Let’s host family!
You could probably find the above title somewhere in Japan—they really like doing that. (Let’s~~).
Anyway, on Saturday, June 27th, I spent the day with my host family. Even though I was still sick, it was a pretty good day. I met my host mother and one of the sisters at 1 in front of Building 47 (aka where I live). I was kind of nervous—it’s really hard conversing with only a year or so of Japanese. You can do basic stuff, but if you listen to regular speech, at best you will be able to get the gist. Just like English, Japanese leave out words, shorten things, and use slang, which even varies by region.
They mostly asked me questions while we were in the car. We got on the subject of music I like, and they got excited when I mentioned I like Orange Range (オレンジレンジ)。I didn’t realize they were so popular, and they’re not actually one of my main favorites. Luckily, the conversation was only about as nerve-wracking for me as a conversation in English with complete strangers would have been.
We did some sight-seeing: Oyama Jinja, an old samurai house, and we walked around the older district of Kanazawa. After that, we went to a big mall, which was pretty interesting—though it wasn’t too different than American malls. We took pictures at a photo booth that was WAY more advanced than anything I’ve seen in the US. You could even draw pictures and write on them afterward with some sort of photo editor outside the booth part. After that, we headed to a supermarket. Carts here are tiny, and instead of the bars being close together in order to hold the groceries, they simply put in a basket for that specific purpose. It’s kind of hard to explain, and I’m not sure why they do that…I never saw anybody actually carrying a basket, anyway.
We got a bunch of stuff for the dinner—chicken, fish, shrimp, carrots, a big apple, part of a watermelon, cucumber, nori for the sushi, etc. There was more than that even… After that we went to their house—and it was big--REALLY big for a Japanese house. I think the grandfather, mother, father, two daughters, and one of the daughter’s 1 year old live there. I’m not sure if the daughter’s husband lives in the house too… Japanese family structure is a bit complicated, but I’ll get into that another time in a culture post. FYI, in Japan, you’re an ‘adult’ when you’ve gotten married, NOT when you’ve moved out of your parents’ house as it is in America. That difference actually really changes cultural expectations. I’ll also get to that later.
The youngest family member is Souta-kun, the 1-year-old. He was ADORABLE. Sometimes he was shy, but he’d also start laughing out of nowhere about the goofiest things, like most American kids. He was pretty smart, too. Technically he’s 18 months, but I still feel like he was ahead of the curve. His mom is Rumi, and she’s 25. Then Misato, who I spent most of the day with, is 20 and also goes to KIT. The grandfather was early 80s, and he kind of just did his own thing. Then there was the mother and father. The father was the hardest to understand, but the mother and Misato generally tried to use Japanese they thought I would understand. Plus, Misato had a sweet electronic dictionary, so when we frequently ran into a verbal roadblocks, it was really, really useful. Clark-sensei said that many students and working adults in general have those dictionaries that have a bunch of functions besides merely translating.
Dinner was delicious. We made our own sushi, and they also had soumen, cold Japanese ramen noodles, along with a sort of potato salad that was pretty delicious, too. For desert there was fruit with my host mother cut up—the apple was cut up in a really interesting way that I’d never seen before. So much attention is paid to appearance here, it’s pretty impressive.
After dinner, we rested in the living room for a bit. Just before we left to take me back to my apartment, my host mother gave me omiyage (gifts/souvenirs), which I totally wasn’t expecting. I got a beautiful fan, a postcard of sorts that has a message written in Japanese calligraphy that talks about a once-in-a-lifetime meaning, and Misato had picked out her favorite candies, ChocoBouru (ChocoBall), for me as a gift. I had actually been there when my host mom picked out the card, so I knew I didn’t do anything that made them feel like they needed to give me another gift. For example, if you admire something too much, Japanese will feel indebted to give it to you. Or, if you hand them two separate gifts, they’ll feel like they need to give you two back. Gift-giving is also much more complicated in Japan than in the US, as you can see.
They drove me back around 9. I think I was one of the last to get back, so I was pretty glad I got to spend a good full day with them. I’m really glad I got to meet them, I just wish my Japanese had been better so I could have communicated more!
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Things about Japan you probably didn't know: Edition 1
I may have mentioned before that my favorite class is Scott Clark-sensei's Culture class. We spend a few hours simply asking him random questions, and him responding with stories or valuable information you wouldn't have a clue on unless you'd lived in Japan for a good while. Clark-sensei has been living on and off in Japan since sometime in the 1960s, so he knows quite a bit. I want to share some of the stories and random information he told us--some of it is just priceless...
-Red is a power color in Japan. You don't see people wearing it often, and if they are it's because it's for a sporting event or something like that. He says they wear a lot of red underwear, though. ;)
-People in Japan may avoid you, not because they don't want to talk to you, but because they can't anticipate your needs as a Westerner. One time (probably many) Clark-sensei would call and ask if they had rooms in Japanese (he's pretty fluent, after all). After they've already said yes, they ask for his name--and when he gave it to them, there was an audible pause. They asked him, you know we only use chopsticks right? And we don't have western style accomodations! Etc. It's almost funny--they want to serve you, but Japanese are expected to know what the other party wants without asking. You can imagine how hard that is. This idea may also apply if someone is afraid you will start talking to them in English--if they're not good, they may try to avoid you!
-Eating while walking around was likened to mooning people in public--however, you still see it occasionally. This is why you see people buy drinks at vending machines and down them right there!
-In business deals, switching to casual form by accident (from polite form--and that's not even the most polite) may be interpreted as an insult and can cause a deal to fall through. Out of context, it can feel like swearing.
-Sales tax started in the 90s. Right now, it's at 5%.
-Many times you will hear the following: the customer is greater than the seller. Service is number 1 in Japan.
-Why is Japanese currency pronounced 'yen' by westerners when there is no 'ye' sound in Japanese? On the contrary, 'ye' in hiragana actually DID exist at one point. Interestingly enough, 'ye' was falling out of use when the currency was named 'yen', but it still stuck. In Japan, it is simply pronounced 'en'.
-Japanese do not live longer because of what they eat--it's because their healthcare system is far superior to the US. Did you know that of all industrialized countries, the US has the highest infant mortality rate. Many times already I've heard our healthcare system described as broken or an 'un-healthcare system' by Clark-sensei. It's been pretty interesting to hear. When one of the exchange students got sick, he paid around 350 dollars for care that would have cost thousands in the US--and that was because he wasn't insured! It would have been cheaper otherwise! Clark-sensei says the healthcare system here is quite good--and the only way to fix the US healthcare system is probably to start over. I believe it was Taiwan that recently restructured their entire system from scratch--it IS possible. Here's an article to give some more veracity to this--http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89651916
-What is masculine here differs from the US. Here, it's actually normal for older 20-somethings to get drunk and start bawling--it doesn't garner the same reaction as it would in the US. Styling their hair and wearing certain types of clothes here isn't considered 'gay'--though it doesn't stray too too far--it's not like guys wear dresses or anything.
-Be careful when you use the word westernization with regards to Japan's history in the last 200 years--it has a different meaning to them. More like 'modernization' than westernization, really. And also, they modernized in 1868, not after WWII like some people say.
-Japan actually tried to surrender during WWII, however the US stubbornly wanted unconditional surrender. The Japanese only asked that the Emperor not be killed. He never even was, however, the US refused. Soon after, the atomic bombs were dropped. Coincidence? A bit doubtful...
-Many Japanese do not know their military history fully, just as is probably true in the United States. They feel victims of their government with regards to the war--and it's kind of understandable.
-Japan was actually further ahead (approximately 6-8 months) in designing an atomic bomb than the US. However, they need uranium which could not be gotten in Japan. An American sub sank a shipment sent by the Germans to Japan that secretly carried the necessary uranium, thus crippling Japan's plans. We know this because the plans have been studied by those who know the field, and they said there was no technical reason otherwise that might have prevented them from completing it first. This knowledge isn't to say that the outcome might have been the better one--you never can be sure what might have happened. It's just an interesting tidbit.
-Red is a power color in Japan. You don't see people wearing it often, and if they are it's because it's for a sporting event or something like that. He says they wear a lot of red underwear, though. ;)
-People in Japan may avoid you, not because they don't want to talk to you, but because they can't anticipate your needs as a Westerner. One time (probably many) Clark-sensei would call and ask if they had rooms in Japanese (he's pretty fluent, after all). After they've already said yes, they ask for his name--and when he gave it to them, there was an audible pause. They asked him, you know we only use chopsticks right? And we don't have western style accomodations! Etc. It's almost funny--they want to serve you, but Japanese are expected to know what the other party wants without asking. You can imagine how hard that is. This idea may also apply if someone is afraid you will start talking to them in English--if they're not good, they may try to avoid you!
-Eating while walking around was likened to mooning people in public--however, you still see it occasionally. This is why you see people buy drinks at vending machines and down them right there!
-In business deals, switching to casual form by accident (from polite form--and that's not even the most polite) may be interpreted as an insult and can cause a deal to fall through. Out of context, it can feel like swearing.
-Sales tax started in the 90s. Right now, it's at 5%.
-Many times you will hear the following: the customer is greater than the seller. Service is number 1 in Japan.
-Why is Japanese currency pronounced 'yen' by westerners when there is no 'ye' sound in Japanese? On the contrary, 'ye' in hiragana actually DID exist at one point. Interestingly enough, 'ye' was falling out of use when the currency was named 'yen', but it still stuck. In Japan, it is simply pronounced 'en'.
-Japanese do not live longer because of what they eat--it's because their healthcare system is far superior to the US. Did you know that of all industrialized countries, the US has the highest infant mortality rate. Many times already I've heard our healthcare system described as broken or an 'un-healthcare system' by Clark-sensei. It's been pretty interesting to hear. When one of the exchange students got sick, he paid around 350 dollars for care that would have cost thousands in the US--and that was because he wasn't insured! It would have been cheaper otherwise! Clark-sensei says the healthcare system here is quite good--and the only way to fix the US healthcare system is probably to start over. I believe it was Taiwan that recently restructured their entire system from scratch--it IS possible. Here's an article to give some more veracity to this--http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89651916
-What is masculine here differs from the US. Here, it's actually normal for older 20-somethings to get drunk and start bawling--it doesn't garner the same reaction as it would in the US. Styling their hair and wearing certain types of clothes here isn't considered 'gay'--though it doesn't stray too too far--it's not like guys wear dresses or anything.
-Be careful when you use the word westernization with regards to Japan's history in the last 200 years--it has a different meaning to them. More like 'modernization' than westernization, really. And also, they modernized in 1868, not after WWII like some people say.
-Japan actually tried to surrender during WWII, however the US stubbornly wanted unconditional surrender. The Japanese only asked that the Emperor not be killed. He never even was, however, the US refused. Soon after, the atomic bombs were dropped. Coincidence? A bit doubtful...
-Many Japanese do not know their military history fully, just as is probably true in the United States. They feel victims of their government with regards to the war--and it's kind of understandable.
-Japan was actually further ahead (approximately 6-8 months) in designing an atomic bomb than the US. However, they need uranium which could not be gotten in Japan. An American sub sank a shipment sent by the Germans to Japan that secretly carried the necessary uranium, thus crippling Japan's plans. We know this because the plans have been studied by those who know the field, and they said there was no technical reason otherwise that might have prevented them from completing it first. This knowledge isn't to say that the outcome might have been the better one--you never can be sure what might have happened. It's just an interesting tidbit.
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