I Live by Important People

I'm just starting to get to the main part of my cold now (the stuffy nose and sore throat) so it should go away soon. Until then, I'm doing my best to stay lively.

I went on a walk tonight with my host dad, Yuta (the oldest), Jion (the youngest) and Louie (the dog). Their house is in a very nice neighborhood basically on the side of a mountain. My host dad explained to me that the farther up the mountain you go, the larger the houses get. At first I didn't really understand the reasoning behind wanting to live high up on a mountain, but after about a 10 minute walk up some pretty steep roads, we turned around and could see the lights of Osaka in the valley below. It was really beautiful.

I realized today that I didn't have my house key the second I arrived at the door. It was an instant blow to my high spirits from successfully taking the trains and the bus home by myself. As I sat in front of the door deciding what I would tell my host family if I had actually lost the key instead of just forgetting it, a lot of people walked by and stared at me. I have to admit, I probably looked pretty shady emptying the contents of my pockets and backpack on the front porch.

I was lucky that my host dad got home about 20 minutes after I got to the door. Normally, my family doesn't get home until 6 or 7, so when he pulled up at a little after 5 I was relieved. I didn't know the word for lost, so when my host dad asked what was wrong, I told him I forgot my key (and prayed that I didn't actually lose it). He laughed, told me Yuta does it all of the time, and let me in. A pro at misplacing things, I have become pretty good at looking in places I would likely leave something. The first place I checked for my key was yesterday's pants pockets, and that's right where the key was. I'm not sure how I had the key in my pocket all night last night without noticing, but I found it so I'm not complaining.

I rode with my host dad to pick Yuta up from cram-school and do some last-minute dinner shopping, and on the way he told me that the back screen doors of the house are normally open and I could get in by jumping over the fence and coming in through the back of the house if I ever forgot my key again. Honestly, I had thought of doing this while I was sitting on the front porch, but it probably would have been suuuper shady had anyone seen me. I agreed with him that I would do that in the future, but secretly I decided that I'll just never lose my key again so it won't be an issue.

At the supermarket we ran into some people my host dad knew. I tried my best to speak properly and politely, which was good because when we got back into the car he told me that they were some extremely wealthy people that lived up higher on the mountain. Hence the reason we took a trek up the steep streets tonight.

As we were walking back down the mountain streets, my host dad pointed out some houses of important people. The couple we met at the supermarket had an amazing house. I guess the husband is president of an electric cable company and the wife's father is the president of a large bank. My host dad said that they actually liked the couple's house so much that they had the same architect build their much smaller, but still very nice house.

We passed a house where the dean of KGU lives. Another house is home to the former owner of the Hanshin Tigers, a Japanese professional baseball team. There were quite a few other houses that were lived in by the "president of ~" or the "owner of ~." A lot of times I didn't even understand (in English) what the people's positions were, but it was still really fun. Of course, I also spent half of my time either carrying Jion because he was too tired to walk or walking Louie on the leash.

I know that this trip has a more subtle cultural lesson to it, but I'm too tired to attempt to write it down, so I'll just think about what experienced before I go to bed and try to see what I learned from it. I didn't give all of the details, so I might have sucked the meaning out of it, and if I did I apologize. I hope it was at least fun to read about the area I lived in.

Alright, I'm going to bed! 

Goodnight.