Meeting the Family

I was to meet my host family for the first time on Saturday at 2 pm. I was “excited in an ‘I want to throw up’ kind of way.” They came fifteen minutes late, and then we sat down with an interpreter to go over the house rules before I went home with them. The first thing that I noticed was that they are attractive for people in their 60s. The second thing I noticed was that they didn’t seem very receptive to me. During the meeting, as we talked about my new “otoosan” (father) and “okaasan” (mother), I kept thinking about my real family (and my real otoosan and okaasan), and this coupled with my host parents’ seemingly cold reception made me tear up a couple times. I am much more sensitive and much more attached to my family than I’d like to admit.

We made small talk on the way home, but the whole time I was slightly freaking out, wishing I had opted to stay in the dorms. But I felt a lot better once we arrived home. I’m not really sure why, but they live in a former duplex which is attached by a door just inside the front doors. They live on one side, and I live on the other… So I kinda get my own place. A living-ish room, kitchen, toilet, sink, shower, washer (but no dryer, gotta hang it outside), 8 tatami mat size bedroom (complete with a kotatsu, or table with a heater built into it!), and my own key to this side of the house. The only thing I don’t use on this side is the tea ceremony room where my host mom does her tea stuff. For meals, hanging out, watching tv, and checking my email, I go into the “main” side of the house, but otherwise, I chill over here. Nice deal, no?

But my side of the house is super cold!! There isn't really any central heating here, but somehow their side is warmer than mine... probably because mine is less inhabited. I don't know if that makes sense at all. However, having the kotatsu in my room is really nice for keeping me warm when I study, and I also have an electrical heating pad for my bed that I can turn on before I sleep.

That first day, when my host dad was showing me how to use the shower, he accidentally turned on the overhead nozzle and got wet. The next night, when we were eating dinner, he spilled a bowl of rice and broth on the table, and he used the ladle to pick it up and eat it. He has an odd fetish for his host child to open his beer can and pour it into his cup at dinner. He likes to watch informational shows about animals. This April, he will travel to Thailand to climb mountains, and he is the fittest 67-year-old man I’ve met. Perhaps we should all become mountaineers.

My host mom explained to me some of the details of tea ceremonying, like the poetry of the sugar candy that goes with the tea and the differences of doing the tea ceremony in every season. She asks me to carry the food for dinner over to the table and to wipe the table after dinner. She’s obsessed with making sure that I come into and leave the house through my own front door. I hope one day I have enough perseverance to learn how to cook like her.

All in all, they’re very kind people. I still feel very awkward here, like I’m completely intruding on them, but hopefully that’ll go away in a couple weeks.