3 days in...

Three days in, and things are looking a little better! The first couple days have been a little rough, my host family is really nice but they seem to be the quiet type, and since I not only have no idea what to say but also can barely speak their language, conversation has been a bit scarce. I think I’ve watched more TV than in the past couple years combined. It does not help that I can’t understand any of it, and the Japanese subtitles at the bottom of the screen always have way too much kanji.

A couple things that I have learned:
- Jet lag sucks. I thought I’d killed it with the five hour nap I took yesterday afternoon, but I took another one today…and I’m still exhausted. It’s still weird to think that I’m 14 hours ahead of the US.

- Japanese people have huge mouths. Uh, that sounds weird, but they do have some major sushi-devouring skills. Yesterday night they took me out for sushi at one of those sweet places where you pick things off this rotating belt to eat. Apparently the one we went to will be on TV next week, I wonder if we’ll watch. Anyway, they just pop whole huge chunk of sashimi after whole huge chunk of sashimi into their mouths! It’s the only way you can eat most sushi, but my mouth just isn’t big enough, and then my gag reflex is triggered and I feel ridiculous because then I look like I’m not enjoying the food. But I’m rather proud of myself—I don’t particularly care for food of the ocean-dwelling type, but I tried (and more importantly—finished) everything that was put in front of me. And it was a lot! Plate after plate of “This one’s good, try it! You’ve never had it before? 食べて！” I have no idea what all I ate, but most of it wasn’t bad. I was definitely lucky I had slept through lunch, or I never would’ve been able to finish half of it.

- Don’t say “yes” to every food that is mentioned. It’s my default reaction to everything I recognize (and a lot of what I don’t), when in reality my host mother is asking if I would like to each aforementioned food. And then she zips off to the kitchen to prepare whatever it is, and I feel obligated to eat all of it. I almost exploded at breakfast the other morning. Definitely enjoying the food, but if all Japanese people eat as much as I’ve been eating, I have no idea how they all stay so skinny.

- It’s winter, but everyone still wears miniskirts. And short shorts. My host mother almost went into shock when I told her the only skirts I own go to my knees. They wear them with tights or leggings of course, but with how often they comment on how cold it is outside (when it’s probably no colder than 40 degrees or so), it’s kind of surprising. And I definitely felt out of place leaving the subway station in jeans this morning…not that that means that I will be caving to trend.

Anyway, things are still a bit crazy right now, I’m trying to figure out the deal with the forms, alien registration cards, and subway passes. Orientation has been dead boring so far, even the parts given in English get tuned out. At home, there has been more than a lifetime’s worth of awkward silences. I try and cover them up by obsessively petting their adorable, hyperactive, fluffy dog, but they were so bad the other day I was prompted to take that 5 hour nap. Which I did need, but still. I don’t know if it’s because my Japanese is so terrible it offends them, or if they’re just quiet people or if it is because this is the first time they’ve ever been a host family, but I do a lot of drowning in silence. I really wish I was better at making conversation! Granted, this afternoon was a lot better, I talked to my host mother a lot on the way back from school and during dinner.

Sorry for the obnoxious length of this, hopefully it wasn’t too boring but there’s just a lot going on right now! It’ll be shorter in the future for sure. Umm and obviously feel free to comment, it can get a little lonely over here!