ホストファミリーとの暮らし

This weekend was my first 2 days with my host family, the Karahashis. The okaasan (mother) and otoosan (father) are both very caring for me. Neither speaks any English, but they have apparently hosted 6 students before so they are pretty understanding of my situation. Indeed, this past weekend has been a big learning experience. I learned first and foremost that Japanese proficiency in the classroom does not necessarily translate to ability to do anything in real life. I think I have been able to get around okay (I didn't get lost on my way to class this morning!), but whenever the okaasan or otoosan says anything to me I have to ask them to repeat themselves about 3 times, after which I usually give up and just smile and nod. I think that will improve a lot over time, though. My otoosan is hard to understand particularly because he has a very gruff manner of speaking, so if I don't catch what he said immediately, I probably won't get it at all. Also, the Japanese drink tea all the time! I have never drunk so much tea in my life. Maybe the black tea at dinner is the reason I haven't been able to sleep at night. (It may also have something to do with the fact that I can see my breath in my room, but that's a different story.)

My host family's house is very small and compact. I am now very glad for my height, because all of the doorways are about 5'5" tall, so if I were much taller I would be hitting my head all of the time. The kitchen, bathroom, toilet, laundry, and living room are on the first floor, and my room is on the second. The staircase up to my room is extremely steep--if the angle were any higher you would have to call it a ladder. I have a lot more personal space than I had expected, though. Rooms here are measured based on the number of tatami mats that it takes to cover the floor, and most rooms are between 4.5 and 6 tatami mats. (A tatami is about the same dimensions as a twin-sized bed.) My room has 6 tatami mats, but it turns out that there is also an adjacent room of the same size that is pretty much exclusively for my own use for studying or something like that.



My room

Because of energy costs and fire concern, most Japanese people do not heat their houses. To stay warm, they dress warmly while at home and wear slippers everywhere, as well as using clever space heating methods. My family has a kotatsu, which is a low table surrounded by a duvet-like blanket on all sides, and underneath it is a heated carpet pad. You sit on the floor (the carpet) and put your legs under the blanket, and then even though you can still see your breath it is very warm. Their little balding old dog spends most of its time under there, where it has 2 beds. In my room I also have a space heater attached to the wall, so I can actually get the air in my room pretty warm if I choose, and finally I have an electric mattress pad so I can warm the bed before I get in. So, all in all, even though I freeze when walking from room to room, I stay reasonably warm.

The bath is a big part of Japanese life. My family's bathroom is basically a tiny room with a tiled floor in which you take a shower, and after you have washed off you get into a heated soaking tub in the same room. It is shorter in length than most American bathtubs, but it is much deeper, so when I get in the water is about 2 feet deep. After your shower you soak in the bathtub for awhile, although hopefully not for too long or else you will fall asleep. Everyone in the family uses the same water, which is why you clean off thoroughly before getting in, and it is traditional to let the guest go first. My host mother also likes to add some powder to the water that makes it Shrek-green, and supposedly it is good for your skin even though it looks a little questionable. The bath also helps me to stay warm.


Last Friday for the last Orientation event I went on a tour to Kyoto. I was in a group of 7 international students, and we were paired with 5 (although we lost one along the way) Kansai Gaidai students. Together we all walked to the train station, and they instructed us on how to buy tickets and then we went to downtown Kyoto. It was very beautiful. All of the shops were so nicely presented, and there were a lot of trees and nature that combined to give the area a very traditional and peaceful feel. We stopped at one shrine and one temple, called Kiyomizu, which were both very big and impressive. The temple featured a spring that you could drink from, and supposedly it has blessed water. The water ran in 3 fountains, and supposedly each one will give you a different blessing--either health, longevity, or wisdom (but you're not supposed to drink from all 3 or it's bad luck!). I did not find that out until later, so I only drank from one, and I'm not sure which...Ah well, any of those would be nice. The water was cold and clean.



Kiyomizu Temple that we visited in Kyoto


In Kiyomizu Temple


The spring that I drank from

We left the Kansai Gaidai campus at about 2, but by the time we left the temple it was about 5, and it had gotten a lot colder. Washing my hands and drinking from the icy cold fountains did not help. We went to a restaurant nearby, where I got a donburi and udon meal, which was really tasty, not to mention warming. After that we took the train back, and I returned the dorms by around 9.


Larger versions of the photos, as well as others, are on the Flickr (link on the right column of the page).


I will update soon with classes!