The First Few Days (in brief)

When we arrived in Tokyo, we were all already sick of orientations. The day and a part we had spent in Los Angeles prior to our departure was enough. But, alas, we faced three more days' worth. Our first night was spent in a pretty nice hotel with everyone who arrived the same day as us (I think that's what is was... there were a ton of different countries...). We were then split into three groups according to where we'd be living and sent to three different locations for orientation.

Our (those of us placed around [relatively] Tokyo or in Hokkaido) orientation was at the National Olympic Youth Center, which was some kind of multipurpose superfacility or hostel or something. There were a ton of dorm-like rooms in different buildings, different meeting rooms, a cafeteria, classrooms.... and a variety of groups were there, from high school sports teams to businesspeople to a group of African children... It felt kind of like a university campus, but not? I don't know; none of us were really sure what the place was. I do know the people who used it were the ones who cleaned it.

At this orientation we were separated into smaller groups by country and we had two Japanese AFS returnee volunteers to each group. Those volunteers would guide us around to our different sessions of being told the same information repeatedly and then eating. We all got pretty comfortable with each other, so leaving was like a real goodbye with hugs and all that.

For the two nights we were there, we stayed in tiny dorm-like rooms, one person per room, several dorms to a hallway and common lounge. We bathed at night in the facility's sentou, which is a public bath.

Pretty much our whole group was paralyzed when we were told that we'd be in a public bath. I didn't make a big deal of it, but another girl and I kind of got used to the idea by poking fun (in an entirely light manner) at one girl who was adamant about finding a way around the whole situation. Come to the actual moment, I didn't get too worked up. I mean, obviously I didn't want to go naked in front of a room of other people, but I also knew that it couldn't be that bad if it was such a deep part of Japanese culture and they're all like, "whatever" about it.

Walking into the changing room, there was the initial shock of "butt!", but after that I calmed down and it felt all remarkably normal. The actual sentou was very dark and steamy, so that helped, too. We all washed ourselves at the shower stations and then sat in the giant bath, then walked back to our dorms slightly refreshed and feeling proud of ourselves.

Saturday morning we dispersed to go to our host families. There are five of us in the Obihiro area, so we flew together. We left from a Tokyo airport that wasn't an international airport, so everything was slightly less English-friendly. Kind of scary, but things were still fairly clear and we made it to the tiny Obihiro airport safely.

We were met by our host families before we all went into another meeting, which was given in Japanese with a white guy who lives in the area (from the US; he's the guy who will be teaching our Japanese lessons) translating for us students. Then we dispersed and went to our homes.

I'm pretty comfortable here. It's all kind of awkward, with me not knowing what to do and them not quite sure how to show me everything, but I'm sure it'll smooth out. Sakura's really quite good at English, so she tells me things. I worry, though, that it's becoming a crutch. I need to start speaking Japanese, but I still don't feel forced to. (I can't get much more forced, though... bahh....)

They seem like a quite relaxed family. It hasn't been too strange for me. It almost feels like they could be relatives, like an aunt, uncle, and cousin. A different family with different habits and things, but nothing incredibly strange yet.

My host mother cooks three full meals a day. And I mean full. Always a salad, a main dish, usually something traditional Japanese on the side, and fruit for dessert. I'm always so full. I'm going to get so fat... ahhh... 

Yesterday we went to the school to watch a basketball game (Sakura's a manager for the boys' team). I don't know if it was any sort of official game or a scrimmage. Ohtani (our school) was demolished by the other team, but the whole game was kind of sloppy. Lots of missed baskets and strange passes, and very few fouls were called. It was entirely student-run, though, from what I could gather.

After that we went shopping for a few things for me at a huge department store that was cramped, filled with signs, and nonsensical divisions between sections. Not even divisions, really, it was like a Walmart with two stories and when you walk across the aisle from appliances to home goods you're actually stepping into another store (? I think?). Like a mall without extra space or walls.

We also went to a DVD rental store. Lots of stuff.

Yesterday we went to some kind of Japanese-exclusive race where they race clydesdales pulling a plow-like contraption over what I think was gravel. I think Obihiro is known for it. Sakura's grandfather (I assume my host mother's father because we met her brother there) breeds horses for it. I didn't know whether to feel excited or horrible for the horses. It seemed excruciatingly hard to do.