Family Matters

So, I'll admit, I was just a bit worried about the host family thing. I found out not too long ago that the host family only consists of a host mom and dad who live alone out in the countryside. Turns out however, that they are really AWESOME!!! It was funny how all the PII students were introduced to the host families--> They lined all of us up in this cramped hallway with all our luggage, and then would have the host family come out of a reception room to "pick us up." I think we all felt just a little bit like lost puppies getting picked up at the pound, but when I saw my "mom," I was all but too happy to go.

The mother's name, from now on I'll call her okaasan, is Mikiyo Goto. Besides being really friendly (fairly normal for Japanese people), is a FABULOUS cook! But therein lies the danger.... without fail Japanese mothers like to feed people till their stuffed. I once heard that host mothers in particular like their students to leave their house with a few extra "kiro" since it shows that they are not only an awesome cook but that they were able to tame such wild beasts as Americans to like healthy Japanese food, haha- just kidding. But not about the being fed a lot of food... our first dinner together... hmmm took about 3 hours, かな.

The host father (ie otousan) is also quite cool. The first day I arrived, he spent the whole day building something in the backyard..... I'm not sure what it was, but it involved the use of a saw, drill, and several cigarette breaks. Okaasan told me he likes to take care of plants too, at which point she showed me their really pretty garden in back. In case you can't tell from the picture, yes- the house is a bit "inaka," but it's not too bad of a commute from the main part of the city by bus (about 40 minutes), and it really is quite beautiful out here amongst all the rice fields... oh, and mountains! (Being from Chicago which lies on flat land as far as the eye can see, I still find mountains somewhat of a curious natural phenomenon.)

But back to the host family... at dinner, otousan suggested I come up with a "theme" for my homestay here in Kanazawa so that it would be easier to think of what sort of things I want to do while I'm here. Since it quickly became apparent that I am quite interested in eating, he suggested I choose "food" as my theme.... My quick reply to keep myself from reading about Japanese food the whole summer was to say "でも太りたくない" (but I don't want to get fat), so he amended said theme and now apparently okaasan is going to 1) teach me how to cook some nice Japanese dishes 2) feed me a lot of delicious Japanese food 3) somehow(?) get me to lose 2 kilos.

Now, we were all drinking wine and beer (and in otousan's case also hard liquor), so I just took this all as a nice joke, but the next morning okaasan came up to me quite seriously and said that she had made my "food" theme her goal and would do her best to fulfill it.

Right.

Well I seem to be having no problems with #2 at the moment, but haven't gotten around to the other two parts. I see this entry is kinda long, so I'll leave it at that and talk about PII stuff next time, じゃね。