First Week

Hello kids.
Sorry, I would have written sooner but I wasn't able to use my computer until last night when I bought a converter in Akibahara. So lets pretend I can think of a good place to begin...
えと、えと、えと。。。。

So I arrived last Sunday, which would of been Saturday night for most of you, and met Arata and her daughter Kanade at the airport. After I exchanged some money we were on our way. One thing that surprised me was that it's not really cold here like I expected it be. Everything is still really green as opposed to back home which is on the dying end of the year.

After about an hour or so of traveling we arrive at the house where I get introduced to everybody else. Miyoko, the grandmother, Toshio, the father, and Uta, their youngest daughter. The house has two floors and Arata explained to me that this was a second generation Japanese house. Which apparently means the the grandparents get the entire basement to themselves and everybody else has to share the upstairs.



This is pretty much it. There aren't really any chairs. In the first picture, what you see is a raised level with a table in the middle. What that is is the dining room, I guess you could say. Arata has me set the table every night, where I learned to proper way of setting table here. Since there are no chairs we all sit crossed legged on top of those pads. Behind that is the kitchen and just to the left of the kitchen is the parents room.

If you were to walk to the dining table and turn around you would see what was in the second picture. I suppose this would be the living room. As you can see there is a nice television and just to the left of that is the kids' room.


This is the toilet. You might think its silly to take a picture of this cause it looks pretty much the same as back home, but let me tell you about this state of the art piece of equipment. Just to side of the toilet there are buttons.


These buttons give you the option, in case you don't want to wipe, to spray yourself with water. I'm not 100% sure what the dial is for, to be honest I'm afraid to touch it. There might be a self destruct button and I don't want to ruin it. Just behind the toilet is a small sink. The water automatically starts running once you flush the toilet so you can wash your hands. It even comes equipped with a pressure sensitive seat so that when you sit down the fan come on.


This is my room. Just enough room for a bed and a nightstand it would seem. It works pretty good for what I need it for. I try not to stay in it for too long cause it's not the most exciting place. I mostly use it for sleeping/changing/writing emails and such. Lately I've sit in the living room after dinner and watched some of the Japanese TV shows with the family. I don't really understand them and the way they're set up they don't have much of a comparison as the programs back home.

That's pretty much the home. Soon I'll will write a blog about daily commute and what I like to call, 'The Incident at Shinmatsudo'. But that will be another time cause I don't feel like writing anymore.

-Blake