March 23

I woke up an hour late today, and when I looked at my watch, I didn’t believe it. I rushed downstairs where okaasan didn’t even seem phased. I told her I had overslept, but after confirming that I was alright because class would start an hour later than usual, it was business as usual. I did get a sending off from both of my host parents though (otousan is usually doing something else when I leave) which was rather nice.

It was really windy today and at one point, it was so much so that it was hard to walk. Despite this, I made it to Kakuozan (half an hour early) fine. Today, my Japanese class would be interviewing shop clerks in groups of threes. I memorized the wrong part of the interview, but it was alright in the end. There was a TV camera crew that followed the class for a while, since they wanted to report on us for some reason.

We started our day by visiting the Buddhist shrine there which housed artifacts from Taiwan including a taiko and wooden Buddha. We were able to see the Buddhist equivalent of mass, which seemed to consist of chanting and circular walking paths. Afterward, we walked back to the shops (past many curry restaurants and advertisements involving elephants) for the interviews. But, in my group’s case, we walked around for about an hour since our interviewee didn’t usually open his old book shop until 12:00, but was opening a half-hour early for us. When we did get to the shop though, it was amazing. The interview was a bit rocky, but the owner was very quiet and patient, so we didn’t feel nervous.

The shop is called Cesta, which comes from a Czech word and the owner goes on international trips twice per year to stock his store. His customers also sell books to him. But, in addition to books (and coffee to drink while you read his books) he has many other interesting things for sale. Since he has artistic friends, he sells their CD’s and decorates his shop with original illustrations and paper mobiles (that may or may not be for sale). He also sells market-style goods from other countries like Russian pins, Czech caution signs, postcards, old-style prints, records, and other really interesting things you wouldn’t find in franchised stores. Unlike an American used item store though, everything is very clean, and has a kind of artsy atmosphere. I really want to go back just to shop a bit.

After our exciting outing, it was back to campus for calligraphy. It was so-so as usual and the rest of the day was pretty normal. Okaasan made curry from the leftover food from last night. I think curry is the Asian comfort food, or at least it has become for me. I think I could get my money’s worth of curry tabehoudai if I could find it. I brought up Kakuozan at dinner, and it made a bit of conversation.

After dinner, okaasan and otousan started talking about their plans while I am here (probably to figure out when we can go on a trip together). Otousan will have to go to the hospital somewhere around the end of this month or the beginning of the next for his eyes. We started talking about when I would go back to the US and I got a chance to talk quite a bit with otousan about science, since I told him I had to go back to the US immediately after exams to take a summer course for my major. I think it’s one of the most substantial conversations we’ve had. Unfortunately, okaasan couldn’t get in on the conversation because we started talking about science a bit after she had left to answer the front door, and by the time she came back, we were finished (and otousan left the room).