Lots to say

I'll start from the more coherent parts of this post--

This weekend the Japan Study crew was able to enjoy a two days in the beautiful mountains of Karuizawa, a rural area about three hours outside of Tokyo. The weather was so beautiful- much like that of Minnesota fall, very crisp and cool, but the leaves had really only slightly begun changing. It was so great to be in fresh air and to have lots of time to run around outside and play.   We arrived, immediately had a few hours of free time to play basketball, tennis, and to explore the area. I of course put my basketball skillz to the test- haven't done that in a while! Then some of us decided to take advantage of the onsen the hotel provided. An onsen is a public bath which, when I first heard of it, sounded kind of disgusting as everyone is sitting in the same water, but it was so so so so wonderful! The water is so hot, and everyone washes before getting in the water so the water stays clean. Afterwards we had supper, then a meeting reflecting on our time in Japan thus far, and then afterwards were able to spend time together and have fun.

The next day was similar- free time, lunch, meeting about our cultural practicum in February, and then headed home. Here starts the second part of my post.

My host mom and dad had been talking about perhaps meeting up with my host dad's parents sometime this week. The date was undecided before I left for Karuizawa, so I didn't think much of it. I texted my host mom as we left the hotel letting her know I would be home for dinner. I didn't hear back from her until about four hours later when I was already back in Tokyo and on the subway, halfway home. She told me to let her know when we got to Tokyo, so, to keep things "simple", I decided instead of explaining where I was I would tell her I had just arrived. After that she told me to let her know when I reached Kichijoji, a town about six stops before mine on my subway line.  By the time I received this text I was already walking home so, thinking that we were meeting with my "host grandparents" in Kichijoji I turned around and hopped back on the subway. I received another message from my host mom saying to call her when I got off the train,  that they would be in the car so we could go to dinner together. So I did and I asked which exit to meet them at. At this my host mom got very confused- she said it didn't matter, which in return puzzled me as in Kichijoji there are multiple exits and it does matter which you leave through. Finally it came out that she was waiting in the car at Koganei, my home town, not Kichijoji! There were many exasperated sighs on both ends of the telephone- I felt horrible! I tried to hurry back to Koganei but in my flustered state took the wrong train and delayed my progress even more (By this time they had long been at dinner). It was a disastrous evening and I felt really bad about it. I had to walk home in the rain with no umbrella, which in itself kind of sad. I got home and decided I should grab dinner, so I started out for the convenience store nearby to pick something up.  As I was walking, I saw a white car that resembled my host family's car drive down the street. It was my host mom and my host dad's grandparents! I whipped around and ran after the car, reaching home a few moments after they did, and was able to meet Kenichi-san's parents!  They were so so nice about Machico-san and my communication issues and even brought me a sushi dinner! I was very happy I was able to meet them and the evening turned from that of disaster to one of good memories.  But a stressful hour or so to be sure--

The last thing I wanted to write about really isn't relevant to what I've been saying, but I'll put it here anyway. The other night I was sitting in the living room on my computer when my host dad came home from work. It was maybe 9:45 or so, a pretty typical return time for him, and I was actually thinking about getting up and heading to my room to study and then go to bed. He was really tired though, so  I stuck around to chat a bit. He started asking me about how I like my life in Japan and if I was having trouble with anything. Then he asked me about what I thought about Japanese life in general, specifically the life of the "salary-man", or the average working man.  I told him it seemed hard- lots of long days away from your family. I was surprised he was asking me these things as we've talked about them before, but I realized that he was very torn up about his role as a Japanese man, as the primary bread-winner. He is really sad about having to be away from his son so often, and it's hard for him sometimes to accept that reality. I forget that my host parent's child is only two years old, and thus life in the last few years has changed for them really drastically and they are still probably getting used to it. I could really feel my host dad's sadness and frustration at missing out on a part of his child's life.