Orientation!

The next day was orientation as well where we covered cell phones (an unnecessarily confusing topic when coming to Japan) and got to go in our same groups to tour the city, Kobe. First, we went to a Shinto Shrine! We washed our hands before entering (to cleanse yourself) and then bought a fortune. Mine said very good! All of ours were positive so we didn’t have to tie them. When you get a bad fortune, Japanese people tie them around horizontal posts in the hope that they’ll get a better one next time.  So we kept ours! Then we went up to the temple and prayed. It’s a ritual so you: put in an offering, ring the bell to catch the attention of the gods, bow once, clap twice, pray, and then bow once more to show that you’re done.  Very fun! Then after that, we ate at a really nice restaurant that served fresh fish (and when I say fresh, I mean raw, fresh off the boat fish) and miso, rice (of course), and some yakitori. Yum!

Then we climbed up really high to see a great view of the city. I also noticed a lot more Kansai ben as we were going and talking to our guides. (Kansai Dialect – like most countries, Japan has many dialects that are slightly different from standard Japanese that they would speak in say, Tokyo) So a lot of things tend to run together more when you’re speaking in an accent. So like, some verb endings are different (wakarahen instead of wakaranai, or “I don’t understand/know” or “kore ya/ye” instead of “kore wa”) or random words like chao instead of ie or “no,” etc.

The next day, it was finally time to meet our host families! We all got dressed up in great anticipation and we were presented like we were at a graduation. We all got lined up in alphabetical order and were hidden behind a curtain as our names were called one by one to meet our families and then we’d go into the dining room to chat and sit while we waited for the prominent guests to show up so they could deliver long, drawn out speeches… One guy had like a 3 minute speech but was giving it to us in English so it really took about 20-25 minutes. Meanwhile, the food was sitting out for us on long tables the whole time and we were getting hungrier by each passing “tenk yu, bery muchu.”

But finally it was over and we could go and get bits to eat at a time . Then near the end they decided it’d be fun to create another embarrassing event that involved us all going up to the mic on the stage and introducing ourselves to the whole room in Japanese. Of course that’s nothing compared to the speeches two of our members had to give welcoming the students and families. They both did amazing! (よくできた,二人とも！)

Afterwards, it was finally time to go home with our new families! We hauled our luggage into the car and drove off into the confusing, cramped, and winding roads of Japan. Our program doesn't let us drive or bike while we're here, which sounds a bit ridiculous. But after being in a car here, I can totally understand why. There are bikes going every which way and the roads are so small they don't look like they could possibly be two ways but they still do! Craziness!

When we got to our part of town, my mom actually had to go to work so I went to a friend's house to wait. We played card games with her host siblings which was so fun! Turns out, a lot of our games are the same. For example "Old Maid" is called "babanuki" which is literally like "pull out the old maid." Awesome, right? =) 

I'll post another one about my host family house and first days of school next time!

Word of the Day: 自己紹介　「じこしょうかい」　"Jikosyoukai," or self introduction. "Syoukai suru" is to introduce someone else. But sometimes you are asked to introduce yourself, say if you're in front of a class, or meeting someone completely new, etc. 

それではまた次回！