Last night at around 6:00 I arrived at Narita airport, where I was greeted by my host family. It was really lovely to see them again {especially 夏帆} however the onslaught of Japanese that followed left me slightly confused. Having only visited before as a tourist, I was not prepared to be fluently conversing in plain form {覚えた、買った}. Plain form is the Japanese equivalent of casual English speech, and drops the honorific off the end of verbs. I should note that, like in Australia, this form of speech is only appropriate among family and close friends. So, even though the verb stem is the same [think: swim or meet] the ending is different, and as a result this form of speech is often spoken faster.

Nevertheless, once this small barrier was partially overcome, I was able to (some-what adequately) communicate with my host family. The house that I am staying in is really beautiful, with an exquisite Japanese garden out the back. My host father {義人} kindly put up some Christmas decorations, including a tree and a “very scary” Santa figurine. We all ate dinner together, and I reacquainted myself with the use of chopsticks.

This morning I woke up at 5:30am, still operating in my own time zone {as 5:30 in Japan is 7:30 in Australia}, and stared idly at the ceiling until I heard signs of life. The first to get up was my host mother {千嘉ちゃん} and I wasn’t surprised. I’ve been told that, in Japan, one never sees the mother of the house sleeping, as they wake in the wee hours of the morning to prepare food for the day. As today is my first day at school, I do not need to be there until 10:30, when I will meet with the heads of 学主因and the International Student Club.

In my endeavour to learn more vocabulary, I am including a few words that I learnt in the car on the way to 夏帆 house.

My personal favourite would have to be the latter, the result of me enquiring as to what the Japanese equivalent of “How dare you” is. I’m pleased with the response and hope to use this expression in the future. Above is a photo of the view from my room, I am living in a very peaceful and calm neighbourhood. Odd, considering it is located very near a train station. >.<

-H