18 June 1994 [something in Japanese -- Sunday?] 6:30 am Sorry for not writing earlier, so much has been happening, and I decided to write letters than in this book. When my host mother first met me, she commented on how young I look (to someone else [dammit the bane of my life. I swear, if someone says I look like a teenager again I'll be pissed]) - that I looked about 15. She seems to be an organizer among host families -- she's been hosting people for 9 years now. I'm to call them okaasan [mother] and otoosan [father]. They have a little house in Hiyoshi cho -- their address for later reference is: Terai's Hiyoshi-cho 3-18-1 Hakodate Hokkaido 041 (Japan of course) Okaasan is a great cook. I think I'm going to take a picture of one of her meals (I've tried to take a picture of everything else.) Today we went to visit her grandchildren and son-in-law (I think so -- he might be their son, but I really don't think he is) -- I saw her daughter for a really short while - but not for long at all. They live over a convenience store -- It's really a nice, large place (w/ a western toilet, which will endear me to any place. Those floor toilets must have been invented by a man, well, I guess they were invented when women wore dresses. Wearing pants means having to take them completely off to even pee. Blah. (later comment: I've been doing it wrong, but it's still a pain.)) Her granddaughter will be 2 soon and the grandson is about 4 or 5. It's interesting to see the work he did in his preschool (or whatever it is) -- alot of spatial relationships -- visual stuff (he did good on that part), but had some trouble w/ the concept of differences. (in number, as opposed to looks.) Also there was stuff as to how something would look in a mirror. They came back w/ us to eat dinner (but their mother wasn't around.) I think the home stay is a great idea -- it raises the study of Japanese beyond just an academic challenge -- I have to be able to read and hear well so that I get off at the right bus stop (or at least observant to my surroundings.) I really wish I could read newspapers, but that's going to be a =long= time before I get to that level. My biggest frustration is my limited vocabulary. I'm beginning to understand what people are saying, but am unable to respond very much. An interesting lesson in homogeneity -- today when I went to see the grandchildren, Leona was initially scared of me - the first time she had seen a "Western" face, I think okaasan said (in person of course -> there are so many "Westerners" on TV - every baseball team seems to have at least one American player, I saw Charlie Sheen and Tom Selleck hawking things that I think are only sold in Japan, or at least advertised only here. Alot of commercials have white people in them, and some children's programs are hosted by Americans (esp. for the English part.) But in reality, other than tourists, and even then, Non-Asian people here are few and far between. No wonder Leona was taken aback -- it reminds me when I was 4 and saw an Asian family as I was walking into Kroger and I asked my mom what was wrong with their eyes. As far as school goes, I've already taken the placement tests and the results are up by now, but I'm not going to be there til Monday, so I'll find out then. I'm going to be doing alot of things connected w/ HIF [Hokkaido International Foundation], but I'll write about it when it comes. Because of the Nihongo-dake rule at HIF (only Japanese in the HIF building) the only English I get to use is in reading and writing. This really is the best way to learn a language, since I know I can't revert to English at just any time, though it would drive me a little crazy, since I can only understand very little and speak even less. All the English around here is usually for advertising or for decoration (or tourists.) (I just saw a commercial with Sean Connery in it.) I watched Beauty and the Beast today - they did a good job w/ dubbing and they even did the songs -- I know that sometimes songs are left unchanged when a movie is dubbed. Also I an old, bad American movie dubbed not so well -- they must not have had enough money to fill in background speakers. I also saw something similar to the Power Rangers - indeed, they had similar suit designs - the 5 ninjas, or something of the sort. I also noticed a curious ad style - repeating the same ad or a different ad for the same product one after another. It's like they =really= have to pound it into your head, or assume you miss a part in the first time that you wait [?] to see. Mrs. Terai was just playing a koto -- a really nice sounding instrument. Because I can't talk well w/ others I sit and think alot. Introspective by necessity, but not really introspective since most of the time I'm thinking about Brian. But that's little different from my life in America, other than being able to quit thinking by talking with others. Ack, my arm is really tired. More later. Like tomorrow or so.