March 2

It was a weird (and long) day today. My host mother slept in, it was perfectly fine of course, but when she did come to the kitchen, she apologized many times. She was very worried that I had become late, but the truth was, I left at about the same time I usually do.

On the way to the train, I met up with Keily and decided to vent my anxiety (over class and the ningyou) to her, but I got a different response than I wanted, and I didn’t feel any less bad. I was kind of angry/anxious all the way to school, so I withdrew and walked fast (before everyone else) to school to study. In class, the quiz went pretty well (considering I didn’t study as much as I would have liked to) and we had more time before the speech than I expected. We did listening practice (which I had done in preparation for the mid-term) so I studied my speech until it was time to present. I did alright (considering) but I know I could have done great if I had checked my schedule earlier and practiced ahead of time.

After Japanese, I went to Valor’s (where I had to break a large bill on a purchase under 300en) and to the computer rooms to print ten copies of my history report. I tried to use the free copier in the kopan, but while the store in which the copier is located is open, the copier is “closed” for spring break (which the Japanese students currently have).

When history class came around, it was long and fairly boring. We sat through a lecture by the professor (very general and hard to follow, especially with his ill drawings of Japan) for about an hour and then had a break. After the break, were presentations. I went over the five minute time-frame by a few minutes, I think. D: As I was giving my presentation, I was thinking about how boring the Kamakura period looks as a result, but I didn’t have to worry too much while I spoke, because everyone (including the professor) was looking at the notes I gave them as I spoke. Luckily, when I did get a question, I was able to answer it thoroughly, so despite my presentation appearing as a chronology of battles (which became monotonous in my mind), I proved myself knowledgeable (at least in answering the question) on the subject.

The trip home was a bit depressing. Though it was light out when I embarked, it was very dark when I stepped off the train. At home, I worked until I realized it was 7:00. I thought I had set my alarm for 6:30 (when I usually help okaasan with dinner), but having come home so late, I set the alarm after the alarm time, so it wouldn’t ring until the next day.

I rushed to the kitchen where okaasan looked a bit confused. She asked me if I wanted to eat the sushi I had brought home from Saturday with dinner, but not knowing if I should (so she wouldn’t have to make so much rice) or should not (to stick with convention and eat what everyone else was having) I told her either was fine, until we came to the decision of saving it for the next day’s lunch.

Okaasan made fried sweet potato and fish for dinner. We had rice (of course), miso soup, and salad with ginger dressing as well. I talked with otousan a bit about the night before (mainly ensuring that I was not bored and enjoyed the evening). I brought up my two presentations that day, but they didn’t take the conversation far.

After dinner, okaasan talked about otousan and his hobby of cooking because she would be leaving for a few days and he would be cooking for us. She seems to find it kind of comical when she brings up the idea of otousan cooking. She brought a grocery bag to the table and showed otousan the four-ish packets of curry that she had brought for him to make when she was away. I think it will be an interesting time, despite okaasan’s absence.

After dinner, I had a lot of homework, but I had decided that I would tell okaasan the truth about my thoughts and the ningyou before it became too late. I had a lot of homework too though, so I was worried I would run out of time. So, after dinner, I did nothing but homework until I had finished it (at 10:00), took a shower before it was too late, and then went to the living room to talk to okaasan. I was nervous to bring up the doll immediately, so I watched TV with okaasan for a while first.

First, we watched a hospital mystery-drama. I found it hard to understand because it seemed like a nurse killed a patient by switching syringes. She seemed to be waiting to be put on trial, but then she was relieved by something her colleagues said and she ended up shaking an isha’s hand, as if she was given a new job or got to keep her old one. In the end, she plays softball (on a team) with some guy and she strikes him out, but on the last strike, the guy lets go of his bat and it goes flying and knocks out some of the field lights. Japanese TV is weird...

Next, we watched some short animations. In the first one, a tako is caught by a fisherman, but before his family can eat it, it gets loose and they see it crawl across their house and eat some rice out of a bowl with chopsticks. The tako soon becomes a friend of the family; it feeds the baby, dances when it gets drunk, helps the fisher find fish, and lets them play catch with it (as the ball). The fisher covers the tako in fur (or something like it) so that when people touch it, they like the tako and aren’t grossed out by its skin. When the old man dies, the tako returns to the ocean.

In the second animation, it is all black-and-white. There seems to be a spaceship that goes into space, and the astronaut in it changes pattern (it’s black and white, so there is not color to change) as if something is spreading through his body. He seems to be abducted by really tall frog-headed lab-coat wearing beings, one of which has a propeller that spins on his head. The frogs speak in really electric, high-pitched voices and the astronaut speaks really fast, almost angry. There are all sorts of flashes to different images like the rocket engines, a map of space, and the pattern-changing. It’s really weird, and in the end, the guy pushes a button that opens the mouth of something that looks like a snail with teeth. It was really creepy.

After this, we watched a show in Japanese and English where Moe (some Japanese model) goes to work for a Foreigners’ magazine in Tokyo and does interviews to write a column. It turns out to be a bit of a bad reflection on her character. She begins by interviewing a Canadian youtube girl, then Will Smith (who is in Tokyo for some reason), an English band, a Louis Vittundi employee, foreign engineering students, and finally a guy from Hawaii who used to work in fashion but now works in a high-up position for Godiva.

The thing that reflects badly on Moe is that she has a very emotional and serious interview with the college students (she cries and talks about her respect for them), and in the end, chooses to write her article on the man from Godiva. The Godiva employee does share some very legitimate and well-considered approaches to life in general that can be beneficial to all sorts of people, but after hearing about the students who scramble each month with grocer’s jobs and long commutes while trying to write theses and study at one of Tokyo’s (and probably one of the world’s) most challenging universities, it seems quite shallow to focus on someone living so high as the Godiva employee. However, I recognize that the article she was writing was not necessarily intended to tell the college students’ story, and probably, the man from Godiva was the best demographic from which to write the article. Mmkay, off of that soapbox...

It soon became late and okaasan was about to take her shower after this, so I thought it would be too late if I didn’t bring up my concern then. I did so, and I think it went alright. Okaasan told me not to be worried, because they had wanted to give it to me. She said that next week she would retrieve it.