Beautiful People, Beautiful Food

Well, loyal readers, I’m sure that all three of you have been waiting at your computer screens in breathless anticipation of my next post, so I sincerely apologize for the delay. I’ve finally made it to my apartment in Ehime-ken after traveling across Japan for the last six days. It has been an interesting trip so this post may get a little long, but first, the short version for those of you who are in a hurry:

- # of hours I’ve spent on planes, trains or boats in the last six days: ~ 31.57

- # of people I’ve accidentally clobbered while lugging my backpack and suitcase around Tokyo, Nagoya, Kyoto, and Ehime: 0!

- # of small children caught staring at the gigantic foreigner with the suitcase: 7+

- # of times I’ve almost forgotten half my luggage at a cell phone store in Nagoya: 1

- # of earthquakes: 1 small one

- # of earthquake tremors Chris mistook for me shaking the couch: 1

- # of paper shredder accidents in Japan over the last year: exact figure unknown, but according to the news today, they’ve been increasing…

- # of times I’ve been awake at 4 AM in the last six days: 6

- # of times in the last three hours I’ve felt an uncontrollable urge to dust my apartment: 13 (Mom, you would be so proud. :)

And now for the long version:

On Tuesday, I left Seattle at midnight to fly to Chicago, and after spending a delightful six hour layover at the O’Hare Airport, I jumped on a plane to Tokyo and arrived on Thursday afternoon. I spent my first two days with two friends from Stanford, Ben and Chris, who are both beautiful people and excellent hosts. :) Ben’s Tokyo apartment is about the size of a small jail cell, but quite cozy. I stayed there for a night, and then took the bullet train to Nagoya, where I spent the day eating chocolate, watching Chris pretend to be Japanese, and sorting trash into 14 different bags in order to follow the strict Japanese trash code. The next morning, I sorted my trash again and then took the train to Kyoto to visit my host family.

My host family seems to be doing quite well, besides the fact that my poor host mom is without her four front teeth. :( Apparently, three weeks ago, she started to feel sick while working on the computer, got up to run to the bathroom, and passed out face first on a strip of wood floor. She was rushed to the hospital and examined, and fortunately the doctors found nothing abnormal in the MRIs, etc. Unfortunately, after her collision with the floor, the floor fared much better than her teeth did, so her teeth had to be removed and can’t be replaced for a month or so.

My youngest host brother’s voice changed during the past year, but his manners haven’t so much. He still says things to his mother and grandmother that roughly translate to, “Woman, tea, in my cup. Now.” I don’t know if all Japanese boys turn out like that, but I hope not…

Despite the fact that it was pushing 100 degrees in Kyoto the last two days, my host sister/mother spent a bunch of time in the hot, hot kitchen cooking all sorts of tempura and Korean style barbecued beef for me. It was beautiful. Oh, also, while I’m on the subject of beautiful people and food, Tomiyama Sensei, one of my Japanese teachers, treated me to a quite delicious lunch, dessert, and lively conversation yesterday afternoon. :) Oh yes, and right before I left for Japan, my mom cooked steak and corn for my going away party. I’m a pretty lucky kid.

My host mom/sister told me that I should be sure to come back to Kyoto whenever I start feeling hungry. Doubtless that will happen next weekend after I’ve endured a week of my own poor cooking. Hopefully she’ll be ready for me again by then. :)

After Kyoto, I took a train to Osaka to catch the ferry to Ehime, and now I am finally in my apartment. (More about the ferry ride and my new digs in a later post.) Now that I’ve had a little time to sit down and think, I’ve finally realized how far away I am from all of the people who are important to me. I’ll admit I’m a tad bit freaked out, but I think these are probably just the thoughts of a sweaty, jet-lagged ex-college student. Time to take a shower and get rid of this nasty sticky feeling.