Ah, these last couple of days have been slow. Ah well... interesting stuff does happen, but it's more spaced out I guess. Maybe I'm getting used to doing everything right away?
Yesterday I walked with my homestay parents to a neighbor's house to pray for his mother who died while they had been in Italy (my homestay parents were in Italy up until the day before I arrived in Tokyo). The guy also happens to be the neighborhood egg farmer. As in, he has lots and lots of chickens. I did mention I'm living in a farming village, right (I've also seen cows, btw!)?
Ah anyways, I got to see a sort of funeral (a shrine to the departed one, I guess would be more accurate). And see a very traditional house. Sliding paper and glass doors everywhere. You enter through the garden to a raised step, take off your shoes and put on slippers only to walk maybe 10 more steps before you take those off to enter a tatami room where there are cushions on the floor you kneel on. I prayed like everyone else, lighting the insense and all. I think it would be rude not to, even if it isn't my culture to do so. But omg my legs hurt soooo much! I don't know how Japanese women do it, sitting on their legs like that. 5 minutes and my legs were already falling asleep. Eventually, I had to sort of crouch up b/c they were hurting. Otou-san also had to get up, but okaa-san was okay. I don't know how they do it.
They threw salt on me too. I must have had the dumbest look on my face because they laughed right after. Apparently it's a cleansing ritual. To remove the dead's spirits before entering one's own home.
Today I went to pay for my apartment and to check it out. It looks like a cargo hold.... I would say it is windowless, but the back has a sliding glass door, so maybe not. The front makes me think of storage compartments though. Hehe.
My otou-san and okaa-san offered to let me stay at their place until the end of my stay in Japan. And they were serious about it. It freaked me out how they were being serious. I thought maybe I was in trouble when okaa-san came up to tell me to go downstairs because they needed to talk to me. And then they sat me down and turned off the TV. And then okaa-san started talking fast in Japanese to otou-san in a tone that sounded urgent and I guess angry. But then they asked me to stay. And I was all... "aww.....". Not really. I didn't did actually do that. But it was sweet.
And otou-san went with me to TPU to talk to Shimada-san about me staying at their place instead of moving to the apartment, but in the end, we decided I should move. It seemed best, even if I really like them and their house. I really need to get out there on my own. They are very protective people, I must admit.
So anyways, what I wanted to say was that TPU's study abroad program makes CMU's look like total crap. I think I will go into detail of just how much the staff at TPU has done for me so you guys can get a better picture:
First, my visa forms arrived in a package which included a cover letter saying welcome and another letter that told me step-by-step which numbers to fill out and what information I needed. They filled out the rest for me.
They also set up my homestay and found me an apartment in Atsugi.
And picked me up from the airport and drove the 4-5 hrs to my home.
Not bad right? Pretty normal.
In addition, they found me a scholarship to cover my housing fees and applied for it for me, only asking for a form to be filled out by my advisor in cmu.
They went with me to help me open a bank account while in Tokyo, which took a good portion of the day.
They lent me a bicycle and an electronic dictionary for getting around.
And not only did they get me an apartment, they furnished it, complete with kitchenware Tagawa-san bought herself.
I heard that last part and thought... omg these people spoil me, of course remembering how much stuff Midori had to buy when she came to America, and how much she had to throw away going back.
CMU's got nothing in comparison to TPU. Hehe.
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