Homestay!

Saturday:
Tonight was the first night of the homestay. K. and I (who get along well) found out that we had the parents (her) of the family I was staying with, and so they planned to do a lot of stuff together, which was ideal. The couple I was assigned to was about my age, and recently married. He was Japanese, and she was from Scotland and had come here through JET. He had just retuned from a contract in a neighboring prefecture, and one of her friends was getting ready to return to Australia, so it seems like the timing was rather poor at best. K.’s family didn’t speak much English, so it was great that they were able to work together. We had tea (severed by the grandmother) and an amazing lunch, and had Claire to interpret for us. It was pretty wonderful, albeit a bit difficult at first. We all are so nervous!

Afterwards, C and her husband took us up to see a volcano in the area near Mt. Bandi. The drive was incredibly beautiful, but I felt a bit like we were imposing, as people were set to arrive at C and J’s for a cook-out. We walked up these huge step-like trails to the top, and had some really lovely views. On the way back, we drove though the city where C taught while she was in JET, and met a few of their friends when we stopped for a beer run to get ready for the party.

When we got back to the house, we all kind of crashed in the tatami room floor for a while (car sickness set in for K on the way up and C on the way down) and we had a chance to talk with the mother and grandmother, which was nice. We heard the story of how the grandmother had an arranged marriage, and how the mother was pretty close to that herself, and how so many people around them had met and married in a very short period of time (I rubbed the mother’s shoulder for luck ☺ ) which seems to be a rather common sentiment for many of the people I have met within the recent past.

We went to the cookout, which was a great chance for me to talk to a rather large group of people who had taught overseas through JET, which kind of solidified my plans for next year even further. It was fascinating to hear people who have had such powerful experiences teaching, and to hear the polyglot of English and Japanese was pretty fascinating. Lots of pretty amazing perspectives, and I feel like I have a lot of ideas swirling around.

We took a taxi back to the house, (both K and I are staying with her host family) and tomorrow we will be visiting a traditional village with the mother and grandmother – neither of whom have much English at all - and may stop by a craft/yarn store. It will be a day of gestures and pointing and guesses, but the whole family is so incredibly kind and well intentioned that I’m sure it will be fine. They really have been so wonderfully gracious. I don’t think I could have asked for more.

K and I were talking about how this is kind of an ideal situation – tonight we both had the chance to talk with a group of people who have lived and taught in various places in Japan, and tomorrow we will get a chance to see a more traditional side. Best of both of our experiences, I think. I also feel like we will be less likely to put people out with this set-up. This is a far better experience than I had worried about and think that this is such a great part of the trip. I think tomorrow will be tough, but will be a good experience and will be more than a bit humbling on many different levels.