Is this what it feels like at an orphanage?
About 10 students waited in the lobby, suitcases and bags piled beside them chatting with each other and looking around with eager faces. It was almost time. The cars would start arriving with the parents (at that time still just faceless names) who were going to “adopt” them. She had been looking forward to this next step in the adventure, she had volunteered for it. But at that moment, all she felt was her old friend anxiety giving her a hug so tight she was having trouble breathing. She wasn’t having second thoughts, but she couldn’t help but feel like a puppy staring out the shop window wide-eyed praying over and over “Please pick me. Please like me. Please don’t let me make a mistake.” As the parents started showing up, Kitamura-san (the home-stay coordinator at JCMU) beckoned to this or that person to come forward and meet their new Okaasan who was taking them home.
(Yup; this must be like adoption day at the orphanage…)
And then it was hers and Katie’s turn. She was thanking God over and over that they had decided to try to get a home-stay together and that it was going to be Mabuchi-san—the same Okaasan that their friend Kailey had when she was at JCMU last summer. Mabuchi-san is a very sweet women and speaks very good English, so they at least hoped there wouldn’t be too many misunderstandings (heh, more on that later, no doubt…).
And then came one of the most awkwardly tension-filled-twenty-minute-car-ride of her life. She isn’t normally that talkative in a car, because she usually stares out the window at everything passing by or gets lulled into a dozing stupor. But then add to that tendency not to speak the fact that this family is opening themselves up to them specifically so that they will become better at speaking; and the fact that this was the first time they had met. The pressure was on. Fortunately, Mabuchi-san didn’t seem too troubled by it and would conversationally break the silence to point out a landmark or to ask them questions they could easily answer.
They arrived at the house and stumbled and lurched their heavy bags up the stairs to the giant room the two students would be sharing. (It’s about the size of the entire apartment at JCMU, only without the walls that separated the two bedrooms from living-room/dining area/kitchen...and the bathroom…and the entry way) Mabuchi-san herself said that their house was about three times the size of a normal Japanese house—and oh, is it really. Our Fair Traveler soon began to feel as if she were staying with a distinguished dignitary and that every thing in their house (which is by no means sparsely furnished or décored) was of too great a value for her already stumbling feet to venture near. After showing the two awed students room after room (including multiple gardens, guest areas, an artist workshop, art gallery, and both a Shinto and Buddhist shrine), Mabuchi-san then casually remarked upon how their whole family had done great things for the city of Nagahama and had even been recognized by the Emperor, along with receiving numerous other awards and such. And that they were just a “normal Japanese family” *facepalm*
They moved back into the dining area (the main living space of the house, it seemed) where Mabuchi-san told the two students that they could call them Okaasan and Otoosan (other-wise it would get confusing with Mabuchi-san and Mabuchi-san…). Okaasan began gesturing to the table where under the glass top were pictures of her two sons and their families. With the pride of a mother, she explained what each of them and their wives did (one of which is away in Europe on business and the other of which is an architect who is designing the aquarium at the bottom of the new Tokyo Tower. You know, no big deal…) and that tomorrow the four of them were going to go together to visit the one that was just getting back from Europe (the names are evading me at the moment…) and that their three kids (Jr. High, 5th, and 1st grade) would be excited to meet the foreign students.
In order to be gone all day on Sunday, the two girls wouldn’t be able to head back to JCMU to clean as they had expected. And so Okaasan and Otoosan took them back to clean their room (yes, it felt as embarrassingly juvenile as it sounds…) while they stopped in Hikone to visit an art show they had wanted to see. Being back in the simple apartment where they had grown so comfortable was unsettling for Our Fair Traveler, and it felt wrong to leave it behind even though she knows that living with Okaasan and Otoosan will be great.
They returned to Nagahama and just barely began to unpack when Okaasan called up to them to let them know dinner was ready. More like their FEAST was ready. And she was so ravenous due to the anxiety suppressing her appetite that everything seemed to boast neon signs reading “EAT ME”. The place settings were all beautifully laid out, and there was a delicious rice/sushi dish as the main course, potatoes (*gasp*), stylishly cut bananas, triangled tofu, spinach that had something wonderful done to it, and mac’n’cheese (*gasp* *infinity); as well as wonderful miso soup and THE BEST GREEN TEA EVER. Needless to say, she liked dinner~ And the four of them were able to joke around and break the tension that at least she herself had felt thus far.
After dinner, Okaasan took them into town by bike so that they would know where the train station was and how to park their bikes for school on Monday. They passed beautiful shrines, interesting looking covered shopping streets, various rivers/canals and bridges that reminded her fondly of Kyoto, and a tree made out of glass and light that was powered by the sun and produced falls of water. Nagahama seems like a beautiful place, and her curiosity had been dying to take her away so very many times… While she’s gong to miss being a slug and waking up at 6 in the morning just to get on the internet or study or read until having to walk over to class at 9:10, she’s definitely excited about the meals~ And as long as she can figure out a polite way of excusing herself so she can be alone in the room (or with Katie, since they have long since crossed the line where they actually needed words to communicate. Most of the time a simple “Meow” will do) to re-center herself and can stop feeling so on edge about doing something wrong (which isn’t likely that much would faze this couple who are seasoned home-stay hosts. Although, learning the phrase “I’m sorry, I am a klutz and am perpetually bumping into or falling over things. Even when there’s nothing there but my own two feet. Please don’t worry about me” would be great…). At the present, the Internet is not connecting to hers or Katie’s computer, so this post was likely sent via JCMU’s Internet (in the future? o__O Where’s that Blue Police Box when you need it...) and this also means that Father’s Day Skype Dates were probably missed (/not coordinated well enough in advance; sorry…)…………..
But! England Prevails! (…there have been too many side-notes in this blog; it’s like the moose subtitles in Monty Python… and that was just a V for Vendetta saying… It’s really late ^^; ) and so will Our Fair Traveler. Pessimism and Anxiety be darned!
1 comments:
Meow.
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