Sabishii
Well, this is it. Here I am in my new home for the next nine months. This morning I was hardly apprehensive until I entered the room where everyone was being introduced to their host families (we rather thought it should be done game-show format instead). I thought to myself that all I wanted was a nice family� you know, please god, let them be nice. On the way up to the fourth floor moments before that, I crossed paths with one of the families and sort of latched onto them. I thought, hey, this had better be my parents. They were confident, smiling, well-dressed, modern, etc. When I got to the intro room, I realized just how many families from all over Tokyo had come to collect their kids. These were people from all walks of life and all different places.

When I met my host mother, I momentarily felt terrified but moreso awkward. Still, I was grinning the whole time. It was room full of people, scared out of their wits, imagine that. My okasan is very nice. In a way, when I met her, she reminded me of my own mother but not so strung out. She has a similar body type and style of dress. I�m not sure about personality though. My host father wasn�t present. Some people�s whole families picked them up and others were even left waiting for no-shows.

As we left the University for the station, I talked easily (Well, as easily as one can with the vocabulary of a five-year-old) with my host mother. Once we got on the bus, though, I realized that I DID have other expectations about my host family, particularly where they lived. I wanted to be out in the �burbs, away from the city a little, but when we got off at our stop, I realized that I�m much, much closer to campus than I thought. In fact, the bus ride from Shinjuku station is probably equivalent to 20-minutes. So total the walk to/ from campus including train time is about 50 minutes. I�ll bet it�s the same by bus given traffic conditions. I guess I�ll find out tomorrow morning. I have to commute by myself (eek!) to campus by 8:45AM. Uh, well, what an adventure.

When we arrived at the house, I got the sinking feeling that nothing here, really, is what I imagined it would be. Instead of being in a nice place in the burbs with a well-off family, I�m in what many of you stateside would describe as a small, dingy apartment-sized house. My first thought was of what I could do to merit switching to another house. Then I realized that thinking like that is NOT what I am here for and is, in general, stupid and narrow-minded. When in Rome, do as the Romans, right? Tokyo certainly is a new Rome.

The house, in fact, is not so bad. God, the wallpaper is atrocious, it�s very small, and the Shit-zu named Lucky, albeit small and mostly quiet, seems enraptured with the idea of humping any of my spare body parts. Hmm. It�s hilarious though� when he misbehaves, they set him on any high surface (shelf, sill, whatever) and since he can�t get safely down he just sits there until he gets frustrated. So at various times today I would turn around and see the little dog on top of a shelf somewhere, to my surprise.

My host mother is quite nice, in fact. Shortly after we arrived, we went for a walk in the flooding rain (to continue for a few days) into the neighborhood �mall.� The shopping street is practically right across the way from us, an open street lined with shops including electronics shops, vegetable stores, pharmacies, bakeries, hair salons, pachinko parlors, blah, blah you name it. There are even two public baths near here. Apparently only old people use those any more but I might try some time. Or maybe not, on second thought.

Like most Japanese families, my hosts don�t have a dryer, so when I wash my clothes we will either hang them out to dry or I will take my wash to the coin laundry nearby and pay 100Y to dry it. Sounds OK to me� it�s still cheaper than at chase village. On the other hand, my budget is SO tight right now. They aren�t kidding when they say everything is more expensive in Tokyo. And when they say that there are more restaurants here per capita than anywhere in the world. Holy crap, d00d. In the next few days, I�ll probably spend $150 on an electric dictionary and another $150 on a cell-phone. My monthly plan will be about $38 and health insurance about $80. Slightly less given the exchange rate. I still need to open a bank account, complete my alien registration, and apply for work status. Everything else is taken care of� except the one thing I know I�m forgetting and am too lazy to look up.

Anyway, back to my host family. The son, Susumu-san does not live at home, so I haven�t met him yet. My host father seems very warm and kind-hearted. He�s pretty laid back (I wasn�t sure what to expect when I read that he was a government worker) and he knows enough English to help facilitate conversation. Actually, he knows a bit TOO much English and I�m afraid he might decide he�d rather talk to me in my own language. Oops. But the point is that I immediately liked him, even though I was terrified that I wouldn�t. He reminds me to an extreme extent of my own father.

In fact, this whole family sort of reminds me of my own family. I met my older sister this evening when she managed to slip in without my notice. She seems a bit distrustful of me or maybe just shy. I don�t blame her, what with me invading her space and all. She sort of reminds me of Allie in a soft-spoken way. I do really wish that there was a young child in my house� one that didn�t speak English but had a youthful fascination with me. I could learn so much language that way. But my host mother is an Elementary School teacher, so I will have to work with that. I�m sure she can give me advice on Kanji. Watching children�s programmes also helps a lot.

Despite the cramped city accommodations, I�m surprised at the amount of money that�s put into various technology here. Nothing is terrifically NEW per se, but the family seems to have a nice car and my host father has a freaking HUGE remote-rigged armchair and TV in his bedroom/ movie den. (Yes, he and my host mother sleep separately� but I guess I remember that�s common here.) There�s another TV in the living room and there was a small one in my room until my host father replaced it with the bigger one from the living room when he came home today with a new flat-panel TV for the upstairs. And a VCR. Hmm. Oh, and they do have a wireless LAN in the house. (!!!!!111) My computer detects it� but unfortunately it needs a �password� that the family doesn�t know. If it�s a secure network, I may need to find some way to add my MAC address to the network to be accepted. I hope maybe I can get Covert to help me figure it out� because the family PC is obviously all in Japanese. I really don�t know so much about wireless networking.

In contrast, I found that I knew quite enough about Japanese bathing to take my first Japanese style shower/ bath today in my host�s single bath. These tubs are great� I can�t believe how stupid American tubs are. Who wants to lie down in a shallow pool of tepid water? The deeper the better, in my opinion! I am now relaxed and clean and in the process of setting up my room.

So this certainly isn�t the lap of luxury. The oven is broken and the walls are dull� but what do I really care? The space that is my room gave me a scared feeling when I first got here today, but with all my belongings in it, it�s a livable as anywhere. If I could make do in a hotel room the size of my current room with two other people, I can live happily here. I imagine I will be spending close to no time at home in the future anyway.

For a moment today, I thought I might come close to another breakdown while I was over-analyzing my surroundings. I imagined a house with a musician daughter and a grand piano to be a cute bungalo in the burbs. But it�s not and that�s OK. Now I realize what amazingly SWEET people my host parents are and how gracious they are being for inviting me into their small city home. I can�t imagine what kind of an investment on their part this is.

I am happy, too, that I can understand them better than I thought I might be able to. Apparently some of the confusion over the last three days has been because of all the informal speech and abbreviations. Or maybe now that I�ve been immersed for a few days straight, I�m simply being accustomed to the language. I�m certainly more confident.

I�m feeling better now that I have my own space and now that my digestive tract is returning to normal. Of course, the food here doesn�t bother my stomache in any way� but I always get a bit irregular when I travel. I thought for a moment that if I were to be any more irregular, I might burst after a few weeks of not going. Ahh.

Heh, well, I�m sure I didn�t want to end on that note (although I�d rather that than an image of a Shih-tsu humping my leg, ne?) but I do need to get to bed (ahh, my own bed!) because I have orientation tomorrow morning and will probably accomplish a great deal more of my errands. I�m still studying for my placement test but I�m now more confident than I ever could have been because a) I�ve been repeatedly told by other Oregon students just how much more Kanji UO kids have than other Oregon Universities and b) the amount of practice I�ve received in the last three days has been more than I ever would have accomplished in a month of studying on my own. Gee, whod�ve thunk that immersion actually works, eh? Good night� wish me luck!