Meet the Fam

Last weekend I participated in my first fully Japanese homestay, and needless to say I had the time of my life. My homestay parents were Kiyoshi Kato, and Sayoko Kato. Kiyoshi was 58 while Sayoko, the wife, was 56. They have three children, two of whom are actually working in the US right now, and one who is working in Tokyo. Here is a picture of them while we were visiting the historic Nagoya Jou (Nagoya Castle.)

My stay with them started out well. They picked me up on Saturday afternoon and we went to the Nagoya zoo. While at the zoo we got to see normal zoo-like things. We walked basically all over while I spoke with them about me, and all the things I like to do. This was particularly fun because I could only use my Japanese with them, so I really had to struggle through some stuff. But the sense of satisfaction I got after finally figuring out how to say what I was thinking was definitely worth the hardship.

After the zoo, we went back to their house and I got acquainted with their 12 year old golden retriever "Santa." This dog was basically the epitome of old age, wobbling around the house and gazing at nothing in particular whenever it wasn't in precarious motion. For dinner that night, Mrs. Kato made up a delicious tempura meal. With the chopsticks that they so kindly bought me I dug in like a backhoe with nitrous. And if the great food wasn't enough they urged me to sit in their giant Sharper Image style massage chair to watch the Japan series, Japan's World Series of Baseball. So the one night that I was alotted to stay over with them went swimmingly.

For Sunday they had plans to take me down to the shore and see a traditional Japanese fish market, but unfortunately Santa got sick over the night. It turned out that his intestine had become twisted and he had to go into the vet for a quick operation. Mr. Kato had taken him in during the night so we went to see him in the morning after the operation was finished. The best part of visiting Santa was seeing my very stoic Japanese host father cry when he saw that the family pooch was okay. That part of the day was a good indication to me of what a good family I had been paired with. So in lieu of going to the shore we went to Nagoya Jou. Here's a picture of me with the castle in the background. Basically the castle was a museum on the inside, seeing as the original had been burned down during bombing raids (oops!) My favorite parts of visiting the castle were walking around the grounds, and avoiding accusatory glares from old Japanese people, just kidding! Or am I.......

After the castle we went to an Otera (Traditional Japanese shrine erected to local divine spirits known as Kami.) While at the shrine I was actually fortunate enough to see two traditional Japanese wedding receptions in action. It was pretty awesome to see both the bride and groom dressed in such ornate Japanese attire. Between the castle, shrine, and speaking Japanese all day, I'd say I got a pretty good dose of Japanese culture.

I've since e-mailed my host family again and we're planning on doing another trip when I have some free time so I'll be sure to post about that when the day comes. Sorry again for the length of time in between posts, but I've been staying pretty busy. I'm planning on posting another one pretty quickly after this, seeing as a lot of other stuff has happened since the homestay, so be ready for that. Once again thanks for reading and I hope everyone is doing well.