Host Family...Day 4

Day 4
My first full day with my host family. In order to not completely fail and be disrespectful I asked when would be a good time to wake up. 8 ish is breakfast, so I was up and about by 7:50 just in case. I feel like I have an internal alarm clock. Back at Stanford I usually wake up a few minutes before my alarm rings. It is possible that my body just gets used to it, but I'll go with the former, it makes me sound cooler. Like a robot. Breakfast was eggs business with toast as well as some fruit and yogurt.

I hadn't finished unpacking so I went back up to my room to arrange everything in my cozy little room. At some point, I hear peals of girlish laughter. Young girl laughter. As it turns out my host family had arranged to watch this girl for the day for her grandparents. I had not banked on entertaining a 7 year old girl, so when she showed up in my room I was pretty surprised. I also had no idea what to do with her. So I gave her my big bumble bee and asked her questions in broken Japanese as I continued to unpack. At some point I showed her pictures of home and Hawaii. One thing led to another and before I knew it I had introduced her to Photobooth. Thank you Apple for the invention of Photobooth. You may not have any games that would entertain a young girl, but pictures, your pictures and effects are more than anyone could dream of. Thank you. Basically we took a lot of pictures. A lot, a lot of pictures. I'm talking about over 100 pictures here.



At some point my host mother came into my room and informed us that we would be walking over to a nearby park. There we played tennis (on a court with no net (yeah pretty ghetto)) as well as badminton. My host mother brought jump rope and I totally schooled everyone in jump rope. Over 50 times in a row. They couldn't even touch this. The day was warm and in my old age we tire easily, so we walked back after spending an hour or so in the park.

Before we knew it, it was lunchtime!

I tried natto for the first time. My reaction: hmmmmmmm. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It wasn't good, I mean I've smelt public bathrooms that are more aromatic than that fermented stringy goodness, but it was totally edible. I ate a little bit. Granted I ate a lot of rice following it, but I ate it without gagging, which probably disappointed my host family. I told them that I had never eaten it before, so they were probably waiting to see if I would lurch it back up. But I gave them so such satisfaction. I'm probably making that last bit up, but my host father was watching me expectantly.

Following dinner the girl, Ayaka (I accidentally typed Akaka at first), asked to go back to my room for more Photobooth. Thank you, Apple. But being young and lively with the attention span of a puppy or maybe it was because we had exhausted all of the effects, either way we ended up outside of the house jumping rope on the street. I made it to 100. Yeah, I'm just that awesome. Her grandparents soon came to pick her up and it was back in the house with me. I grabbed my computer and hopped on the internet. Ahhhhhhhhhh....Internet. I even got to skype with my parents and sister before stepping out to a Hanami festival.



As if I haven't mentioned this, Sakura are in bloom and eveyone everyone is going out to appreciate their brief and fleeting beauty. The weather was warm and the dango was good. I even got to eat some cotton candy. But when I pulled out my camera to take pictures, I discovered that my screen broke. Noooooooooooooooooo. My camera. It hasn't even been a week. I'm not sure what I did, but I'm dumb. So dumb. Dumb. Clumsy. Dumb. Dumb.

They actually show American lectures on TV. Harvard lectures. So that's what it would be like to take lectures at Harvard. I got to make some gyoza for dinner. Yummy!!!! And early off to bed. I start school tomorrow. Ugh.