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Now that the orientation is finally winding down, I'm beginning to settle in to my new home in Tokyo. Yesterday I went to the Shinjuku-ku Ward Office to update my alien resident card, signed up for national healthcare (which is so inexpensive it's ridiculous) and opened a Japanese bank account. But enough about the boring stuff, let's talk about my host family.
Quick demographic: Mother, Father, Daughter (age 18), Son (age 12). They are, respectively, Miyo (美代), Hatsushi (初志), Kaho (華穂) and Yuu (友) of the Ueta (上田) family, and they are fantastic. Miyo is an english teacher in various different capacities (elementary school, private tutor, cram school), and if it's possible in Japanese society to have a big personality, she's got one (in the good way). Hatsushi is some kind of computer guy for Fujitsu, a big computer company in Japan. However, he works in Sendai and is therefore only home on the weekends. Although he sounds super intensely corporate, he's actually very chill, and plays both the stand up and electric bass.
Kaho is a first year student at an all-girls university that is a 2 hour train ride from Tokyo, a commute she makes every weekday. She's studying English, so occasionally I have the opportunity to help her with homework a little which (however shallow it may be) makes me feel a bit better about my not-so-good Japanese. She's a bit quiet but very nice and really liked manga, so she's lending me some to help me pick up this whole "reading" thing.
Yuu is one of those 12-year old boys who plays every sport he can get his hands on. Every day I've been with the family so far he's had practice for either wrestling, soccer, rugby or aikido. He's super energetic and has that little bit of young boy insanity about him, but he's also very nice and polite and seems to enjoy having another guy around.
So that's the family in a nut shell. The past couples days that I've been with them have been interesting but a lot of fun. They are a very non-stereotypical Japanese family. Miyo is quite liberal in governing the house and has made it clear that I don't have to worry about typical-strict-Japanese-house-customs that fill the nightmares of most 留学生 (students studying abroad). Also, she likes to cook a variety of different styles of food. My first night we had this vegetable stewy thing with some fried lamb that was delicious, then last night I had a fish in which I had to remove the spine to eat, and tonight we had 焼肉 (fried meat) with miso soup and rice. And since she's an english teacher, if there's something in Japanese that I just cannot understand she can always explain in English (although fortunately this happens very rarely). So far so good =)
