Host Family

Yesterday was the first day of my homestay, and I think it's going pretty well so far! My host family is a very nice couple who live in Echigawa, a town that is a few stops down the Ohmi Line from Hikone Station. Their names are Kazumi and Saburo Tatsumi, and they have three daughters, all of whom are married and living seperately. Saburo (my host father) works at a company that makes suits. People send in measurements via a website and the company creates suits to that specification. Saburo works on the business side of the company so he doesn't actually make the suits. They are very kind and live in a nice house that is close to the railway station.

There are several aspects of the Tatsumi's house that are very uniquely Japanese. As with all buildings in Japan there is an entrance hall or genkan where you take off your shoes before entering the house. The first floor of the house contains the kitchen, living area, a tatami room where the dining table is located, a bath room, and a toilet room. The bathroom is the room in which the physical bathtub is located wheras the toilet room is the room with the toilet. The table that we ate at is very low, but there is a depression in the floor where you put your feet. You sit on the edge of the ledge of the depression instead of sitting on a chair. Here is a picture I found on the internet of a similar table. Hopefully I will be able to take a picture later and post it.

I didn't do much with my host family yesterday. After I settled in we ate dinner and talked for a bit, and then I was treated to my very first Japanese style bath. I am going to write an entry about this later once I have done some more research on the topic, but it was a very cool experience. The Japanese do not shower as much as Americans do, but every night they take a bath.

I'm in the computer lab right now, but I'm going to go back upstairs for now. More on the host family experience later...