New family
So, now that the chaos of midterm season is over, I thought I’d talk about something I didn’t really mention before to anyone. Since Wednesday, I’ve been living with a new host family in a new location entirely. My original host father, Shunji, works for a company, and he got the opportunity to take a week-long vacation in I think Australia. Since the company was paying for it, my host mother and brother could also go. However, I obviously could not, nor could I stay at their home for a week without them.
Once my midterm exam was over, my school set me up with another host family, who lives in Kodaira (小平). I must say that I was not eager to get used to a new family since I had finally gotten used to living with the Matsumoto (松本) family. However, I didn’t exactly have much choice in the matter. This was the only option.
When I was riding the train to Takanodai station (鷹の台駅) to meet them, I really dreaded everything. I got there about fifteen minutes early, so I went to a Seven Eleven (which are abundant here), bought some Pocky, and sat in a small park eating it. I had an eye-opening moment there, too. Not about my new family, but just in general. It was interesting to be six-and-a-half-feet-tall, but sitting in a small children’s park with children’s rides, and eating Pocky. No one was in the park but me. There was also a tree in the center of the park, but it had no leaves on it, since the first breath of “winter” has already arrived here. It was just interesting to sit there for a while and let everything digest.
Once the time came, I took a few deep breaths and went back to the station to meet my new host mother, who walked me home. She was much older than Yukiko, since she has a son in college now, but she was really nice and very genki (元気, which means happy, but I’m using it to mean more giddy and excited than just happy). Once I spent five minutes with her, I was far more relieved, and wondering why I had even been anxious in the first place. Her English was also very good, so I had no cause for concern there.
The walk home took about twenty-five minutes (though I can do it within four repeats of Dark Half), but it was really beautiful. The section of Kodaira in which they live reminded me a lot of back home. For example, once we got off the main street, we had to walk through a pseudo-park which was basically a single path with trees around it and a small river. Once I upload the pictures, you’ll see the similarity between wandering down this path and wandering through Proctor Park. It was a really nice touch for me, and I realized then how much I actually missed being home.
If that weren’t enough, once we left the path and went inside the house, I was reminded even more of home. Unlike the Matsumoto home, which is a Japanese mansion (In Japanese, a “mansion” is basically just a really really nice apartment complex, not a Western-style mansion), the Satou home is a lot more rustic and old-fashioned. Inside the house, I basically get half of the second floor to myself. It’s set up kind of like a pseudo-apartment within a house. I have my own bed, bookshelf, chair, desk, tv, couch, sink, refrigerator, closet, washing machine, toilet, shower, and other things too. (Pictures forthcoming.)
After I had spent about an hour in my room, I realized exactly what it reminded me of. It was just like spending the night at Babci’s when Beth and I were kids. The Satou (佐藤) home has that same kind of rustic, old-fashioned feel that Babci’s house had before the floors were all redone and stuff. It was really cool when I thought about it. Kodaira is like a nice little taste of the Utica that I haven’t seen for two months. This was very nice because I do really miss Utica in some ways, but I can’t really say that I’m homesick. Maybe being here was also some kind of fate? To be honest, I can’t say.
As much as I like it here, I go back to the Matsumoto mansion today, so my time here was quite limited. However, my host mother, Kyoko, told me that I can visit whenever I damn well please, so that’s kind of reassuring. If I ever do get homesick, coming back here will probably help a lot. And I do intend to come back at some point. It is really nice here, and it’s also very close to the dormitory that I hope to move into next semester in Nishi-Kokubunji (西国分寺).
Once my midterm exam was over, my school set me up with another host family, who lives in Kodaira (小平). I must say that I was not eager to get used to a new family since I had finally gotten used to living with the Matsumoto (松本) family. However, I didn’t exactly have much choice in the matter. This was the only option.
When I was riding the train to Takanodai station (鷹の台駅) to meet them, I really dreaded everything. I got there about fifteen minutes early, so I went to a Seven Eleven (which are abundant here), bought some Pocky, and sat in a small park eating it. I had an eye-opening moment there, too. Not about my new family, but just in general. It was interesting to be six-and-a-half-feet-tall, but sitting in a small children’s park with children’s rides, and eating Pocky. No one was in the park but me. There was also a tree in the center of the park, but it had no leaves on it, since the first breath of “winter” has already arrived here. It was just interesting to sit there for a while and let everything digest.
Once the time came, I took a few deep breaths and went back to the station to meet my new host mother, who walked me home. She was much older than Yukiko, since she has a son in college now, but she was really nice and very genki (元気, which means happy, but I’m using it to mean more giddy and excited than just happy). Once I spent five minutes with her, I was far more relieved, and wondering why I had even been anxious in the first place. Her English was also very good, so I had no cause for concern there.
The walk home took about twenty-five minutes (though I can do it within four repeats of Dark Half), but it was really beautiful. The section of Kodaira in which they live reminded me a lot of back home. For example, once we got off the main street, we had to walk through a pseudo-park which was basically a single path with trees around it and a small river. Once I upload the pictures, you’ll see the similarity between wandering down this path and wandering through Proctor Park. It was a really nice touch for me, and I realized then how much I actually missed being home.
If that weren’t enough, once we left the path and went inside the house, I was reminded even more of home. Unlike the Matsumoto home, which is a Japanese mansion (In Japanese, a “mansion” is basically just a really really nice apartment complex, not a Western-style mansion), the Satou home is a lot more rustic and old-fashioned. Inside the house, I basically get half of the second floor to myself. It’s set up kind of like a pseudo-apartment within a house. I have my own bed, bookshelf, chair, desk, tv, couch, sink, refrigerator, closet, washing machine, toilet, shower, and other things too. (Pictures forthcoming.)
After I had spent about an hour in my room, I realized exactly what it reminded me of. It was just like spending the night at Babci’s when Beth and I were kids. The Satou (佐藤) home has that same kind of rustic, old-fashioned feel that Babci’s house had before the floors were all redone and stuff. It was really cool when I thought about it. Kodaira is like a nice little taste of the Utica that I haven’t seen for two months. This was very nice because I do really miss Utica in some ways, but I can’t really say that I’m homesick. Maybe being here was also some kind of fate? To be honest, I can’t say.
As much as I like it here, I go back to the Matsumoto mansion today, so my time here was quite limited. However, my host mother, Kyoko, told me that I can visit whenever I damn well please, so that’s kind of reassuring. If I ever do get homesick, coming back here will probably help a lot. And I do intend to come back at some point. It is really nice here, and it’s also very close to the dormitory that I hope to move into next semester in Nishi-Kokubunji (西国分寺).
posted by Me at 9:58 PM
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