despite being a very expensive trip, my trip to kansai was a success! as planned, i departed last last friday for osaka with rob, aaron, and master lees. saturday morning i set out for kyoto, and visited my host family the whole day.
so get this. when i first went abroad, i lived with my host parents, host sister, and dog. however, my host sister was pregnant at the time, and was doing this tradition called satogaeri where a girl goes home to live with her parents just before her baby is born, and stays with them for about a month afterwards. so, about a month into my stay in kyoto, my host sister gave birth to a baby girl, which they named Ayasa.
to make things more interesting, my host sister wasn't the only one pregnant. my host parent's son's wife was also pregnant. so when i first got to kyoto, both my host sister (Sayoko) and the sister-in-law were pregnant. while Ayasa was born in May, her cousin, a boy, was born in August.
back in april, when i found out the dates for the Kobe Conference, i called my host mom and told her i'd be visiting, at which time she told me that Sayoko was once again pregnant AS WELL AS the sister-in-law. and even weirder - THEY HAVE THE SAME DUE DATE. *shaking head* strange, strange, strange.
so saturday morning, the day i was supposed to head up to kyoto to visit them, i get a call from my host mom (which woke me up), at 7:30am, telling me that Sayoko had her baby. AS WELL AS the sister-in-law. Sayoko had her baby on wednesday, and on Thursday, the sister-in=law had hers. both are baby boys, and both gave birth at the same hospital, and were also still in that hospital (the same one i visited Sayoko at after giving birth to Ayasa). so, my host mom told me that she'd drive us to visit both ladies and newborn babies at the hospital.
my afternoon was all about visiting them, while my evening was all about meeting my host family's current student and her brother who was visiting from out of town. so before the student got home, i was helping my host mom out with dinner preparations when she told me that the student (Emily) was happy i was coming over, because then i could help translate for her. upon meeting her, she struck me as the quiet type. it's not so much that she can't speak japanese so much as she doesn't speak much in English unless necessary (which of course has its pros and cons).
however, as the night went on, being as it was the only evening the brother was going to meet the host family, i felt like it wouldn't be right for me translate. it was her chance to prove herself to her brother.... show him that she's made progress during her stay, that she's happy and having a good time, and that she could get by. i dont know if it's messed up that i left her hanging when i could have translated for her.... but i just think back to when my brother visited me in tokyo, and how happy i was when i could take him to a restaurant and order for him, or translate between him and our family friend... i really didn't want to deprive her of that chance.
all in all, i had a good time seeing my host family, and i feel like they felt happy knowing they haven't been forgotten by students they've welcomed into their home.
sunday i met back up the guys and headed to none other than a HANSHIN TIGERS game. it's the middle of interleague play at the moment, and they were up against the Chiba Lotte Marines. i'd rather not relive how horrible that game went, but i was closer to Akahoshi than i've ever been (even though i was pretty close to Hiyama the whole time). at one point, Akahoshi ran towards rightfield, at which i got the best live glimpse of him i've ever had. *sigh* other highlights: i finally got to wear my Akahoshi jersey! it was a birthday present from Aaron, and since then has been hanging in my bedroom as decoration. i also finally got a pair of skinny bats for noisemaking and cheering throughout the game. those will definitely go back home with me.
monday though wednesday was the actual conference, which actually wasn't so bad. it was actually semi-helpful, which is a welcome change from the absolute crap that was Nagasaki Mid-Year Conference (which is essentially a b*tchfest).
highlight of this conference: spending a lot of time with rob and oliver, the other 2 recontracting-for-a-second-year alts in tsushima. on monday night, rob and i were wandering around kobe when we stumbled upon an arcade. i wanted to find those bubble machines where you stick in 200yen or so, and you turn a knob and out pops something in a bubble (i like those machines because you always win (^ ^)v ). however, while we were looking for those bubble machines, we saw this UFO catcher game with the CUTEST Jack doll EVER (jack from the nightmare before christmas). now, if it's one thing about our students here, it's that allll of our students love Jack and Stitch from Lilo and Stitch. i can see how Jack is cool, but i think Stitch is straight up ugly.
anyway, the instant we saw this Jack doll, both rob and i agreed that it was the cutest jack doll either of us had ever seen. normally, i shy away from UFO catchers because i suck at them, and i know they just suck money out of you. but we both wanted it so bad.... that we ended up getting sucked in and finally, finalllllly, won it =) we jumped up and down and screamed and were soooo excited. we had at one point flagged down one of the workers and asked for tips, to which he responded that the machine we were at was the most difficult in the whole arcade. yay us!!
tuesday night rob and i headed to osaka to see two students that were on SJEC 2 years ago. speficially, we met up with mutsumi and miki. miki actually stayed in my room, which mutsumi was at one point staying next door in the quad. it was hilarious. i never spent time with only the two of them, but after that evening, i realized how opposite they are. mutsumi is really feminine and girly girl, while miki is a big tomboy. both of them cracked me up sooo much though. it felt good to talk to young people for once (as they're hard to find in tsushima).
again, i had a very good trip, and saw all the people i really wanted to see: host family, Akahoshi, and the SJEC girls. mission accomplished, indeed =)
that's all for now. and to top things off, i'm at my favorite junior high this week. yay!
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