’s 19 now) took me and her friend shopping in a Yokohama mall. She tested my Japanese by making me try to pick out the train tickets I needed. A couple things I got are below.
3) Volunteer English teaching! Yup. I'm not exactly sure what job Ishii-mom has, but its some kinda office place and... they have English classes at night for middle school students. And who was a special gust teacher for those loud little rapscallions? 3 guesses.
It wasn't so bad. Wish there was an easy way to calm kids down. Am I speaking for all parents and teachers right now?
I'm a little nervous about the family letting Miruku (the dog) into the tatami dining room while I'm in it because of my allergies. But, its very windy and rainy out. As long as he doesn't run up and start licking my face... ain't he cute. Picture below.
I wonder how long I can make blog entries on my lappy before the battery goes out... I haven't used the power here yet.
Hm... figure skating is on. Ah ha, that skater just fell on her butt! And... Japan won a game of soccer against Peru today. Yeah. It was on live.
67% battery life remaining after just writing this and the last entry... stupid American laptop battery. I only have to charge my Japanese cell phone battery like every other solar eclipse.
10:13pm. Oh yeah, pictures...
march 25, 9:55 pm
Luckily, Hayato didn't roll on me last night. Slept a little better.
Before anything today, I watched a new episode of the anime One Piece with Hayato. Or... wanted to at least. I came in halfway and just as it started getting good, the news interrupted with news about an earthquake in mid-northern Japan. Now, my Japanese isn't perfect, but I didn't hear about anyone dieing. According to later news, it looks like only an airport transfer shuttle got slightly damaged and stopped, but everyone inside was ok. Our show got interrupted from something that wasn't even that bad. Damn...
So... today's agenda was visiting an Aquarium! A few pictures are below. For a full collection, go here to this link and stick in my guest password to enter. (friends of mine who don't know it yet, ask)
The place was nice. Lots of fish and other aquatic entities.
And for dinner? A 'Nabe' dinner! Nabe means pot. For a Nabe dinner, you stick raw mean and uncooked veggies and noodles in a big pot and it cooks while you eat, waiting for the next serving to be done. It was awesome, tasted great. It had pork, mushrooms, lettuce, noodles, chikuwa (not sure what that is yet) and tofu. Maybe something else I missed, but ate anyway.
Before and after dinner, me, Hayato and Hikaru played with Beyblades. Yeah, Beyblades. They're actually kinda fun. I think we were kinda loud throwing them around and laughing, so we didn't play that long. It was only after about 10 Beyblade related injuries that we stopped.
Also, the whole family was introduced to my hiccup problems. Yeah. In case you don't know, I get hiccups every day. EVERY DAY. Even more often than I cough or sneeze. Do I have some kind of physical or even mental disease???
What else today... dunno. I'm tired. Ooh... 40% battery left on the laptop. Maybe I should charge it soon...
Photobucket link to this event:
Here. Picture range: all.
March 26 10:57AM
Dunno... maybe I should have woken up earlier... or later... there's no one here right now...
Hikaru and Hayato are still asleep upstairs... I guess the parents went to work and Momoe and Yuki are MIA as usual. They're older, maybe they go to a college or live somewhere else or something.
I'm stealing their power right now to fuel up my laptop. I'm sure if I asked they would happily even plug it in for me... but I like being sneaky.
There's food on the table covered up... can I eat it? It's all cold. Do I know how to use a Japanese microwave? Is this food meant for me? I missed breakfast, so I missed the chance to eat. I'll just... wait for the brothers to wake up and see what they do...
Ok. Anytime guys. Wake up, start uncovering that food and get the Wii or TV on. C'mon. Anybody? Hikaru? Hayato? Wii? Breakfast? Anyone?
-11:02am
-11:00pm
It's 12 hours later and I'm bloggin' again. So, Hayato woke up first and made some chahan (Chinese fried rice) and Hikaru woke and we ate some food and I better put a period somewhere before I get a run on sentence. Better. Anyway, we played some Winning 11 and One Piece on their ps2, and more Beyblade later.
Later I accompanied Hikaru and the mom to the hospital. Hikaru had hurt his leg before, but now its better. It was during this trip I realize how narrow a road could be. If a road is really narrow in America, room for only 1 car, it's a one way road, right?
Not necessarily in Japan!
There was this one road, we waited for someone to pass down, we went through, and people were waiting for us to get through on the other side. Jeez! Everyone drives safer and slower in Japan, but the roads are just so narrow!
Well, dinner and bath is done. We're watching this show where everyone mimics famous people, most of it is singing. I wish I knew all the references... and the language.
I have seen some Japanese commercials of some American products and companies. Some look silly or make less sense, but some I have seen are Pentene body soap, Dove soap, Axe, and Aflac. As well as car commercials, and some other stuff. But the majority of Japanese commercials are weird... I can't really describe them.
Here’s
one I kept seeing over and over and over. It’s just so stupid.
Whatever. I'm tired. I'm goin' to bed fools.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007, 10:30 am
You know those dreams you have when you think they're real and horrible stuff is happening... and you feel pain and sadness... and you think its real??? Yeah, not a great way to start the day. Let's just say I had trouble sleeping last night.
Well, right now I'm waiting for the brothers to wake up so it will be ok for me to have breakfast. Knowing them they might be out till noon...
-10:32am
9:12PM
So... today was just food and games. T'was ok. Um... I also watched the Japanese dub of Home Alone 1 with the brothers. The mom showed me a place nearby I can shop at. But I will only be here a few more days. So I did a little shopping there, bought a couple gifts and souvenirs.
We just finished dinner and we're watching international swimming competitions on TV.
I'm not sure exactly what I want to do right now. Part of me wants to get back to college and get ready for class and see my friends. Another part of me wants to stay here forever. And another part of me just wants to jump on a table and start doing the tango and Macarena simultaneously. And I don't even know how to do a tango. I'm in quite a fix. -9:19 pm.
Wednesday March 28, 2007. 8:30 am
There's been something on the news for a couple days about a 22 year old woman from England who has died in Japan... I'm guessing murder.
Kinda makes us other foreigners a little... well... unassured.
going to a zoo today... gotta go...
11:15 pm
And we went!
It was pretty cool. I took a lot of pictures. Some good. Some bad.
Before I show you guys any pictures, I just gotta talk about the bathtub. The past couple days I have been thinking the water was too hot. Today, the water was too cold. I think I preferred it at 42 degrees C though... I didn't know how to turn it up...
Anyway. Picture time...
Photobucket link:
Here. 
Thursday, March 29, 2007. 12:42 pm
Damn, it is SO nice out! I would like to call this day my first great day of spring of 2007! 20 degrees Celsius, (that’s around 70 F, you American n00b) the wind is blowing a gentle breeze, flowers are starting to bloom, it's only just a little cloudy... it's perfect here in Yokohama right now.
What a day to throw in some complaints, eh? I should be praising stuff on a day like this, like the mom's cooking, but I want to get this off my chest...
I would like to rant about cleanliness here. First, toilets.
Upstairs is one of them "traditional" toilets, basically equivalent to a hole in the ground. This is the toilet you have to squat over, and is famous all around Japan. While we Americans prefer to be "on the throne" or "on the can", the Japanese prefer to be over it. Right...
But it's ok. Downstairs we have one of those "evolved" toilets. Now by evolved I don't mean western style. I'm not that cruel to say that. It is western style, but it's one of those plug in the wall toilets with a heated seat.
Yep. For some odd reason, the western toilet in this house has a heated seat. I... do not understand why... I'll let you ponder this on your own. Yes, by 'evolved' I mean, 'you have to plug it in'.
In all the fancy places, western toilets are always super fancy and have to be plugged in. Whether it's a heated seat, or a 'squirt water at your butt to wipe' system, or an mp3 player (I am NOT making that up) Japanese toilets need electricity. Now, as advanced as their technology is, what about the slight chance of say... a power outage? Will it still flush? When mankind enters an era where even their toilets need power, I get a little concerned.
I kind of don't like the idea of an electronic whose main focus is using water. It just... doesn't mix in my book. Whatever happened to the toilet's main use... flushing? I don't need it to do anything else. There are just... things that don't need extra features. Shall I start sticking plasma TVs on apples? Or add cellphone-mp3-video capabilities to your house's front steps? Don't forget GPS on your pants and shampoo bottle.
Also... I don't need a toilet to wash my butt. I can wipe it myself, thank you very much.
Speaking of washing, lets drag us back to the house's toilets.
Now, in Japanese tradition, the toilet room and the room with the bath are separate. You have the toilet room over here, and the bath-room (note the -) over there. Now, in keeping up with this tradition, there is no sink in the toilet room. Or even hand soap, or even a bottle of hand sanitizer. After visits to the local John (slightly lower amount of visits here due to the 10 servings of rice with meals) I walk to the other side of the house to the bath-room to wash there.
Well... I suppose there is a 'sink' in the toilet room. In an effort to be cute and conservative, when you flush the toilet, there is a little 'sink' on top that pours new water down. That water goes down the sink hole to be used as toilet water. You can put your hands in the water that comes out... it's not used... yet. Still kind of a gross thought though. I'll just hope no one is bathing and use the bath-room sink, which by some miracle has hand soap.
By the way... they warned me about Japanese bathrooms sometimes not having toilet paper and that you might have to bring your own. Not to worry. I haven't seen a bathroom yet without a tp stock. (though there are about 500 free tissue-pack-with-advertisement giving people on every block in Japan, so keep a pack of free tissues in your pocket at all times, just in case)
The problem is soap. A lot of bathrooms just don't have soap. Not even a broken soap dispenser waiting to be stolen by some kid or thrown away... there just isn't any.
You know... you would think that the people that are so obsessive about cleanliness and taking your shoes off while in houses... and make you fully clean yourself before even touching a bathtub... would... you know... actually care about general hand cleanliness at all??? I can't find a pocket bottle of Purell-like hand sanitizer ANYWHERE. And I also can't find hygienic things like... Hydrogen Peroxide or Rubbing Alcohol. Do Japanese people never cut themselves?
And being so obsessive about dirty bodies and feet... do they not give a damn what they touch? And not having soap in a place with toilets... how in tradition is that sanitary???
Someone get me a bottle of hand soap. Stat.
Anyway... did I mention it's nice out? Check out these photos of around the house while I wash my hands. And yes, they have vending machines in front of their house... they're everywhere!
Saturday, March 31, 2007, 10:29 pm
Yeah... watching the 3rd Harry Potter movie in Japanese...
Looks like I missed a day. It's ok, nuthin' much happened.
I found out that they have wireless internet here. I started uploading some pictures, but I'll only finish everything when I get back.
Wireless internet... for computers AND the DS! Hayato has a DS with Jump Ultimate Stars and Metroid Prime Hunters. I also gave him my Japanese Tetris DS as a gift. When I get back, I'm buying my own DS WIFI card and sending him all my friend codes.
And to my sister... find your freakin' Mario Kart DS game already. I mean, jeez!
The Sakura are blooming! I caught one. But not just a petal. A flower. Oh yeah. Here are a couple shots taken at night below. My camera has one powerful flash.
Any of my loyal readers here play a DS online here? Anyone? Online? DS? Anybody? How about you over there? Yes, you with the tenuous grasp on life and the world around you! How about you?
oh yeah, and before I forget, today was restaurant day! I took... just the mom and a brother to a restaurant. And paid for it! I felt so grown up being the only person to look at and pay a bill. Yeah. Um, not that I am a kid all the time... cause I'm not. Anyway, everyone else was either busy or out somewhere. The buggers.
Tomorrow I leave... I haven't grasped that yet but I head for Shizuoka tomorrow. But... I like it here. Gotta go sometime... I'll feel emotional and sad about it tomorrow. I'm enjoying the time I got now.
Yeah here are the Sakura and restaurant pix. Enjoy.
One final note: laaaaa!!!!! -10:47pm
And some photos of everyone…
And the whole folder:
Here. And yes, they have vending machines in front of their house!
Sunday, April 1, 2007. 9:45 PM
I would first like to say that I have decided to stop studying Japanese and instead take up a business baking and selling tiny breads.
I would like to announce next that that was a poor shot at an April Fools joke.
I would like to say next that I actually meant it. Bread is a good time for me.
Then, I would like to say that I was joking. Again about meaning it.
Finally, I just wanna say bread is a good time for everybody.
ANYWAY!
I bid the Ishii family a (temporary!) farewell. They want me to visit again. And visit I shall before I leave August 1.
2 hours on the Shinkansen later, I am here in Shizuoka. Everyone is all happy to see me, even the Avatars of Energy. Sorry, I meant the kids.
I brought some western-like toys such as a slinky, a top, a yoyo, some Styrofoam planes that fly a couple times till you bend the wing clean off, and sadly ignored, an Ultraman figure set I thought they would love. We're talking about a seven year old boy (Hiroki) and a 4 (Kanon) and 5 (Katone) year old girls. The Ultraman figure was sadly ignored. The biggest hit was the slinky actually, after I showed them how it worked on the stairs. Hiroki disappeared into my Gameboy Color when he found it in my bag. Who knew Dr. Mario could keep a kid occupied that long?
Well, we ate at a soba restaurant, which was quite good, and did a little grocery shopping.
I'm really tired though. There's an Arnold Swartzeneger movie on right now, Collateral Damage, which is, naturally, dubbed into Japanese. It doesn't feel right... where is his trademark Russian accent? After he's done Governating for CA, he should learn every language in the world so he could do his own dubbing. Maybe.
What the heck am I typing? I must be really tired.
Before I forget, it looks like I am invited to a wedding in May. In the 3 generations here, children, parents, and grandparents, one of the grandparents' daughters is getting married, and it looks like I'm attending. I don't mind. I haven't been to a Japanese wedding before. I gave them my congratulations and promised to come. It will be on a Sunday, but I woulda skipped class if it was on a weekday anyway.
Oh, and chew on the first couple pix... aren't they cute. I'm going to bed now... gotta restore my energy to play with the little monsters again tomorrow.
Only had my Cell Phone today…
Monday, April 2, 2007. 5:39 pm
Kids are a handful. They're playful, energetic, and don't stop. This is great the first 5 minutes. Then we older people get tired.
Wow, 2 of the 3 kids have Nintendo DS's. The DS is a great goings-on. It involves a lot less energy.
So... sushi place for lunch! The kind of place where you take stuff off the conveyor belts and pay per plate after you're done.
I had octopus sushi, shrimp sushi, tuna sushi, egg sushi...
Octopus isn't bad. It's squid I hate.
2 complaints: food seems to come out really slow. Also... they should be ashamed of their "cheesecake" dessert, which is barely even a cheesecake and more of a 'vaguely cheese flavored cake'. Japan... has... NO concept of the word sweet! Its despicable! Where there should be sugar, they make up for in salt! How... JUST HOW DO THEY DO IT!? How do they keep their health... and sanity... with no sugar and %2000 of their daily salt allowance in one meal?
I mean it. A lot of stuff I've eaten here that is supposed to be classified as a "sweet" just wasn't... sweet.
So far, all ice cream ingested has been satisfactory. So far...
The day I find a salty or bitter ice cream cone will be the saddest day of my life.
So... what else... should I be trusting a 4 year old girl with my DS Lite? It looks like she hasn’t broken it yet...
So... what else is going on. Oh, also checked out the host father's (technically the grandfather of the family) car part laser cutting company. He's the president of a company that uses lasers to cut parts for cars. I was watching the lasers at work... pretty cool.
After that I... walked with the mother of the kids to pick up one of the kids at the preschool across the street. That's where... I played with some kids. Boy was I tired out after and needed my inhaler.
Ah, the world is fun until you're on the ground drained of energy and wheezing your lungs out.
SUSHI!
Link: see Ichikawa folder link below at last day entry. Photo range: first 2 rows.
-6:03 pm
Tuesday, April 3, 2007.. 5:32 pm
Bunch of stuff today! Strawberries! Almost kinda Mt. Fuji! Sushi. A haircut! And... your face! OOHHH!!!!
Um, yeah. Anyway, first on the agenda was breakfast. Toast and a fried egg. Yum. Later, after showing off my magical stick a balloon to the ceiling with static electricity powers, (which I lost later today from the haircut) was a trip was an all you can stomach and pick yourself strawberry gorging. Yum. Pics below.
After, we went to a seafood market street... which had a sushi restaurant. Food was good there. I kind of played with my afterfood a little. My creation: Ebi-kani-man. (aka, Shrimp-crab Man)
We went up to some mountains and saw a nice view of Shizuoka. But it was cloudy and we couldn't see the great Fuji. For shame.
I also got a haircut today. I... think it looks a little silly... how about you?
Link: see Ichikawa folder link below at last day entry. Photo range: rows 3 through 6.
-5:38pm
Wednesday, April 4, 2007. 11:45 pm
My thoughts are a little scattered from a long day and sleepiness. Let me just organize ‘em quick...
events untold yesterday: karaoke.
Today: melon farm, Okazaki Park's Sakura festival, soccer game.
So last night I drank. Orange juice. You were expecting something else? I subjected some of my host family and a karaoke bar owner to my singing. And then I changed a light bulb. Well, 2 light bulbs. As a favor. The owner was a friend of the family and needed a little help. I was the only tall person there. By comparison anyway. My dad towers over me but I'm like a giant here...
And then today. First on the agenda was toast with jam bought at the strawberry farm yesterday, a whole fish, (damn bones tried to kill me) and... eggs with hot dogs in them...?
After a hearty breakfast, we went to a melon farm, owned by more of the family. The grandfather's sister's family. I had said big family before, but they are all over the place. Not that I'm complaining. The melon they served was delish, and I was given some as a souvenir. Flipping sweet.
The pictures should speak for themselves at Okazaki Park's Sakura Festival. Pretty... I had eaten too much food and was kinda sleepy... I kept wanting to lay down under a Sakura tree and sleep as petals fell like snow...
And a soccer game. A $8000 dollar soccer game. I'm not kidding. Being the president of a big company, father/grandfather Ichikawa has moola enough to rent 4 reserved and well placed seats to every game in the city's stadium for one year, 800,000 yen for that year. Just wow.
Numbers aside, I really didn't think I would like it at first. Sports are all slow, with their waiting and taking turns batting and replays and commercial breaks... but then I saw the light. This isn't TV. It's a soccer stadium. There's no replays or commercials, just some billboards. The action is right there in front of you, only meters down, and you are there when the foul balls come though. I almost caught a free ball thrown in before the game and a foul ball hit to my right. And when you yell 'go!', you're with hundreds of other people yelling with you. And the athletes hear it. Made me realize I was there, I was immersed, and it was a little fun.
Its past midnight now. I am leaving for Tokyo today. I really wish I can get that guy to stop spending money on me, but father/grandfather Ichikawa bought me multiple come and return Shinkansen tickets... for going back today, the wedding, and just visiting again when it gets warmer to go boating. I'm not gonna argue, I'll take 'em, and I'll be back. So says... the Oniichan.
See below for link of all the general pictures.
Here is me with some melons. Mm…
Here is a link to all the Sakura Festival pics:
Here. And here’s a few of those pics now.
Sleep time. -12:05 am
Thursday, April 5. 7:12 pm
Its over. By Shinkansen then local trains, I'm back in TUFS. But what has ended here shall renew again. Both families enjoyed my trips there, and both said they wanted me to come back and meant it. Super rich Father Ichikawa bought me some Shinkansen tickets good until August. very nice of him, and I will be visiting them again. Why let those tickets go to waste? And Yokohama is only a $10 trip from where I am. The Ishii family is practically next door.
Below is some farewell pictures. How about a link to the whole Shizuoka trip while we are at it:
Link:
Here.
Ladies and gents, thanks for your time, and I hope next time you enjoy a sandwich, you eat it heartily. Why? Dunno. Guess I just want a sandwich.
