Seikatsu -Daily Life (生活）1 Month

Yes Indeed, it's the post you've all been waiting for: Daily life in Japan, How I found it and how it found me. There is nothing less amazing than daily life and that's why it's the most important. After all, I have just hit the all important 1 month landmark. Indeed, I expect you'll be waiting on pins and needles for the 2nd month landmark Seikatsu post.


The Setting:
I arrived in Japan on the 6th of January, and moved into my Host family's house on the 10th. I've been in Japan just shy of one month and I suppose it's time to reflect. So far I've been living with just my host mother and host father, aged 48 and 51 respectively. They have a son who I will be meeting later this week because he has been studying in Tokyo. We live together in a condo on the third floor of the building. Conditions are definitely semai(not spacious). I do however get my own room with a sofa bed which is all I really need. There is one giant room for the dining/living area, a very small kitchen, Tatami room (with no door) where my host parents sleep on futons (not American futons but real futons, think really thick mat or blanket if you don't know what I'm talking about). We live about a 10 minute walk to the train station(Eki). From the train station it's about 14 minutes to school, or about 10 minutes to downtown Nagoya. I attend Nanzan University 5 days a week. Most days I have Japanese class for four hours and three days a week I have extra classes, Japanese Writing, Translation, and Japanese Politics.


The Average Day:
I have to get up to have breakfast with my host family by 7:30 (which I never eat at home). Then I get dressed, and walk to the eki. The road to the eki is perilous indeed. I could rant for a good while on the manners of Japanese riding their bikes on sidewalks. I've already had several close calls and expect to have more. I saw one girl almost get plowed down the other day. I can't say that I've ever been impressed by the manners of Asian drivers be it a car, bike or elephant. You would think that I would get stared at a lot in such a homogeneous place as Japan but the school kids really don't seem to take much notice. The morning train is really rather uneventful. Save for the fact that you can expect to be pushed a bunch and no one will really apologize but I guess they'd be apologizing a lot if they had to do that. The trek from the eki is about 10 minutes as well. It's 3 escalators up and then a walk up the hill we fondly refer to as the hill of death. Lots of puffing and wheezing is had by all, I'm not even sure how the cars make this near vertical climb. This is not the kind of hill you ride your bike up OR down.

Life is peaches once you make it to campus though(catch your breath 'n such). Most people complain about the 4 hour Japanese classes but I've done it two summers straight so I can't say it's really been much of a bother. If there is a highpoint to this college experience though, it's certainly been the Shokudo (Cafeteria). Cafeteria food in the United States is a drag. Here, I get to eat Japanese every day for lunch and indeed it is glorious. Miso katsu donburi, Tori tama donburi, Curry Rice, MisoShiro, Curry Katsu, Ramen, Udon... glorious.

Life with Japanese people is a bit different. Obviously I can't do everything I can do at home. I have seriously restricted freedom which I'm not used to anymore. You feel a bit more like you 're back in high school the way they check up on you, but it's nice sometimes because they always make sure you're getting what you need, and I certainly don't feel neglected. My host mother's cooking is amazing, and was by far the easiest thing to get used to. One oddity is that my family is part of that 1% of Japan that's Christian and they pray at dinner which is something I've never had to do before. Other than that though, you'd never really know they were Christian unless they told you. I have yet to see even a cross and they don't go to church. I'm not even sure where one is around here. I have my one chore as well which is washing and filling the bath every night. It doesn't take long and I usually get to take a bath first since I am the one that fills it. I haven't had a regular shower since coming to Japan. Oddly enough that didn't really take much adjustment. I just bathe every night and I find it relatively relaxing.

Conclusions:
Other than the above there isn't really much I find so different about living with my Japanese host family that you wouldn't expect from living with any other random family you don't really know. You don't feel like you can do whatever you want in their house, you have to ask for everything, etc. My Japanese language ability comes and goes with the weather but communication has become much less of a chore. It's definately gotten better, but my Japanese won't be perfect after 5 months. I already feel like 5 months isn't going to be enough, but in any case, I'm sure I'll be damn sick of that Hill.