my weekend - part 1

So on Saturday, I was in a homestay program. We all took the train at 10 and got picked up from the train station in Sodegaura (pretty much across the bay from Tokyo, as far as I can tell) and taken to the community center, where the host people were waiting. Only the mom from my family came to the lunch, though. There were box lunches that were really big and had a lot of different types of food in them - rice, potato croquettes (think latke, but with other vegetables mixed in too and in batter), fried chicken, fried shrimp with cocktail sauce, some Japanese pickled vegetables and a pasta salad. Somehow I ended up sitting next to the Russian girl (who doesn't really either speak english (she must know it sort of, she's in the history class which is taught in English) or else is too shy to speak it) and she thought I was from Ireland and was surprised that I was from America when my host mother and hers were looking at the list of people who were there. I was really confused because the first time she said Ireland I thought she was saying island and I said that America wasn't an island... I guess to someone who hasn't had much experience with spoken English (all the kids here can read but some of them can't speak it) the fact that I have absolutely no trace of any sort of British type accent must not have been a giveaway.

After the lunch, we were supposed to watch a bunch of Indonesian kids do a dance performance (the Sodegaura International Friendship Association was in charge of this, I guess, much like when we went to Ms. Park's town and the international association there organized stuff for us to do), but this Indonesian girl (who I know and who speaks english like an American) was givinga slide show about Indonesia and we snuck out.

Then she took me to the grocery store to buy food for dinner. She was asking me what I like and I said that I really like tempura. So we bought a lot of vegetables and shrimp. She wanted to know what I usually drink, and she said soda, juice, beer, wine? and was first surprised that I drank water. So we went by the bottled water section and then she was surprised that I drink water from the faucet. I mean, I am paying for my water, so I might as well drink what comes out of the tap and not waste more money on bottled water that just comes out of the tap in some water bottle factory. So I got some orange juice type stuff. Then we were by the alcohol section and she got her son (who is 16 and in high school) a can of fruit cooler stuff and explained to me that she wants him to have practice drinking before he goes to college so people won't make fun of him. I got a can of something that was peach flavored (and only 5% alcohol, which I couldn't even tell when I drank it.

We went to their house, which was nice. When we were walking to the car she asked me if I had an international drivers license and I said no, that I thought it would be too scary to drive on the wrong side of the road. They had a small yorkshire terrier type dog that was extremely hyper and kept running around and jumping up and down. She kept talking to it like it was a baby and carrying it around, which I thought was maybe why it is so hyper.

Eventually the dad went and got the kid, and we all bowed and said hello a lot. The dad disappeared back to the upstairs (I think so he could smoke, I told the mom that cigaretttes are expensive in America and I don't know anyone who smokes so I was not sure if it would bother me (even though I know it does) to be polite). I played othello (a board game with black and white pieces) with the kid and beat him really badly, the mom beat me and the dad came back down and he narrowly won.

For dinner we had tempura (the mom made it), pork roast, sushi and tofu. It was all really good and I ate far too much. Then we watched the tv a bit and I had a hard time not falling asleep. Eventually the mom asked me if I wanted to take a shower now, and I said yes and got to go to sleep by about 10:15. They had me sleep in their room with tatami mats on the floor on a futon. It was quite comfortable, especially since they had an electric carpet and the futon was right on top of it.

I got up around 6:30 and the mom made me a steamed bun, a hard boiled egg, shredded cabbage (I have no idea why salad is a breakfast food) and toast. Around 830 the dad and the kid got up and had breakfast. I gave the mom the present I had and she seemed very impressed when I was explaining that the metal plate, if you ran hot water on it, would keep the hot food hot and if you put it in the fridge would keep things cold a long time.

We left around 930 and went to where there used to be a castle onthe top of a mountain. It was a short mountain, but we walked to the top wherethey had rebuilt the watchtower, and climbed up the tower and I took many photos of the scenery. Then we went to a very small museum on the way back to the parking lot. The mom wanted to get me a hello kitty for my phone from the gift shop but they did not have any of the kind I have on my phone, so I ended up picking a small basket with straps and have it on my desk.

They drove me back to the train, but to a slightly closer station than the one I originally went to and the mom paid for my train ticket, which was extremely nice since the fare was 480 (the station we got picked up from was 590, I think).