Finally Someone Who's Younger Than Me + Pictures of My Homestay

Wednesday, June 9, 2010, 9:50p.m.

I planned to write a lengthy entry tonight, because since I had a big test today, my workload tonight was a lot lighter. I studied for about two hours after classes and then came back home and showered. When I got out of the shower (around 5:00p.m.), the lights in the hallway were off, but I could see that someone was standing in the shadows. It made me jump, firstly, because I had thought that I was the only one home, and secondly, because this figure was much taller than anyone who lives in our house. Quickly, though, I learned that it was my new host brother. He’s from Twain, and he’s going to be a senior in high school (but he’s only 16 years old). He’s the very first person attending Yamasa who I’ve met that younger than me. He still looks like he’s several years older than me though, so I wonder if it counts? Anyway, we stood in the hallway and talked for several minutes (I tried to think of helpful things to tell him about the school and our host family), and after I had gone back to my room, a few minutes later he was standing at my door asking for help connecting to the internet. Even after I gave him the password, he didn’t seem to be in a hurry to leave my room, so I kept talking to him until it was time for dinner. It’s funny, his appearance and mannerisms remind me very much of the first boy that I ever liked/talked to. It’s slightly disconcerting. But he seems nice and easy to live with. I hope that during the ten remaining days that I have here I’ll be able to be as helpful to him as Lee was to me.

After dinner, Mao, the new student (Frank) and I watched a video of Mao’s dance students’ performance. It was unbelievably good. I wish I could post it on here somehow. She choreographed every single piece and there were probably 50 students total, ranging from the ages of 4 to 81 years old. Also, I found out that she one 6^th place at the world championship tap dancing competition. I had no idea how good she was. I feel like Katie should be the one in this household. She would be able to relate to her so much more easily than me.

The other day when I was home alone, I took the opportunity to finally take some pictures of the house besides such the inside of my bedroom, so I’ll end this post with those. Feel free to ask questions if anything in the photos is unclear.

This is the view when you first come in the front door.

Closer up.

There's a staircase just to the left of the front doors.

This is a picture looking down from the stairs shown above. The front door is on the right in this picture.

The first level of the house is where Mao and my host mother give their dance and music lessons. Here are a couple pictures of those areas:

After you go up the stairs, immediately on the left is the kitchen/dining room/family area/entry to Lee's(now Frank's) room. To the right, there is the bathroom, shower, my host parent's room, and a another staircase that leads up to my room and Hibiki/Mao's room.

Kitchen.

Dining room.

Family area. Frank's room is on the right, but clearly can't be seen in this photo.

Here's the staircase leading up to my room, which is on the left.

And finally, the shower:

Did I mention that there is a full length mirror right in front of where I shower at? I have a theory that this is part of the reason why Japanese people stay thin. If I had to look at myself completely naked while I showered every day, I would be more motivated to stay in shape too.

The bath tub. Last week before school one morning, I accidentally walked in on my host brother while he was taking a bath. It was completely horrifying, even though he was nice about it. I brushed my teeth at school the next three mornings.

Have to go now, I let Frank borrow my outlet converter, and my computer doesn't have much battery left. Had I mentioned that the $45 outlet adapter that I bought in the States before I left stopped working during my second week here? I bought one at a local store for 550 yen ($5.50), and it's worked perfectly. I'm not bitter or anything though....