So firstly, I wasn't sure it was even a women's bathroom. It had a pink sign with a person wearing a dress, but when I went in there was also a urinal-type thing. I guess they have them for women, too, here. Well, it had that and both types of toilets. My first choice is still Western style, considering the Japanese style ones are basically porcelain holes in the ground that you have to squat over. Yeah...Anyway, so then I couldn't figure out how to flush the stupid thing, even looking at the images on each button. Finally I closed the lid, and lo and behold, it flushed. As I laughed about this to my friend, she said apparently there are also toilets that flush when you hold your hand over this light or something that's in place of a flush button.
Anyway, back onto topic. Ask your host family about any uncertainties! Right, so even bathing is a bit different here. Well, they have just regular showers in a lot of hotels and stuff now, and even here at JCMU. However, to get warm water, they have this panel (like with the toilet) that controls the temperature. I actually like this a lot better than how we have it in the US, which, you know, is just turn the two knobs until you get the approximate temp you want. They have a similar panel for the kitchen sink, come to think of it.
Anyway, about bathing. The shower/bath area is separated from the toilet area. In the bath area, there's this place with a stool you sit on outside the tub while you wash and rinse yourself, like a shower. Then you soak in the tub. Mind you, that water is shared by the rest of the family, which is why you need to wash before getting in.
Help out around the house. Ask if you can help with anything, say, doing the dishes, and keep asking, because the first couple of times they'll try to just say go and relax, but the third time or so they'll agree and let you help.
I think those are the big things, really. Always let them know your plans and tell them if you're not going to be home for dinner. Help out around the house--not only is it the right thing to do, but even more so because they're letting you live in their house for however long it may be and are taking care of you. I mean, they even provide breakfast and dinner. That's kinda the biggest expense for us JCMU students staying in the dorms. Ah, also, always greet them, say, in the morning, and greet them individually. If you're going to your room, say something (in Japanese) like "I'm going to study" or "Goodnight" or something. There are certain phrases they always say when leaving or arriving home, so always say those so they know when you're leaving. Don't ask your host mother to cook lunch or if you can take something with you, unless it's your leftovers from breakfast.
Then there's the commute. This time, all 6 of us have to ride the train at least for a bit, and a couple have to transfer trains. I, thankfully, have a fairly short commute. It's a 6 minute walk from their house to the station, and then a 7 minute train ride (and the trains here are freakishly accurate and on time), and then 20 minutes by bike to campus. So, just over half an hour total. Of course, these are all averages, and I can bike and walk pretty fast, so it may be a shorter time for me. My biggest concern first off is getting on the right train. Oh, and the fees for the train and bike parking are all paid for by JCMU.
I am nervous about doing this homestay, but like I've said, I was told this family has done many other homestays and are very understanding. At least it's not like a classmate of mine, who's a first year student with very little knowledge of Japanese, and no one really speaks English in his family. Well, except maybe the younger brother that's in junior high, but very little. With my family at least, the father speaks some English, so maybe between the two of us we can manage to communicate. Well, in any case, I'm going to learn a lot of Japanese very quickly, I think. Yay! I'm sorry in advance, my poor brain...
I think I've discovered why I feel so sad about moving out, aside from the loss of being a part of this community. And I really do like the atmosphere here. Anyway, I think it's because it feels like my time at JCMU is already ending. Maybe it's because I'm going to have to pack up and move house. Plus, I really am nervous about this host family thing. Well, but I need to not be so much, because it'll all work out.
Also, a lesser concern: how the heck am I going to repack everything? I've already bought a lot of stuff, but it's smaller stuff. I'm convinced my stuff expanded. I wonder if it's cheaper to send some of this stuff home ahead of me...Oh, but I guess I probably won't have a huge bag of souvenirs from home when I'm going home in 8 months.
Well, so I've forgotten the other thing I was going to talk about. I only remember that I've mentioned it in passing in a previous post. So I'm going to move onto a random topic.
Firstly, please don't judge me after this. I know I'm weird and have weird tastes in music and books and movies and stuff.
Music! My taste in music has changed dramatically, especially over the last few years. Well, basically, college happened. When I was younger, I listened to country, because that's mostly what my parents and other family listened to. My dad also listens to a bit of rock, though, and so I discovered Evanescence and my love of any type of rock music. I did also listen to a lot of soundtracks (very helpful when writing a story, actually, and fun to listen to anyway), and maybe just a tiny bit of pop. Basically, maybe 10 pop songs. My junior and senior year in high school, I discovered a couple of foreign bands--basically Within Temptation and Lacuna Coil--and then a friend gave me a ton of music from other popular rock groups, like Avenged Sevenfold and Disturbed. And so my love of rock really grew. Then college happened, though for the first year it was still all music in English. But at the start of my third semester at NMU, I discovered J-rock, and more specifically, visual kei and oshare kei. If anyone's interested, start by watching a The Gazette video, and SuG and L.M.C, and -OZ- and AND and Kiryu, and then just start clicking on the suggested videos. That's how I ended up falling in love with literally over 100 different bands.Though I do have my favorites. And then in my third year of college when I transferred to MSU, I discovered Sakanaction and a few other bands like them (not pop, but kind of, and sort of electronic or something...They're awesome, though, so go listen to them), like Tanizawa Tomofumi. But in my second semester at MSU, I had that Modern Korea class, and I decided to finally really try listening to some K-pop to see what it was all about. I'd tried before, but that was before I was more open-minded, and I'd kind of only seen G-Dragon's video for Crayon (which is now one of my favorite songs, and a favorite video), and it put me off. The only two K-pop groups I'd listened to before that was CNBlue and FTIsland. Well, that night I tried listening to some K-pop, which I'd been trying to avoid for ages...let's just say a few hours later I was in love in U-KISS and had a ton of new music. And a new addiction. Since my second year in college, I'd only listened to Japanese rock. And then I became addicted to K-pop, and that's all I've listened to since then. As we speak, I'm listening to TOP's Turn It UP, GD&TOP's HIGH HIGH, and GD's newest songs, Crooked and Coup D'Etat. They're from the group BIGBANG, which is my favorite group aside from U-KISS at the moment.
Don't judge me. K-pop is somehow amazingly addicting. I dare anyone reading this to try it out. Though if it's addicting, maybe I shouldn't be encouraging it...
Believe it or not, there was a point to this ramble, aside from my being bored and avoiding homework. It's funny, really, how in a normal day, I can go from sitting in Japanese class to watching a silly Taiwanese drama to listening to K-pop. And then maybe onto watching a Thai movie (which are surprisingly good). Well, it just so happens I was watching a Taiwanese show yesterday, but I usually prefer Japanese or Korean ones. And I don't usually watch anything sad. Rather, I prefer the fluffy, silly, stupid ones I can laugh at, which are usually silly romantic comedies. But seriously, they often fail at being dramatic in these types, which I find hilarious, and then the rest of it's hilarious as well. I think I avoid depressing ones because I can make myself sad enough without the help of a show. Unfortunately, I'm often easily affected by books and movies and stuff, to the point that once I set the book down or finish the movie or whatever, I'll feel whatever the characters were just feeling.
Anyway, this blog isn't supposed to be just me rambling, and I only allowed myself this rambling because the stuff about the music was supposed to tie into learning languages and stuff, but...my ex-English major side came out again and forced me to ramble to the point where I forgot what my original point was. I'm very good at doing that. I'd even forgotten for a moment that this post was originally about my homestay.
So, now that I've realized this problem--again--I'm going to stop writing. I should really do homework, anyway. Don't be like me and procrastinate all the time! I mean, I know I can get it all done within the time I allot myself, but it's not a good habit.