Day 34 & 35: Golden Week and my Host Mom

Yesterday I couldn't update as my internet stopped working in my room. Actually, it's still not working and I'm right now typing from the living room.

Anyways, today was the first day of Golden Week. Golden Week is a period of public holidays and for some Japanese jobs, is the longest vacation period of the year. It's actually kind of strange as it doesn't actually last an entire week. During this "week", the actual days that are public holidays are: April 29 and May 3-5. However for my school, we don't get May 3 off due to some school policy that I don't understand. If you look at the calendar, you'll see how not having that day off is extremely inconvenient.

Anyways, today I had the day off from school and went to Koyoen, where E lives, to attend a luncheon that her host mom and her friends were hosting. Basically it was E, H, and I surrounded by five obaasans, being asked our life stories. I forgot my camera at their place but once I get it back, I'll post the photos.

Last night I had a long conversation with my host parents and after learning a bit more about them, I thought I'd devote the second half of this post to my host mom.

  

My host mom is an extremely kind woman in her mid-40s who likes to trick me into letting her pay for things and loves her beer. And as her husband had put it last night, "Her hobby is taking in foreign exchange students."

I'm foreign student #11. Holy crappers, right? And two more students from France are coming here for several weeks this summer. Even though I'm #11, she still remembers the name of every student she has taken in and where they're from, and every Christmas, she sends them all gifts. 

Every night, this woman drinks at least two cans of beer. Tonight we went out to eat and she drank three mugs of beer, and right now as I'm typing, she's finishing a can of beer. I can't even finish half of one beer. And every time we go out to eat, she always asks me if I want a cocktail. I wonder if she thinks that since I'm of legal drinking age, I should be downing alcohol like water. 

As for the money dilemma, it was a small issue that has grown a bit when I began to realize that it was even an issue to begin with. I think I mentioned before how my host mom insists on paying things for me and now I finally discovered why - she may think that I'm more or less...shit poor.

I was talking to Kiyoko, one of my Nihongo partners, the other day and she mentioned how my host mom had told her that she was worried about me financially and requested that whenever we go out to eat, to try and pick someplace cheap for my sake. After this, I thought, 'Crap, it's probably because I told her I got the scholarship.' When I told E, she confirmed this, explaining to me that in Japan (and in Korea as well), the only students that receive scholarships are either the very top of their class or extremely dirtshit poor.

And of the two, my host mom thinks I'm the latter. Awesome.

But it's all starting to make sense when I look back at in retrospect. Back when we went to Adventureland, when I wanted to buy Bob, I knew my host mom would insist on paying for him so I had to sneak to the cash register. However when we left the park, she handed me a pass wallet that she had bought for me when I wasn't looking. Me: 0, Host Mom: 1.

A week or two ago, I bought shampoo and toothpaste and put them in the bathroom. Later that night, my host mom told me that I didn't need to buy those things as she could provide them for me. I didn't know how to respond as I felt it was strange that she would do this (however, with the scholarship theory, it makes more sense now). And during orientation week, we were asked to buy our own detergent which I have yet to do as she has insisted in doing all my laundry for me. Me: 0, Host Mom: 2

I have one more story that just happened yesterday since it relates to today's luncheon and this post has gotten way too long, I'll save it for later.

Anyways, I'll end this post with today's Engrish of the day:

  

Aww, so close.