A little (but important) update

I finally found out about my host family! For those of you who didn't know, before now I have not known anything about my host family, and I mean anything. Not even their names! Finally knowing something is wonderful. Anyway, here goes:

Their family name is Kitawaki. I have a host father and mother (Tadao and Reiko) and a 2 year old brother named Taiyo (that's past the diaper stage, right?). They have 2 dogs, live 20 minutes by bus from Kansai Gaidai, speak at least some English, have hosted students before, and they're Christian. That's so unreal, because almost no one in Japan even has a religion! They've said I can call them "Otousan" and "Okaasan", meaning father and mother. Otousan is a computer programmer and likes watching sports and having nice food, and Okaasan is a housewife (like I expected) and likes listening to music, reading, and English conversation. Neither of them smoke or drink, and they want me to speak to their son in English now and then. This is all from a sheet I got in my mailbox today, so I haven't met them yet and won't meet them or move in until Sunday. That's kind of scary, because I meet them and then go directly home with them after knowing them for the 10 or so minutes our introduction takes.

So, this all sounds really good right? It is, almost too good, and there might be a pitfall. My current roommate said she has a friend who had a host family last semester that sounds exactly like mine, and the family didn't have internet. I hope it's not true, but I get the feeling it is (after all, how many Christians are there in Japan?). I don't know what I'm going to do, but I'll just have to deal with the situation when the time comes.

Also, I got my classes set. I'm taking 4 classes, 2 Japanese classes and 2 Asian Studies classes. I got my placement results back, and I'm in level 4 (out of 7). That's about where I thought I would be, and this class doesn't use Genki!! Thank goodness! I used that book in both high school and at State and I'm so sick of it. -_- I think this class is about equivalent to 302/401 at State so it's about right for me. This means my classes are:

Speaking Japanese 4
Reading & Writing Japanese 4
Peace, Development, and Democratization: The Asia Challenge
Introduction to Japanese History

I'm so excited about every single one of these classes! For once, I actually can't wait for classes to start. A shocker, I know. I also have Monday and Wednesday afternoons free, which is exciting.

Today was the trip to Kyoto, and it was so amazing! I absolutely love the place and I have to go back. My group went to Kiyomizudera, a really old and famous temple that I've studied before and was so excited to finally get to see. Unfortunately it rained all day, so the weather did not cooperate with lots of walking around. It was also really bad for taking pictures, but I did manage to get a few decent ones.

The International students were split into groups of two or three and paired with the same number of Japanese students. It was me, Jackie, and Nicole and three girls. From left to right is Meg, Yuki, and Kasumi.



They spoke English but hardly used it at all at first because (they said) they weren't good enough. However, we later found out they were holding out on us. Nicole doesn't speak a lot of Japanese, so they helped her by speaking slowly in Japanese and explaining what they could in English. I spoke in Japanese with them the whole day, which surprised me and made me very happy. I didn't think I would be able to do it, but I did.

We got off the train from Hirakata, and the first thing I saw was this. Definitely in Kyoto now.



The steps leading up to the temple. Still raining. It poured later.



We had to climb a huge hill to get the temple, but there are lots of shops and stuff along the street so we had something to look at while we climbed. They were mostly tourist shops though with "Japan souvenirs".



Parts of the temple. This wasn't the main part, but apparently it's also famous.





Before you enter the main building of the temple where the god is held you're supposed to be cleansed. This is done by washing your hands and cleansing yourself by drinking the water shown here.



The area around the temple was beautiful and was mostly forest. You're supposed to be able to see Kyoto proper from the temple (not from this angle), but because of the rain everything was grey and hazy and you couldn't see much.



Kiyomizudera means "pure water temple" because there is a waterfall that runs through the temple. This waterfall is split into three streams, and it's believed that each of the streams represent wisdom, health, and longevity. If you drink from the streams you'll attain those things, but you can't drink from more than two or you'll have bad luck. I drank from one of them but I'm not sure which, so I guess I'll know when I become either really smart or really healthy, or I just won't find out for years and years. >.>



A view of the temple from the outside.


Like I said, bad weather for pictures, and it was getting dark. This is one of the most famous angles to take a picture of the temple from. I wish the picture did more justice to the temple, because it really was amazing. I want to go back in better weather, maybe when sakura (cherry blossoms) blooms or something.



All of us at Kiyomizudera. We really had fun with Meg, Yuki, and Kasumi today. It started out as a random match up, but at the end we exchanged emails so we could get together again. They said next time we can do karaoke!



For dinner we had nabe, which is pretty much just fondue, or a meal like you would have at the Melting Pot. It's a communal dinner, and you cook your food in a boiling pot of broth. Ours had beef, chicken, pork, and vegetables in it. It was really good! Today was a pretty good day for food - Nicole and I found out the cafeteria at school serves spaghetti! ^_^



Another long post, but that's all for now. I don't think I have the ability to write a short post or not takes tons of pictures of everything I see. Nothing interesting happens until I meet my host family on Sunday, so I'll give my poor fingers a break for now. ^_^