Is it okay if Mom comes?

Here is a linguistic phenomenon that had me really confused the other day: sometimes, people will refer to their spouse in conversation as Mom or Dad (お母さん、パパ etc). Occasionally, this is very confusing, because I am not actually sure if whomever I'm talking to is referring to their wife or their mother. I'm sure you can see the Oedipal places this is going. Most of the time, people will backtrack and say, And by Papa I mean my husband, but the other day this was not the case, and I was introduced to a woman I thought was this man's mom, but was actually (probably) his wife. I did think she looked rather young for a mother of a man who is 40-50 years old. It was only later when she sent me an email in English referring to my acquaintance as her husband that I started to put the pieces back together. Normally I would have been more observant, but this guy (one of the people in charge of me from the co-op) I know does not wear a wedding ring and had talked about his mom before, who was actually his mom and not his wife. I'm pretty sure I have his relations sorted out, but it made for one heck of a head trip along the way.

He's what we call a くそがき

These were the words spoken to me in Japanese by my new host family's grandfather about my new host brother, who is 3 (I think). くそがき kuso gaki literally means shitty brat, but is slightly more endearing than the English would have you think, but only slightly. There are two others, an older sister (6) who is pretty cute but too interested in me and what I am doing at any given second, and a baby who is 1 and doesn't do much except drool. I have also been transplanted to the 田舎 countryside which is less than ideal. I had a rough first day at work today due to these new circumstances and a general feeling of being overwhelmed. I am hoping to transcend these things. My commute is virtually nonexistent now, and I will get to ride a bike, so that is a plus. I miss my previous host family though, and my co-workers from the delivery center. Also, there is no Internet, but I am borrowing grandpa's iPad, which is certainly better than nothing. Don't buy one if you were thinking about it, a real computer is so much more useful.

On making deliveries and what I'm learning

Howl's Moving Castle is on TV. I love this movie.

Anyway, gosh, I am already halfway done with my time here and I haven't been updating this blog as often as I planned. But, I am done with my delivery job, and I'm moving host families tomorrow, so it's time for another update.

Even though delivering groceries in the summer heat doesn't exactly sound like a good time, I had a lot of fun, mostly because I was shadowing a super nice employee, and we had many a laugh. She is Shimizu-san, and here we are together:



I am really glad that I was placed in her care, as our personalities fit well together and she would sing little songs on the fly, one of my favorites being ちょっとコンビニ, ちょっとお菓子 chotto konbini, chotto okashi (a little convenience store, a little snack) when we stopped to get a snack. She told me she would write me letters, and I hope she does.

Everyone else at the center was also very nice, which I was immediately clued into on my first day when I walked up the stairs and saw this:



Welcome to Omiya Center!
Let's do our best together!

Too cute, right? Everyone keeps giving me things with the Saitama Co-op logo on them. People tend to treat me like a little kid, which I don't mind, because that means they explain things to me slowly and simply, I don't have much responsibility, and they give me candy.


I think these trucks are so cute. Also, pro tip: the "deli" does not stand for "delicatessen," but actually "delivery" and "delicious," which no English speaker would think of first.


Part of the neighborhood I made deliveries in, from the 6th floor of an apartment building. Train tracks!

I'm finding myself in a strange position, since part of the point of this internship is to compare Japanese and American business. However, I have very little work experience in America, and I already knew a lot about Japan, Japanese culture, and Japanese business before I came here, so it's tough to say what I'm really learning in that respect. BUT, what is more important to me (cultural similarities are what tie us together, amirite?) is meeting a lot of different people and being able to communicate with them, and also being able to adapt quickly to different jobs and be of some use to my co-workers. I'm probably not allowed to say that I'm not learning anything about the Japanese business world though, haha. Saitama Co-op is pretty exceptional in a lot of ways also, it's not exactly a "traditional" Japanese company, but that's probably part of the lesson, too. I will continue to collect my thoughts on it, since I have to write a report at the end anyway. English and Japanese. I will be posting them here, so look forward to it!

川越 Kawagoe

Last weekend, I went to the historic city of Kawagoe to the north. I was accompanied by my host mom and sister, Nagashima-san from the co-op, and the genkiest おじいちゃん old man tour guide ever, who speaks English and was only too happy to explain everything to me in the tiniest details. He was cute, but set far too high expectations for the day, as we tired out pretty quick and had to call it quits early. I took a lot of pretty photos though, have a look.


This is a special thing you walk through in a figure-8 for good luck.



The gardens of Kitain Temple.


533 Buddhist monk statues. These were awesome, every one is different. I took a lot of pictures of these which are on Facebook.


SWEET POTATO LUNCH. I WAS VERY PLEASED.


This was an eel うなぎ restaurant which had a lovely pond of koi and a little bridge. The tour guide said, "There's normally an eel in here... but I don't see it so maybe they ate it."

Anyway, we walked all over, went to the museum, ran into one of the other guys doing the same internship I am since he is living in Kawagoe, ate a lot of sweet potato-related goods (my favorite was dual sweet potato/taro soft serve, DELICIOUS). I was for real tired at the end of the day, but we saw a lot of cool things so overall it was a good experience, and I am always happy to make somebody who wants to speak English with me happy.

Me and the Bento Ladies

Last week, as part of my co-op duties at Saitama University, I sold bento (boxed lunches) outside with cute bento ladies. We would call out to students passing by and sell them things like Pork with Kimchi 豚キムチ (and rice, of course) or chicken, you know, stuff like that. On the first day, they asked me to draw something cute on the signboard, and I did the best I could:



Sekiguchi-san (on the right) said, "Oh, I look like that guy, who's that guy, the fat one with the red hat" and her partner goes, "Mario?" and she's like, "Yeah, that one!"



They were very nice, I had a good time. Except, there was no cash register obviously, so I had to calculate change in my head, which I am not very good at in English let alone Japanese. They helped me out though and I got the hang of it. It was nice to do the same thing every day of that week, as otherwise I have been doing different things every day. Whenever I tell anyone that I'm 22, they always say 若いな you're so young, so, that's cool. I do really feel like it's これからだ, like my life is just getting started.

Themed Posts - Maybe Not

So I wanted to do more themed posts in this blog this time around, but what that means is that I don't post because I don't feel like I have enough material for a theme. Here are some things I've been thinking about:

-what it means to be "fluent"
-why everyone asks me what I ate for lunch
-the power of the phrase おねがいします
-how everyone I meet is so nice, and often reminds me of someone I already know, it's a very familiar feeling
-why are Japanese towels so small
-why is English such a complicated language
-how much I like the phrase お疲れさま

Oh but I do have some pictures to put up, so maybe I will do that. Lots of stuff keeps happening, I should just write about it. Today marks the end of the 2nd full week, on Thursday it will have been 3 weeks and I will be halfway done. Time fliesね。

Found Engrish: Mister Donut

From a take-home box of Mister Donut doughnuts, verbatim:

40th anniversary !!
What's up!! Enjoy donut !!
Every day every time. Donut make you happy !!
Enjoy your time with donut !!
mister donut cheer you up !!

Amen.