4 posts tagged “fukuoka”
I met my ホストファミリー (hosuto famirii - host family) for the first time yesterday. We spent the whole day together doing wacky stuff. But first, some context.
JTW host families don't host full-time. They're basically available for weekend get-aways. Each student is pretty free to form whatever kind of relationship they like with their family. I know one person who hasn't ever heard from their host family even after several contact attempts, and so hijacked a friend's host family who was a lot more supportive.
My host family consists of a mother, father, a son, and a daughter. The children are both old enough to not live with them any more, so they don't. So I spent all day with お母さん (おかあさん - okaasan - mother) and お父さん (おとうさん - otousan - father). They asked me to call them this way, which I don't think is unusual. I should ask around.
Anyway, a week ago or so I got a voicemail on my ケイタイ (keitai - cell phone) from an unrecognized woman's voice. It was in 日本語 (にほんご - nihongo - Japanese), which was my first hurdle to understanding, but the second was that all she said was her name and to call her back. At this point, I had received no indication that I would be contacted by my ホストファミリー, so I had absolutely no clue who that person was. I heard from QZ that it was ホストファミリー time and that was probably who it was, so I answered the next time she called. (I also got confirmation from the JTW office, of course.)
The call was a mixture of 日本語 (Japanese) and 英語 (えいご - eigo - English) and I hardly knew what was going on. I think there was some kind of self-introduction, a description of her family, where she lived, and when we should next meet. But I really couldn't tell. She knows a lot of English, but it was hard to understand. Luckily, she called again and I sent her e-mails and she sent me e-mails and she called me again (she doesn't like e-mail). Eventually I understood that she wanted to pick me up from the 会館 (かいかん - kaikan - dorm where I live) on Saturday.
So they did. 土曜日の午前１１時に (at 11 AM on Saturday) I got a phone call from her and she told me that they were at the gate. It was kind of funny to me that they had spread out from the car to maximize their vision of dorm while still being able to see each other, so that they would see me approach. Unfortunately for them, I took a back way and still managed to sneak up on them. Mua ha ha! That's when お母さん (mother) took out the photo I'd attached to my 申し込み (もうしこみ - moushikomi - application form) and told me that I didn't look the same. We hopped in the car and took off!
Their 車 (くるま - kuruma - car (the character means "cart;" doesn't it look like one?)) looked like a typical Japanese model to me. Things I noticed:
- The steering wheel was on the wrong side! Not a shocker, obviously.
- There was a tiger print cover over the back seat. It was very comfortable.
- The back seat seatbelt buckles were hidden. They were covered by the seat cover, and also embedded into the seat. お母さん (mother) explained that they are typically not used, and not required by anyone. Their last car didn't even have seat belts in the back. The back of the front seats looked pretty comfortable, so I figured that I might be able to walk away. I wore the seat belt anyway.
- Their GPS was awesome. It was higher-resolution than any I'd seen, it showed you which lanes you could use to not miss your turn, and it seemed to show which highway lanes you could use depending on the type of toll you wanted to pay. Really cool.
About ten minutes of awkward conversation later, お父さん (father) idled in front of a レストラン (resutoran - restaurant) while お母さん (mother) and I went to look at the menu posted by the door. After hearing my approval of the traditional style breakfast, she signaled that it was okay and he parked the car and joined us. We arrived just before lunch hour, so we got seats immediately.
There were mats and the table was low so that you could sit Japanese-style while you ate. But there were also giant holes in the floor beneath the tables so that you could also sit western-style, for which my knees thanked me. A very, very short time later, a gigantic tray of そば (soba), チャーハン (Chinese-style fried rice), pickled fish, soup, 天ぷら (てんぷら - tenpura - tempura), and probably more was placed in front of me.
More in Part 2! (I'm tired of writing!)
もう疲れたです。今日はスペースワールドに友達と二十人ぐらい行きました。 (I'm still tired. Today I went to Space World with about 20 friends.) 午前十時に着くために、電車とバスを[mobbed]. (We mobbed the trains and buses to get there by 10 AM.) 私たちは六時までとてもつかれましたけど、私はちょっととまりたかったです。 (We were all very tired by 6:00, but I kind of wanted to stay.) The rides were excellent, and much more consistently good than I remember encountering before.
I found that I'm much more tolerant of being twisted and spun and tossed around than the people I went around with. I was ready to ride roller-coasters and spinny rides (like the one below) all day long, but after 3 PM, people kept making sick faces and pointing us toward the baby water rides instead of the actually entertaining attractions. Maybe I visited more amusement parks than average during my childhood.
Regarding the ride above: it's not nearly as painful as it looks, though as you can see, it looks pretty painful. Whoever crafted this piece of work decided that humans can't be trusted to pull down their own restraining harnesses, and that only one harness isn't enough. The result is that the machine straps you in. The first attack drops around your neck and nails you in the crotch. The second comes from in front like a falling mallet, smashing the first into firm position. I wish I had the audio from the first time we underwent the process. But the ride was awesome, so I went twice.
The other rides were great, too. My comments on some of those are in the photo set, and while I'm mentioning it, I may as well mention the photo set I just uploaded for today.
I should also make note about the price. I don't know how much the entry ticket and train transportation cost individually, but together they were ￥５，５００ (~$46 USD). Not bad, I s'pose. I spent another ￥３２０ (~$2.70 USD) on bus fare to and from the train station, and another ￥１，０００ (~$8.36 USD) on food. I could have spent another ￥７００ (check it yourself) on a rather good roller-coaster photo, but I decided to pass.
Just to completely change the subject, I looked at the dates on my photos and found that I've been getting out and seeing Japan once a week since arriving (except last week, which is okay, because one week I went on two trips). And I'm doing moderately okay on money so far.
I didn't get very far with the Japanese. :\
My favorite part about our bike ride to Fukuoka Tower was our stop at Nishi Park on the way back.
It was a gigantic fusion of old and new in one of the strangest ways I've seen. The main stairs lead to a shrine, which I assume was the original reason for the park's creation. Shrines only ever seem to be the center of attraction. However, this shrine had bright, red, Coca-Cola--branded benches, and loudspeakers broadcasting traditional Japanese music. There were power lines running overhead, and a samurai helmet on display near the entrance as if it were in a museum. Oh, and the tiny papers used for tying wishes to trees? Those were supplied by vending machines.
Unlike the author of this review of the park, I didn't feel that it was creepy at all. However, since this is the 花見 season (はなみ - hanami - flower [cherry blossom] viewing), the place was packed with people. Every sit-onable area was sitted-on, and every slightly-less-comfortable-to-be-sitted-upon area was covered in tarp and then totally satted-upon. There were lots of open bottles and red Japanese faces.
There were also plenty of tiny shops along the road leading into the park. Many sold food, one sold video games (?), and some sold souvenirs. I wanted to buy a Stitch mask (Lilo & Stitch is everywhere in Fukuoka), but I forgot.
Anyway, go to the park when you get the chance. And look at my photos if you can't!
Is there a perfect balance between life and school?
And blogging?
Life ruled until a few days ago. I was seeing the sights around town, adding a whole new photo set to my JTW collection, called Trip to Fukuoka Tower. That was fun. Though there were no monkeys, there were swan boats and many jars of nothing. And a giant ship without explanation!
Then classes geared up and homework started becoming due. Unlike some new students I know and in some cases people I happen to be sitting next to, I haven't missed any due dates. Yet. There's always tomorrow. The readings are longer than I was expecting based on reviews of the classes from last semester's students. They all said the only classes that required time were those for Japanese. I may be busy this semester.
Anyway, that's my filler. Take it for what it's worth.
