totemo kawaii!!!!

Be warned, I have a lot to say so this might get long…
On the third of July we had the Tanabata festival at Shiga University. It is one of the festivals where you tie wishes to the branches of a tree. Everyone who bought one wore their yukatas; doing so resulted in a free snow cone! I arrived early to get ready with Bou-chan. On the way there I managed to go a whole minute without using my hands! They all did their hair in fun Japanese ways but I think mine was too short so I just left it down and curly. The festival was mostly fun. Melville sensei had told us the tenkiyohou (weather forecast) had promised no rain but that didn’t stop it from raining the whole festival through (luckily I brought an umbrella!). We all looked cute (pics on fb, as always), though, and ate lots! I had some good Japanese fried chicken, tacoyaki (bleh I don’t care what anyone says), snow cones (mine was strawberry, but kind of tasted like bubblegum. Bou-chan was surprised to hear that we had snow cones in America, she thought it was just a Japanese thing :p), a hotdog (for Americas sake, I figured better a day early than never although it should be mentioned that an American hotdog is not the same as a Japanese hotdog 0.o) vinegar rice (:D), and some weird and untasty fish chips. Basically all we did there was eat (My favorite kind of festival!) and for free because Bou-chans friend, Hitomisan had lots of coupons ^-^. My feet were killing me though because my shoes are two sizes too small and made of very un-giving wood. Moreover it is unacceptable, when wearing a Yukata, to stand with your hip out to rest one foot. You must always stand with both feet flat on the ground and close together. Afterwards I got to practice my ability to ride my bike while holding an umbrella (especially challenging!). Next Sunday we will be going to Kyoto to another festival, although I don’t know if we will wear our Yukata’s again.

I feel like I’m in Japan. Before I came to homestay I never really felt like I was in Japan. Most of the time, I felt like I was just in East Lansing. Sure, there were a lot of Asians, but I was surrounded by white people do, I almost always spoke English and I lived in a very Americanized dorm. Now I live in a very Japanese house. It is a small two story building, no basement, maybe four of me by five of me (obviously not an exact measurement). When last checked I was 5 feet 8 and 1/8th inches. Feel free to do the math. The downstairs seems especially small as the rooms are all separated into very small rooms with a somewhat complicated hallway system. The upstairs, however, consists of three good sized rooms (mine, I believe, being the biggest). I love my room. It has its inconveniences, mainly that I have absolutely no shelving or drawers (the closet is full of linens; although I did manage to fit my snack bag inside). Even so, it’s gorgeous! I have Tatami floors and beautiful cloth sliding doors, both out to the hallway and for my closet. I sleep on a futon on the floor which is great any time I’m not trying to sleep! It makes your room look a lot bigger when you’re bed masquerades as the floor. I have a small bamboo and glass table on which to study and a strange yet intriguing chair that I have yet to truely test. It’s one of those cloth ones that are designed to keep you sitting upright but it’s made of cloth so it doesn’t really work, except that this one does appear to work. More on that later. My room is wonderfully Japanese and at night when I turn the light down low and look at my Japanese doors it isn’t hard to imagine feudal Japan (in the good way that probably never really existed, much the same as people think of England’s dark ages and think them romantic).
My okaasan is talkative and speaks very little English. I spent a lot of my time yesterday in the kitchen eating and helping to prepare our meals. My otoosan, however, doesn’t talk much and absolutely no English. He sits always in the TV room, even during meals. He listens to us talking and laughs at my poor Japanese skills. Not openly, but every now and then I hear him repeat the same word that my Okaasan is trying to get me to understand. I rather like the arrangement. The man intimidates me a little so it’s nice that I don’t have to try to talk to him.
We made some extremely good food yesterday for dinner including something she labeled “Chinese” which consisted of cold noodles, fried egg, ham and cucumber and some unknown sauce; a tofu dish with green peppers that look like they would be super spicy, but aren’t; some other dish she labeled as “seafood” which looked like choppy black something and fried tofu; miso soup and of course gohan (rice). This morning was not nearly so successful. Today I had my first ever run-in with the notorious natto (fermented bean paste) and my second run-in with the notorious umeboshi. The second didn’t go so badly, although this time it was considerably tarter and harder to eat (refers to previous post with link). Natto, however, was just as bad as I was always told it was. It is a sort of… slimy bean. Like a baked bean if it had no shell and was covered in goo. The taste is not so bad but the texture. It clings to everything like melted cheese! I couldn’t make myself finish it, but in Japan food is not to be wasted and I unfortunately told my Okaasan that it was okay (The first bite wasn’t so bad, like I said it tastes like a bean, and I rather imagined she would have put it in something, or with something, instead of having me eat it straight). To top it off she made me eggs, which is fine, I love eggs, but she made them sunny side up (maybe a little harder but she never turned them). I had already downed half of the natto before I chanced eating the yokes so I was happy to find them not so bad, not good, but certainly edible. (and I’ll have you know that I’m eating every last bite so stop telling people I’m so picky!). All throughout breakfast my Okaasan is telling me it won’t rain today. Amegafuranai to itteimashita! Just as I’m finished my breakfast the down poor starts (noticing a trend?). Luckily it lightened to a soft but soaking rain by the time that I came down fully equipped in the raingear my okaasan gave me. (As apparently riding your bike with an umbrella is unacceptable and dangerous). Still biking in the rain wasn’t fun, especially because I was so worried about my computer getting wet. On the bright side, my okaasan did make me coffee for breakfast as requested!
The best part of my day, however, came at lunch time. We all have mailboxes that are located in the hallway you use to enter the academic building from the dorms. So whenever you go back to your dorms you cast a quick glace to see if anything is in yours. Today, a glance wasn’t necessary as I made my way back to my old dorm for lunch as the package that had been stuffed into my two inch thick box (no jokes please) was noticeable right away. I’ve never understood the sort of people who hate their mothers, but maybe that is because mine is the type to mail an envelope stuffed full of chocolate, coffee and non-dairy creamer half way around the world just to make her poor, sleepy daughter happy. I love you mom! The best part came when, having noted the coffee but not the chocolate I dumped out the entire package on my bed in search of a note and saw the beautiful bars sitting them amidst the red glow of future caffeine! What a happy lunch time I had. I managed to come back home during a lull in the rain. A half hour longer on facebook would have caught me in a torrential downpour! Yey rainy season!
So, a little bit about how weird it is to live in a Japanese house. You are told to take a shower the minute you come in the door in the afternoon. It is kinda refreshing but a little annoying because it is still the hottest part of the day when you get out. Also, showers here are not standing under the fall of hot water and letting your cares melt away for a brief 15 minutes. It’s suds up, turn water on, rinse into drain in floor, end. The whole thing is supposed to be in prep for the bathtub I have no intention of ever using. I wash and face and brush my teeth every morning and night out of doors in a little sink on a little balcony attached to my room… with the spiders. Note that I’m not complaining, just explaining, as I am simply relieved that they have an American style toilet, so I am contented. It’s an experience, and I can enjoy it as such. I do worry about the bed situation though. I couldn’t sleep well last night (I never have been able to sleep on the floor) and I couldn’t pay attention at all today in class. I’m hoping I’ll get used to sleeping on a futon, rather than fail this second month from lack of sleep. I really ought to attempt to study now as I will have dinner within an hour and then I have to go back to JCMU to meet with Rurisan for speaking practice.