Today, Kansai Gaidai had an Open House for high schoolers interested in attending. Part of the activities included talking to foreign exchange students and, surprise, surprise, I volunteered.
Of course it was a free-reign forum for me to show pictures of my family, house, and farm, as well as practice my Japanese (though it should be said that every conversation was prefaced with a 「変な日本語を話してすみません」(or in English, “Please excuse my strange Japanese). It was the perfect ice-breaker.
The most asked question was how America differed from Japan, and my answered varied from the silent buses (in Japan) to how freakin’ small everything is here. I mean, really. When I first got here I just stared at all the cramped, small houses and was all like, “They’re so small!” Though I have to say, hands down, the best question I got was from a trio of Japanese guys: Who are cooler, Japanese guys or American guys. I just couldn’t stop laughing. Also, one girl’s dream is to “ride a yellow taxi in New York City.” Well, my dream is to be in Japan, so I can only admire how she has specified her dream down into something (relatively) easy to do.
 |
| Me at my booth |
The most asked question was how America differed from Japan, and my answered varied from the silent buses (in Japan) to how freakin’ small everything is here. I mean, really. When I first got here I just stared at all the cramped, small houses and was all like, “They’re so small!” Though I have to say, hands down, the best question I got was from a trio of Japanese guys: Who are cooler, Japanese guys or American guys. I just couldn’t stop laughing. Also, one girl’s dream is to “ride a yellow taxi in New York City.” Well, my dream is to be in Japan, so I can only admire how she has specified her dream down into something (relatively) easy to do.
The open house basically took up all of my day, but when I returned home, Okaasan and I had a talk about nothing in particular and my day. I also helped her polish the silver. Now to some (read: most) of you, this may not be anything of notice, but to me, this marks a significant timestamp: I’ve been living with Okaasan for around two weeks now, and she’s starting to treat me more like a family member than a guest. I’m still not fully “one of the house,” but I’m starting to be less of a guest (which is a relief, because I get slightly uncomfortable if I’m not doing something productive).
For dinner tonight, I had omurice, which is somewhat like a burrito if the tortilla was egg and the beans were fried rice. So actually, it’s nothing like a burrito, but it kinda is. The word “omurice” is actually a smushing of the words “omelet” and “rice” but since there’s no cheese, I feel awkward calling it an omelet (the Wisconsonian culture strikes again!).
No comments:
Post a Comment