February 8

What a whirlwind it was today! I woke up in the middle of the night to what I concluded was the siren of fire trucks. When I finally let myself sleep, I woke up to my alarm, but decided I would just let myself go until 10:30 when I really woke up. I started calling all of the people going to Tokyo with me, since I had found out I had to buy reserve tickets for the Ghibli (ギブリ in Japanese) museum from Lawson’s. Honestly; the website explained that Lawson’s is the only place to buy the tickets and that walk-ups can’t buy tickets. What?! Anyway, I got three out of four yeses and a no reply.

I took so long calling my friends and getting clean in the morning that I came to the kitchen to have lunch (and in my case, breakfast too) with お母さん and お父さん. お母さん bought 肉まん, and I felt like the most spoiled 留学生 in Japan. She also made the Japanese equivalent of (tomato or carrot-based) vegetable soup; it’s the same as its American equivalent, but with tofu too! Since I hadn’t eaten breakfast, she made me (more like let me) eat toast, scrambled eggs, half an apple, and strawberries. It was all delicious, but as a result, for the first time in Japan, I felt 本当にいっぱい, which isn’t as satisfying as it seems.

お母さん was still worrying over my shoes and asked what I would do about them being a bit too big and hurting my right foot. I told her I would go look for inserts, but when my reply to her question regarding if the friends I would call to find out where inserts were sold was that they were American, she offered to go with me, and we went insert-shopping. First, we went to foot ?something?, which is the Japanese version of Rack Room. They had cheap shoes (and inserts) but I didn’t like any of the shoes (and the inserts seemed thin) so we went on to look in a mall.

It was a fun outing in itself, since there were things to see on the drive. We went by the sky tower, 動物園, and a botanical garden. I also saw my first lake in forever. I’ve forgotten how pretty water is. We finally did get to the mall, where I saw an R-8 (icky, overpriced German engineering), but for good reason. This was a high-end mall. As demonstration, I actually picked up a Louis Vittundi cashmere scarf. Yup, this place was expensive. Shirts marked from 10000円 to 5000円 are considered sale items.

It was here that お母さん brought me to buy my inserts. Of course, I paid much too much for them (about a third of what I paid for my shoes, which weren’t that expensive, so don’t freak out Mom), but I felt a bit bad for お母さん going out of her way to help me, so I pocketed the difference. I really hope I can make some money this summer to make myself feel better about it though. D: It was funny though, because they had to bring out the biggest sizes of inserts for my (slightly smaller than that of the average lady in America) shoes. I will hand it to the expensive malls though, letting you try out even the inserts before you buy them is pretty nice (and a good marketing ploy).

After that expenditure, お母さん gave me a meeting time, and she departed for the grocery (on the lowest floor of the department store, of course) and I was free to roam. I saw hina matsuri dolls that were about the price of my plane tickets to and from Japan, specialty chocolates, boring (but expensive) clothes, and the normal items of a seven-story Japanese department store. I must also hand it to the Japanese for their awesome uniforms. The attendant at the desk by the door of the store was wearing a black hat with a giant pink ribbon (with a bow in the front), a black blazer with tiny white polka-dots and pink ribbon along the collar, a shirt I can’t remember, a black skirt with some polka-dot details, and black pumps. I wonder what she gets paid to literally sit and look pretty.

After the mall, I told お母さん that I wanted to go to a Lawson’s, so we looked everywhere for one, but we only found 7-11’s and family marts, so お母さん drove me all the way to Nanzan to visit one of the (maybe seven) stores near campus. Inside, I forgot a single button on the ticket-buying machine (you can do everything at a convenience store), so I had to have the attendant help me. お母さん was surprised when I said I (actually) wanted to buy five tickets. All was well though, and we headed home, with a job well-done. On the way to the house, お母さん slowed down pretty quickly for a sharp turn, and I could only think of how much fun my friend (you know who you are) and his Miata would have with it. Speaking of which, I saw about four, and about equally as many rx-8’s, a porsche, and a BMW. Japan has money... but not always taste. d: We did pass by a Volkswagen mechanic’s shop, and every car in the place was pre-new bug and it was pretty cool to see the other cars (besides the bug and the bus) that Volkswagen made.

Once we got home, I decided to put my inserts in my shoes. お母さん (and the lady at the store earlier) told me that I could make them smaller by cutting them (just like the US) but to my surprise, I didn’t have to. It’s weird being at the upper limit of sizes for a change.

After this, I set to work cleaning my room. お母さん finally told me I could use the vacuum (which I was going to ask about today, since I wanted to clean before I left for Tokyo) and that one of the past host students wouldn’t clean and didn’t even change their sheets the whole time they were there. D: I assured her I had planned to clean and proved it by having to ask her how to empty the canister before I had even finished my room. Unfortunately (and not completely unexpectedly) お母さん decided to empty it ... in my room (where the vacuum was when I asked for her help). There was a terrible cloud of dust (not to mention that which fell on お母さん). I hope I don’t get sick. D: Either way, I felt great to have gotten rid of a lot of the dust I had been worrying about for the last month. Now I can put things on the speakers (which are about half the size of the old ones I remember from my childhood and make great tables for papers and books). While I was cleaning though, I couldn’t help thinking that if my parents or friends saw the scene (while cleaning) they would tell me I was Japanese. I had the whole Asian housekeeping thing going (minus the mask) with my slippers and small-body vacuum.

I worked all the way until dinner, when お母さん made some kind of soup-type dish (the first time I’ve had the same thing twice for dinner). It was delicious of course. The soup consisted of tofu, cabbage, chicken meatballs (much more delicious than it sounds), shiitake mushrooms, leaks, and udon. お父さん introduced me to “green pepper,” which consists of orange (or so they say) and wasabi. As usual, since they didn’t think I would like it, お父さん said “just try it.” I did and it’s great! お母さん kept trying to feed me, and I actually caved and had rice with all of this as well as an extra helping of the soup. I had rum raisin ice cream for dessert (since お父さん drinks sake on the weekends, he didn’t eat dessert) which I decided I didn’t like so much because it tastes like cream cheese.

After dinner, I did the dishes (as usual now, yes!) and お母さん asked me about lunch for Monday (which she insisted upon making for me). She’s giving me a bagel sandwich, melon pan, and a muffin. She also lent me a tote bag (which is used by about 90% of Japanese people for all shopping) because it is very べんり. On top of this, お父さん is going to drive me to Akaike station for my departure. What?! These are some of the nicest people I have met.

I think I’ve gotten on お母さんの good side because I am set on scrubbing her pots and pans when I clean them. I was going about it with a plastic sponge, and since it was taking so long, お母さん came in to find me scrubbing. She showed me the (hiding) steel wool and was surprised I was going that far. She told me she doesn’t use it because she doesn’t like doing it, but I love making the dishes shine, so I think I’ve formed a bond with お母さん.

I think I will be remembered as the (timid) cleanliness-bent 留学生, which I can live with.