YOU WANT TO SEE MY ROOM?! Well... you can!

Now… where were we? Oh yes, my homestay family. They’re absolutely wonderful. I adore them, even if I don’t know my father’s first name. They’ve clearly had a ton of other foreign students, which is actually pretty nice because I feel like they understand my position sort of well. (This has been important in the first few jet-laggy days!) They do speak some English, as in, they know a few English words, which is sort of nice now because my vocabulary is so small. I’m hoping that as long as I try not to speak it, they won’t. Right?

This brings me to the semi-unique homestay situation that I’m in. I found out about it on the drive from the hotel (in the huge car, remember?). My new mother told me about it – that they have two other foreign students staying with them, both Americans from the Air Force Academy.

Yes. I have two military “brothers.”

They were both on weekend trips when I arrived, so it was just me and my homestay parents at first. They took me on the bus route I would use to get to school, which was a relief, because I was nervous about it, and then led me around to some of the notable shrines of the area. Hence the pictures of shrines and greenery. That statue is of a samurai who basically founded Kanazawa city, as far as I can tell. There’s going to be a festival for him this weekend, and we PII students are going to dance/walk in it! We’ll see how that goes…

Anyway, the first “brother,” whose name is Tai, got home in time for dinner on Sunday night – cool. His mother is Japanese, so he’s quite adept, and it was actually sort of helpful to have him there telling me words I couldn’t possibly know. And then Monday morning the other brother, who is from Tacoma (“Seattle,” as we suburb-livers say when in Japan), and is named Daniel (go figure, right?) got home.

So this is how it’s suddenly going to be difficult to speak Japanese all the time with my homestay family – Daniel and Tai speak to each other in English. Oh no! I am trying very hard to stick with the Japanese, but it’s difficult when they ask me a question in English and I don’t know how to respond in Japanese. I’ll keep working at it though. That’s why I came here in the first place! (Plus they are leaving in a few weeks, before I do, so by the end I’ll be speaking only Japanese again.)

And now, the moment you've ALL been waiting for! MY JAPANESE ROOM!! (Please clap. I will not continue if I don't feel your excitement!)

First, here's the door...

Isn't it pretty? I can even lock my room, even though I don't have to. My family is so considerate... Also, note the Writing Fellow bag - I like to think this makes my room a home away from home. I mean, it was before. But you know. Yeah. Writing fellows are great!




This next picture is of my nice little sidetable, couch, mirror, and window. My room is extremely small. (You can tell, can't you...?) It is also, however, FULL OF STUFF! And not just because I brought a lot either. I swear. Anyway, that's where my toiletries live, that pretty little green table. Next... my bed!


Bet you thought I was going to be sleeping on the floor, DIDN'T YOU?! Well, yeah, I thought the same thing... But instead, look at this awesome lofted bed I have! Again, the home-making Writing Fellows bag at the forefront. And under my bed, I have a study space. So that's awesome. So far, I haven't used it. I've mostly done my homework in my bed - it's pretty great up there - but I will soon. Like today. Now that I have real homework... Hm...









See this nice study space?





And finally... la piece de resistance (sorry, Japanese keyboards aren't down with accents, I'm not going to be able to do that correctly...) MY CLOSET!

Yeah, isn't he awesome? Actually, it's probably a she. She is awesome though. She zips closed. And no, you may not see inside. Although you could probably imagine it pretty well, since you are all a little too familiar with my wardrobe. (Not the one in my room in Seattle - the clothes themselves. Come on, guys! Get your minds out of the gutter! My wardrobe, and my closet, are both fine, upstanding women!)

So... that's my Japanese room! Coming soon... my Japanese HOUSE!