March 31

Yup, homesickness is really setting in. What’s up with that?!

On the way to class, I rode the baseball train. In addition to the usual advertisements (which have extended from hanging and pasted posters in the trains to covers on the hanging handles and escalator handles), was the train itself, covered on the outside with blue vinyl and pictures of one of the baseball team’s members. Inside the train, the floor has big home plates and third bases (already well-scuffed by people’s feet) and the pasted advertisements have been replaced by individual pictures of players and their numbers. It was actually pretty cool, but I wasn’t able to ride it home, so I hope I will see it again.

Otousan is still at the hospital (for surgery, I think, since the visit is scheduled, not as a result of misfortune) so okaasan and I ate alone again. She made delicious dinner (as always) of salmon, avocado and tomato salad, what could be nabe without the soup, and fish cake (for lack of better word, because I forgot the Japanese for it). She asked about the kabuki I will be going to tomorrow, (to try to figure out dinner arrangements) and after hearing that it was from noon to the evening, she asked to see my ticket. Not yet possessing it, I brought out the shirase (information sheet I received from CJS) and by some crazy chance, okaasan is also going to the same play. She said we probably wouldn’t meet due to seating (and that even Japanese people have a hard time understanding kabuki), and that it was good that CJS had provided me with a background for the story.

Immediately after dinner, okaasan left for the hospital to give otousan a book he had asked for, and I was left alone to watch TV (and do the dishes). I watched an interesting show about cell phone signals which went into really basic physics and had an unrelated anime segment called Mary and Gary (which I was surprised at, because Gary usually translates badly in Japanese). I liked the anime because I could understand it (and Mary had cool clothes). They played Justice’s Stress for part of the show too, so it’s a hit with me. Afterward, there was a short segment about a mother of three who wears kimono every day. She came up with about five reasons to do so.

I was enjoying the shows so much that I didn’t do the dishes until okaasan got back.