Hot Day in the Sun

Happy Summer Everyone!

For those currently residing in the northern hemisphere, June 21 was the summer solstice, the longest day of the year in the northern half of the globe and the herald of the summer season. I've been hearing it's pretty hot in the the NE part of the US, and I can say it was quite warm here in Akita as well. Today got somewhere in the mid 80's, which is the hottest it's been since I've come here. I spent most of today hanging out with my host family (see this post for a quick introduction), and most of it was outside enjoying the heat, a growing tan, and increased Vitamin D (that's one of the benefits of sun exposure, and is also essential to healthy bones!).

Since most of you won't follow the above link to refresh yourselves about the program, I'll try to highlight the important info. The Home Stay program is kind of like a host family with training wheels; AIU students are housed on campus, but this program (which is organized by an Akita City organization outside of the school) pairs interested students with interested families in the Akita city area. After an initial meeting and greeting (which I covered in the previous post) it is up to the student and the family to decide how much or how little they will meet over the course of the student's stay in Japan (which is tragically short for me, but I digress...). Normal activities include having dinner, going on trips, playing with the kids, etc.

I was paired up with the Oi family, and they are great. The family consists (again as a reminder for the lazy readers out there): Keigo (father), Rumiko (mother), Shuichiro (7 yr old son), Akane (4 yr old daughter). For the rest of the post I'll be referring to them using the Japanese honorifics of "-san" for "Mr./Mrs.", "-kun" for "young boy" and "-chan" for "child/young girl" as well as the children's shortened nicknames, so: Keigo-san, Rumiko-san, Shui-kun, A-chan. Gambate (good luck).

Me with the Oi family at the first get-together. Left to right (Starting in the back): Me, Keigo-san, Rumiko-san, Shui-kun and Akane-chan.

The family had actually lived in the US for 4-5 years; 1.5 in Colorado and the rest of the time in Seattle, Washington. Both children were actually born in Seattle, and so have US citizenship. They returned to Japan three years ago. Keigo-san speaks pretty good English, and so I depend on him for most translations. Rumiko-san can speak basic English, and she was the one who wanted to have an exchange student visit the family. They are both very nice; Keigo-san has a very easy and contagious laugh and he and I have fun comparing Japanese and English culture. I unfortunately can't speak nearly as much to Rumiko-san, but she is very nice and hospitable and I can tell that she is excited to have me.

Anyway, originally we were thinking of going cherry picking together, which they scheduled for this past Saturday (summer solstice!) however I unfortunately already had my second Happo-Cho trip scheduled for that day (link to a post about my first trip) so I had to miss out. Today, Shui-kun had a rugby game, so we decided to start from there. I met Keigo-san and A-chan at the train station early in the morning (7:30am!) so that we could pick up the rest of the family and head to the field by 8:00am. By this point it was quite bright outside (sunrise is sometime before 4:30am, especially since Japan does not use Daylight savings) and quite hot (approaching 80F). Along the way we caught up, talking mostly about the earthquake from last week and my parent's stay in Japan a couple of week's ago.

The rugby field was full size, a bit bigger than a football field, and situated in the center of a smallish stadium somewhere in Akita-shi (Akita city) area. As we got the kids ready at home and at the field, and seeing all the boys and girls running around the fields reminded me of the long weekends I spent at the soccer fields when I lived in Connecticut. They had teams of different age groups playing all morning, separated into 1st-2nd, 3rd-4th, and 5th-6th grade sections, each with two or three teams. The field was divided up into three sections of varying sizes, one about 1/4 length, one about 1/3, length, and one about 1/2 half length (yes Mr. McCabe I know that doesn't add up to 1, but these are approximations so cut me some slack, all right?). The kids played multiple one-half games, mostly for fun and not that serious. It looked more like a focus on skills than on winning, though I think the older students (into high school age) are much more competitive. Shui-kun's age bracket often mixed up the team members, mainly because the third team didn't seem to have enough players. Shui-kun was quite funny; he wasn't good at all and spent a lot of time circling around the huge mosh pit of boys that had thrown themselves on the ball. The referree (who was also his coach) kept yelling at him to get in there (in a non-competitive way, this isn't American high school sports remember) and even gave him a little push at one point to encourage him. Keigo-san and Rumiko-san had already commented on this, but they didn't seem to mind. Rumiko-san told me Shui-kun had a somewhat short attention span, and I could tell that after about an hour or so he got kind of bored of it all. He started to clown around a bit and reminded me of my brother David very much, although David was very into soccer and other athletics growing up. Though I tried to interact and have fun with A-chan, she was very shy and didn't talk back to me, much to everyone's amusement.

Shuichiro's rugby team.

Shui-kun

Shy little A-chan with her dad.

The family watching Shui-kun running around.

This recreational league for the kids was sponsored in part by a semi-professional Akita rugby team called the Akita Bullets who are themselves sponsored by Japan Air Lines (JAL). Towards the end the members of the Akita Bullets came and played with the children. It was hilarious to see literally dozens of kids pile up or push against these relatively large men as they tried to grab the ball. It was all very fun and good natured and hilarious. At the end, though, they wanted to shoot some footage for a promotional video which included all of the children and their parents cheering the Bullets and other nonsense. This lasted for much longer than it should have, in my opinion, but whatever, more Vitamin D for me. It was about 11:00am by the time we left, totaling three hours, although it felt much longer in the heat and the sun.

The Akita Bullets playing with the kids.

We headed to a soba restaurant for lunch. The restaurant was a small, quaint affair and we sat at a low table with thin cushions to sit on either cross-legged (men only!) or seiza style (which entails sitting on your legs by folding them under you, and is quite uncomfortable for me, although it does make sitting with a straight back much more comfortable!). While we waited for lunch to be served, the kids grabbed some large picture laden books to read and show cased them to me one by one. Shui-kun especially kept going back for new books. For lunch we had soba. Soba is a type of noodle, one of three (along with ramen and udon). It is a thin noodle made from buckwheat and served with a special broth which you dip the noodles in with your chopsticks (wikipedia). They served it with wasabi on the side which you could mix into the broth to taste. Soba is usually served cold although you can also have it hot (we all got it cold, it was hot enough outside). We also ordered squid tempura (fried squid) for the adults, which was heavenly. The wasabi cleared my nose in seconds and the soba was quite good. For dessert, Rumiko-san ordered sobadango, which was a ball of soba dough cooked and dipped in either a soy-sauce or sesame based sticky sauce. They were delicious. All in all, it was a great lunch, really tasty, and really Japanese.

A-chan enjoying sobadango with the soy-sauce based dressing. It was delicious.

Shui-kun reading a book giving a synopsis of an episode of one of many Japanese programs that are in the "Power Ranger's" genre. If you don't know what I mean, you either were not a kid or did not have kids during the 90's.

After lunch we headed to the house, which I was able to see for a bit. Like almost all Japanese houses, there is a an entrance foyer for you to leave your shoes and then step up into the house proper. It was small (like all Japanese homes) but not too small. Rumiko-san served me some iced-tea and the kids pulled me up to their rooms to show me their favorite toys and play. A-chan had become much more excited after having lunch and was actually responsive to my questions. I also spent some time reading some English books that they had around the house, though they of course couldn't read or understand any of it. We then went outside to blow lots and lots of bubbles, which was quite fun. After maybe an hour and a half at the house, we decided to drive to AIU so I could give them a tour of the campus and so they could drop me off. Before leaving, I presented them the gifts which I had bought them a few weeks ago: on a school trip to Lake Towada (I haven't written about this, maybe I will later) I decided to buy the family something for our first visit together. I got a nice little plaque with a beautiful picture of as sunset over the lake for Rumiko-san and Keigo-san, an adorable "Hello Kitty" plush doll in a pink yukata (summer kimono) and straw hat for A-chan, and a really cool wooden top with string for Shui-kun. Before we left, Keigo-san tried to teach us how to use it; it was really neat. They loved the gifts and were surprised. I was happy.

Bubbles!

Playing with the top I bought Shui-kun.

Once we got on campus (about 25 minutes by car) I walked them around campus, which didn't take that long considering it's small size (just ask my parents). They were really impressed with the library, as everyone is. I don't blame them, it's my favorite building on campus. I ran into some of my friends on campus and introduced them to my host family. Once it was all done, we talked about when we would next meet, and then Shui-kun and A-chan presented me with a gift; freshly picked cherries from the previous day. I thanked them (they were shy) and thanked Keigo-san and Rumiko-san for their hospitality and for a fun day spent mostly outside. They were happy to have me and we look forward to seeing each other again in the coming weeks.

All in all, a great day, and a really nice tan. I hope to see them again a couple of times more before I return to the states; we'll see. I was happy to finally get A-chan to speak to me halfway through the day, and I hope next time we'll spend more time playing. I only wish I could speak more Japanese with them. Oh well, I've got to make do with what I know, right? Anyway, a great day. I will hopefully have another update up next weekend, though it may delayed for reasons I am going to withhold for the time being. In the meantime, I hope you have a wonderful summer!

Full Album (Home Stay Family)