The Villanuevas Visit Japan - Part I

This blog outlines my fam's first few days in Japan... (December 2008)

After a good night’s rest, I finally got the call. Dad was on a pay phone, saying that the Villanueva trio was getting the shinkansen into Koriyama on December 23. It was the morning after their expected arrival, but at least they had made it. The spent their first night in Japan in what Dad called a “cheap” hotel. That is, they stayed in the Narita Airport; their flight delays caused them to miss the last shink up to my prefecture.

My family spent their holidays in Japan with me from Dec. 23 to Jan. 5. I told everyone how my parents booked their flights online when they heard I got a spot on the JET Programme. The kicker? I still hadn’t accepted the position as an ALT, because I was waiting to hear the exact location of my placement. (When I heard that I was posted in Motomiya, Fukushima… it still took me a few weeks to send in my acceptance papers).

Anyways, my parents and brother left home on a very wintry morning as Canada faced “Snowmageddon.” All this snow caused their flights to be ridiculously delayed. I expected them on a Monday afternoon, but they arrived here the next day.
We all crammed into my little 1DKL, so it was a very tight squeeze but it worked. Basically, I have my bedroom that measures six tatami-mats; a living room of similar size; the kitchen/foyer; the bathroom; the unit bath/sink. They’ve heard me whine endlessly about the lack of heating in my apartment. When they slept over the first night, they immediately understood what I meant. I think I fed them curry and rice (a staple in any Japanese diet), and then we bought some snacks from the kombini. I think that’s when Dad first discovered the alcohol aisle in a convenience store. (We don’t have that back home).

December 24 – School Life

On their first full day in Fukushima-ken, I forced them to get up bright and early. We piled into Haruto Onegaishimasu (my kei-car), and made the one-minute drive to my base school: Motomiya Nichu.
First, I had my family slip on the fugly light brown guest slippers. I was surprised to see that many of my students were still weaving through the hallways, seeing as how winter holidays officially started the day before. The ichi-nensei kids whispered amongst each other, then would run up to me and say “HERRO!” They were constantly glancing at my family, so I was more than happy to introduce them.

We then headed up to the teacher’s room to say a quick hello. Kocho-sensei (Principal) invited us to his office for some green tea. Kyoto-sensei (vice-principal) and Mariko-sensei (my JTE – Japanese Teacher of English) joined us as well. We spoke in broken Japanese and English, with Mariko-sensei thankfully translating everything. Kocho-sensei mentioned that my Japanese has slightly improved! I remember my first day of school with him – we sat in mad awkward silence before he introduced me to the rest of the staff room.

I handed out Christmas cards and chocolates to the staff, and mentioned their omiyage (gifts) from Canada was being delivered later. I think that my family was awestruck by the sheer politeness of the teachers. When my family first came into the room, everyone stood up and started bowing.

We went for a quick walk throughout the school. As usual, it was really cold because the place isn’t heated. (We use old school kerosene heaters when class is in session). The gym was filled with kids doing their club activities (table tennis and basketball), so we dropped by to say hello. Ernest and I took a couple photos with the kids – it was pretty funny to have dozens and dozens of them swarm us.

As we were heading to my car, we accidentally interrupted the ongoing soccer practice. My other JTE (Sawafuji-sensei) happens to be the coach, so he stopped the drills and asked the boys to run over to us. Rei is one of my favourite ni-nensei boys – and he said in perfect English: “Good morning! Welcome to Motomiya Nichu!” They all did their bows; it was super kawaii. I wanted them to demonstrate their English skills, so we did morning greetings. Ya, I’m jokes. “Good morning, everybody! Good morning, Ms. Gemma! How are you today? I’m fine, thanks. And you? I’m fine, thank you.” So jokes.

We visited Iwane Elementary School for a few minutes as well. Kyoto-sensei let us go up to the roof of the school, where we got a pretty nice view of Motomiya. Only Ernest and I made a quick appearance at Gohyakugawa Elementary School, as Mom and Dad waited back at my apartment for the rest of their luggage to be delivered.

I think this was the first meal we bought from my favorite local burger joint – Mos Burger. (Ernest developed a strong liking to MOS. It is delish). And obviously, we saw Shirley and Brian drive past us while yelling from outside their windows. (Us three regularly eat at Mos Burger, so it was only fitting that we see them there).

We spent Christmas Eve dinner at Asahi Beer Factory with good friends (B., Shirls, Dan-kun) and good food. This was the first time my family experienced the wonders of nomihoudai /tabehodai(two hours of unlimited drinks and food). It was then followed by an evening of karaoke in Koriyama. I thought it was pretty funny that my supervisor had the beer garden on his cell phone’s speed dial; he made the reservations for us with ease. Nomihoudai and karaoke for Christmas Eve = you know you’re in Japan…