Getting Settled

Well I've been with my host family for a week and getting settled in to the new routine of school. Last week was only class for the foreign students but there were alot of regular students around for orientation. They were basically recruiting for clubs so we got handed a bunch of different sheets for different clubs.

Class has been going well though, learning alot of stuff. It's especially helpful living with a host family because I get to practice alot more and trying to speak to people at school also helps out. So I have been trying harder lately to formulate sentences in Japanese in order to communicate. The biggest problem is that I know very little vocab and some things I want to say I can't say so I have to mix Japanese and English and then when I look the word up my brain is already on overload so its very rare that I remember it right off the bat.

My host mother, Keiko, is a stay at home mother. She basically cooks and cleans all day from what I say. She has a real great relationship with Kento, her son. Last night we were talking and I found out she was the same age as mommy but I'm 12 years older than her son that was interesting to talk about. But as I said, she is really interested in learning English so every night I basically teach her a little bit. She has a program on her computer that translates what she writes in Japanese to English but the translation is really bad so I correct it and she writes it all down in this little back and tries to practice the sentences. At the same time she helps me out with Japanese because I try to do a little more after I get done with homework. She has a book that has Japanese sentences and how they would translate into English so I use that to try to grasp the sentence structure and get some more vocab too.

Kento always wants to play as all young boys would so I go outside and play ball with him a little a few times a week. On Saturday I played 1 on 3 against him and two of his friends. It was pretty funny to see them try to get the ball off me. And they were awed by the presence of a gaikokujin (foreigner) because its so scarce. Mr Ueno works alot so he isnt really around much. He did compliment me on my chopstick game though so that was good.

Saturday night, Mrs. Ueno, Kento and I went to this tourist place. A tram ride up a mountain, the one that I took pics of and put up. From here you can look down at Sapporo. We went up at night so it was really beautiful looking down. The pics are here and thats Kento with me. And then theres my ride.

Have to run to class so Shitake.

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