Host Family House, and More Mistakes by David (1/5/13)

Hey oh y’all,

Greetings from my host family’s house. Today we met our host family, the Ono’s. They are a super nice family and very experienced at the whole study-abroad thing. They’ve hosted over 15 students from all over the world (including many Stanford), and even from the first day I can see why. They really enjoy having foreign students and make you really feel welcome.

Tadaima ("I'm home")!

So today starts our 6 month homestay! So the pattern for the next 6 months, from what I can initially tell, is pretty much going to be wake up early, bike to the station, take 2 trains, arrive at class, intense language class, lunch, then culture class (perhaps the most English I get to hear all day), hang out in Kyoto for a while, head home for dinner, then homework. Add in field trips every week, plus club/circle activities, and long expeditions trying to find my favorite brand of deodorant at a store, and I think we’ve got enough stuff to fill 2 years. I mean even just walking the host family dog today brought me through this cool bamboo forest and river area where I could just walk away an afternoon in peace.

Please come in! Welcome ro our new home!

Granted, these first few days are going to be pretty rocky, as I am pretending to understand waaaaaay more Japanese than I actually do (nod politely as if understanding). I really hope I don’t mess anything up. I mean it’s hard enough for me to live alone at Stanford and manage to survive, but I think it’s even harder to live alone abroad and not break any social rules or family rules given that I can’t exactly understand the spoken (much less unspoken) rules to begin with.

I think Sumi-chan will have an easier time. She’s already made a lot of friends here – the host family has a cute Shiba Inu, named Yuki, and there are two more dogs in the room (Snoopy and “The Dog”). She also is much more adept at typing on the keitai denwa (cell phone), which doesn’t have a qwerty keyboard.

How do you use this, Sumi?

(And she also doesn't get those slightly annoyed looks from the people at the train station waiting behind us 12 or so Americans who are taking waaay too long to figure out what we are doing. Not that I blame them of course. We are kind of loud and are very much holding up the line.)

Sumi and her new friends like TV.

But fortunately for me, there are two other Stanford students living in close proximity (one right next door). So that helps, especially for my irrational fear of public transportation.

Tomorrow, my friends and I will explore this part of town (both for interests sake and to figure out how to get to the train station). See y’all soon!

-DC