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A continuation..
I moved in on Wednesday night. I took my luggage up to my room, and immediately saw
an electric bass guitar on a stand in the hallway. Apparently, their son(who in in
the USA on business) plays bass..this is further evidenced by the multiple bass amps
in the closet in my room, and the various musical equipments.
I though, "Hey, if they can tolerate an electric bass, of course they can tolerate
my acoustic guitar!" Then I walked downstairs and saw a piano. An antique one, with
real ivory keys and only two pedals. But very cool. This made me even happier.
They have a Japanese style home, with a strange mix of Western furnishings. For
instance, their dining room is very much like the one I have at home. But their
living room has what amount to church pews with some pillows on them as couches.
The TV sits on a little TV stand, and above that hangs a painting of Notre Dame
Cathedral. They have a lot of art pieces in their home, ranging from paintings,
to sculptures, to a framed photograph of Audrey Hepburn above the piano. Very
eclectic mix, I think.
One of my first activities in the house was to use the restroom. It never occurred
to me that I have yet to describe the bathroom situation in Japan. First off, there
are two choices of bathroom(at least, until the other night there were only two.)
1. Japanese-style: This involves a toilet set in the ground, that has no seat. These
tend to be much dirtier than American toilets, but much more sanitary. You see, you
do not touch them at all. You stand with one leg on each side, kinda squat, and do
your duty. Of course, some people(I won't mention names) have problems, and are
deathly afraid that they might leave themselves a treat in their pants for later.
Also, if your knees are bad, it is much more difficult. I have only utilized these
on one or two occassion.
2. Western-style: Now I know that you THINK you know what a Western style toilet is.
And you're probably partially right. They are exactly like a normal toilet in the
states, except that they have all these little buttons on the side(usually) that
allow you to do all manner of frightening things.. bidet(a cannon of water that
flies up to wash you off..do not use this unless you're sitting down and prepared.)
Massage(a bidet kinda thing, except that it alternates water pressures)..Both of
these have controls for warm or cold water. My advice is that you go with warm.
Another button will turn on a hot air jet. Another scary experience.
And all the ones I have used have heated seats. The one at my old host family's
home had a remote control. I can think of nothing else I would like to do more than
play some tricks on my brothers with the remote control toilet bidet.
The other night, I walked in and was quite surprised.. not only did they have a
western-style toilet with all the fancy gadgets, but they had an upright men's-
restroom-in-the-subway-style urinal. I was stunned. What at weird thing to have.
Then, I found that they also have the same thing downstairs. Crazy.
I unpacked my room in a matter of twenty minutes. I have tons of room for everything.
My room is western, with a desk, a bed, a nightstand, lamp, etc. My dresser is in the
closet, next to a ton of room for hanging clothes, and some shelves. I have more
room than I need!
I met my host mom, told her foods I did and didn't like, etc. Eventually, I went to
bed. That night, there was a mosquito in my room which I couldn't find to kill, so
I now have about 94 bites on my body. Also, it kept waking me up by buzzing in my
ear. Why do mosquitos always buzz in your ear? (That is a book title, believe it or
not.) I hate that. Why buzz your ear? Why not your feet? It could still get what it
wants, without having to alert you to its presence. What a dumb insect. Where's
evolution when you need it, huh?
The next morning, I woke up on time to the alarm clock that my old host mother gave
me. I got ready, and my host mother made breakfast. I had some apple slices, a plate
of stir-fried vegetables.. sprouts, broccoli, ocra and mushrooms. By the way: the
ocra was really good. It is the first time I have ever had ocra that didn't have the
consistency of something really gross.
Anyway, yesterday I played basketball with Paul after class for two hours. We played
halfcourt one-on-one, by one-pointers.. all the way until 50. I won, 50-48. Man, if
I keep working out and eating like this, I will "return to the states with the body
of a Roman God." -Alex Pagnani
I finally met my host father.. he is a professor at Aichi women's college.. in
fact, next year he will become the President of the University. He speaks a
little English, but not as much as I speak Japanese. So it is still rough. But they
are both really nice, and very helpful. Unfortunately, during dinner, I found a
little worm thing in my rice. It was a little thinner than a grain of rice, and
longer. It had a dark head, and was moving. So I was kinda put off. She got me a
different bowl and new rice, but it also had a worm. So I suddenly lost my
appetite. They apologized, gave me some sealed up candies, and made me coffee.
Breakfast today was fine. More veggies, sausagelettes, some bread that their daughter
made and gave my host father while he was visiting her..
Oh yeah, my host mom mentioned that she was going to go hi-ku.. I thought that it was
simply an abbreviated version of haikingu, but I soon realized that she meant haiku.
In case you don't remember it from elementary school literature class, haiku is a
Japanese poetry form, associated with Zen Buddhism. It consists of three lines,
with syllable patterns of 5-7-5. She is going to a Haiku Festival, which extends
several days. I was quite impressed. Also, it just made my day when I asked them
if they knew of a haiku by Basho. Apparently, he is the most famous haiku poet ever.
In fact, you can read about him at: