Piczo

Yakyu- Baseball

I woke up nice and early and went to my host brothers baseball game. What an interesting experience... Yohei, my 14 year old host brother, attends the best middle school in Kochi and plays baseball for the school team. He is a Chu Ninensee, or by American standards, an 8th grader. Usually he is the starting pitcher but today he played first base. Anyways it was freezing and rainey and it wasn't exactly a place I wanted to be. Me and my host mom sat down on the icy bench sometime during the second inning of a seven inning game. But after only a few minutes, I was very glad I came. An American joke is the crazy Soccer Mom, here it's the crazy Baseball mom. I was sitting there cold and nearly numb and then suddenly a crack of a bat and a herd of ravaging screaming mothers stands up screams "GANBARE!" (do you best!) But it wasn't just for hits, or catches, is was also for balls, strikes, steals, bauks, you name it and these woman cheered for it. And when the ref made a bad call... well I don't want to remember that incident. In Japanese baseball, the strategy is to get a man on base... then bunt. They bunt with no outs, one out, two outs, runners on first, second, third, the bases loaded, it doesn't matter. The pitcher bunts, the power hitter bunts, the leadoff hitter bunts, they might as well call it Buntball and just be done with it. The funny thing is, the Japanese almost sort of think that they invented baseball. Normally I'd say they didn't but Japanese baseball is so different than American baseball, that they sort of did invent a new game. The thing I like about Japanese baseball is that is has heart. When you look back onto American baseball in early years when it truly was the American pastime, when little boys only dreamed of playing the major leagues, most importantly the players played for the love of the game not just money like today. That's Japanese baseball for you... plus a few crazy mothers.

JPOP Julie

So on Friday night I went to my first Jpop concert with my host mom and host cousin! In case you don't Know what JPOP is, it is the Japanese Pop Music name. It's was here I realized how awesome my host family. The band, Orange Range, (pronounced; Arrangey Rangey) is from Okinawa and their music is like metal rock meets R and B meets islandish reggae. It was so funny! My host mom, who is a 38 year old, sweet woman, is wicked awesome. She not only bought these pretty expensive tickets for me and my host cousin but she also came with us, and probably had the most fun out of the 3 of us. From what I was told, like all Japanese concerts, when the artist comes on stage, everyone stands up and begins to party. The music was rockish so we did a lot of arm pumping, clapping, and jumping. I did alot of the dancing but it was nothing compared to my short host mom pumping her arms and screaming. The music was okay, but the band inself was hilarious. There were 3 main singers, 2 of whom dressed in baggy street clothes and acted all ghetto, the third singer, a favorite amongst the girls, had long greasy hair and strutted himself along stage acting as we Americans would call "gay". I mean he was wiggling his hips and jiving like Brittany Spears, not exactly a male thing. But then this is Japan and they never had the Christian roots telling them it was wrong to act that way. In fact most guys here tend to act well, feminine. Anyways I couldn't understand any of the music but I figure I may as well have an awesome time, because how many Jpop concerts am I ever going to get to see? For intermission, the band did a skit that was apparently very funny. I couldn't understand it so I just looked around at all the audience, full of teeneyboppers yelling their hearts out. The crazy thing is looking around and seeing a concert hall full of screaming Japanese girls and realizing "Holy cow! I'm the only one hear with big blue eyes and natural brown hair!" When the music resumed, so did out dancing and laughing. Orange Range may not be the best band in the world but they certainly know how to have a fun concert. When the concert ended, I went to dinner with my host mother and cousin at a curry restaurant and we talked about how much fun it was.. My host mom mentioned that she traveled all the way to Ehime last year to see Orange Range. Isn't that awesome?

Host Family Hang Out

know I haven't revealed too much information about my current host family. I've been very busy with school and Koto and friends. So I'll do my best to fill you in right now. My current family, my second of four host families, are the Oono's. The family comprises of my host father, Otosan Oono, host mother, Mari-chan, and my 14 year old host brother, Yohei. During the school year my host cousin, 15 year old, Eri, also lives in my host house. But now that it is winter break, she is currently living in Shimanto-cho about an hour and half away from Kochi City with her parents and younger siblings. Okay, a little bit about my family. My host father is very busy, though I'm not totally sure what he does. My host mother is a housewife who has a part time job in her husbands office. They have one son, Yohei, a middle school second grader (epitomie of American 8th grader). Yohei goes to the best school in Kochi, because he is very smart. He is also a pretty good baseball player. He pitches and plays first base. Maybe one day he'll play for MLB. Like a normal Japanese students that play sports, Yohei's life is consumed by baseball. Everyday after school, until the late hours, even on Sundays! I actually don't think he has any free time. He also goes to Juku, or extra school. I only ever see him at the dinner table , come to think of it. Also like most Japanese boys his age, he is incredibly shy. At first he kind of preferred not to talk to me (probably because I made fun of his heavy Japanese accent while speaking English.) Now we get along pretty well. Like I mentioned before, my host father is very busy. My host mom, on the other hand, has a lot of free time. I often have long conversations with her in Japanglish. She is really a sweet lady, and I feel confortable enough telling her anything. As for my host cousin, Eri (prounounced like Eddie), I don't know what I would do without her. She is pretty odd, there is no doubt about that. But it's impossible to be bored with her antics. An example would be every morning when we ride our bikes to school. I get us there in 15 minutes, because I move at lightening speed. When Eri takes the lead, I usually have to run when I get to school not to be late. Christmas comes quicker then Eri. Nonetheless, she's a pretty interesting kid. My host house is located in the east of Kochi City. The house is a huge 3 story cube thing crammed in the middle of a quiet area. Very quiet. To the right is a garden. About a kilometer to the east, past the river, are plenty of rice fields. Anyway every morning I ride my bike to school with Eri. It usually takes me 15 minutes, but with Eri it could take 20 to 25 minutes. It's not difficult because we just take one of the main roads. So anyway on December the 29th at 5 o'clock my host mom decided to take Yohei and I on a whirlwind adventure. To say the least anyway. First we went bowling. Before we got a lane, Mari-chan and I took on hord of Zombies in one of those shooting games. Another thing to add to the lost of things I am bad at. Bowling--> I'm self-proclaimed terrible at bowling. But then I had never played with Yohei before. Mari-chan kicked our butts with an enormous final score. I lost the first game to Yohei, but then won with a much higher score by the end of the second game. By mid-game, everytime Mari-chan got a strike or spare, Yohei and I moaned loudly. Though the gutters are still probably cursing Yohei and Julie. After bowling we headed to Karaoke. My favorite thing to do. Funny, right? The great thing about doing Karakoe with people who don't speak English, is that you could suck to high holy heaven and they would still be impressed. It started with Yohei singing some crazy Aime song, then I sang "Help" from the Beatles. Yohei, who I will admit is a pretty good singer, reluctantly gave up the mike to me and Mari-chan when it was our turn. It's funny because I have the world's worst voice and yet I absolutely love when it's my turn to sing. I sang "My Happy Ending" Avril Lavigne, "Bad Day" Daniel Powter, "Wonderwall" Oasis, "Wherever, Whenever" Shakira, and "Toxic" Britney Spears. Yohei and Mari-chan sang Jpop. I tried to take a picture of Yohei but I thought he might rip my head off if I tried. Karaoke is totally awesome, and it seems I enjoy more and more every time I do it. When our 1 and 1/2 hour in our private room was up, we decided to get Okonomiacki. The last Okonomiacki of 2006. So all in all I had an amazingly awesome time with my host family. You don't meet too many exchange students who have loved their families as much I love the Oonos and the Masaki's. Lucky? Heck yes.