This week was pretty usual in terms of classes. A lot of homework. I started watching Japanese drama to practice my listening--or just using that as an excuse to watch Japanese drama. I've been watching this drama called "Beautiful Life." It's a wonderful drama recommended by Afua (aka sexy lady). However, I could only understand 45% of the Japanese in the drama. It's kinda sad that my Japanese is still terrible.
This weekend was my home stay weekend with my host family. I have to say, I fell in love with my host family. They were so nice and easy-going. And I really had a chance to gain an insight on the workings of a modern Japanese family.
First night, I had the best meal since my coming to Japan: Yakuniku, which means "grilled meat." It's similar to Korean BBQ: Galbi. Basically, you cook sauteed meat on a griddle, add some kimchi, then wrap it lettuce. It was so good. Along with yakuniku, I had some edamame and miso soup, and a can of Yebisu beer. Because I'd been eating bento boxes from convenient stores for 2 weeks, dinner was heaven. Heaven. I felt like I was at home, except I was in Japan. My host dad worked for Lehman Brothers so he wasn't there for dinner. God I don't want to be an Ibanker. During dinner, I had a nice, long and simple conversation with my host mom and grandma in Japanese. It further made me realized how terrible and retarded sounding my Japanese was. It would take me 30 seconds to think of what I need to say, another 30 seconds to conjugate the verb in my head, and after I would finally say it, it would still come out wrong.
My Japanese was hopeless when talking my host family. My host mother tried to talk to me like a 4 year old, and even then, every time after she spoke, I stared at her, dumbfounded, until she asked, "Wakatta?" "Did you understand?" I would then shake my head and apologize for my stupidity. They were very, very tolerant indeed. They not only didn't make fun of me, but rather often complimented me on my desperate attempts at speaking possibly the worst Japanese they've ever heard in their lives. "Suuuugooooiii" was what they said. I don't think there is an English word for it, but it means something along the lines of "Wow so good!" Except not. My Japanese was anything but sugoi. Nonetheless, I loved how nice they were to me.
For lunch the next day, my host mom taught me how to cook Takoyaki, which literally meant "baked octopus." It's batter, with octopus, ginger, and tempura scraps pan-baked then topped with okonomiyagi sauce, mayo, green laver, and katuobusi. It was also delicious, and I had a lot of fun making the takoyaki. And because I made it, it simply tasted better. But no really, it was really good. The only down side was that it was more like a snack rather than lunch, so I got pretty hungry in 2 hours.
Today, we went to Asakusa, a really famous touristy spot in Tokyo. The place was really cool, with a lot of foreigners, delicious snacks, and expensive souvenirs. However, because it was raining all day today, the place wasn't as enjoyable. I nevertheless got a really good fortune that claimed that all my wishes would come true. Let's hope so.My host mom reminded me of my own mom, which kinda made me homesick. She was so kind and nice to her son. Such a lucky boy. It's weird because after staying with such a great family, I couldn't help but think what it would be like to have my own family. But I'm only 20, so no.
This weekend has definitely been the most rewarding weekends I've had in Japan. However, for the past two weekends, all I did was drink and go out, so not much of a competition there. By the way, the legal drinking age in Japan is 20, in case if you were wondering why a good citizen like me would ever disobey the law. Ha. Tomorrow is monday, and we don't have class....time to catch up on homework.
Until next time!
Hans Liang
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