My vague recollection was that we had some sort of group dinner, and that's where we met them. I'm not quite sure just how I managed to get hooked up with Yuko and Yutaka... I believe we'd had to fill out profiles before we ever went over there, which they used to match up students and families. I think it was safe to say I had the hippest, youngest, craziest party animal host parents of any students in the group. As noted in Part 1, Yuko, my mom, was an administrator at a hospital. This was pretty unusual - not only for a woman to still be in the workforce in her mid-40's, but for her to hold a position of authority. Yutaka was a school teacher. I don't remember what subject he taught. They had no children. And... they didn't actually live in the same house. The lived in houses that were next to each other - you had to cross a little back yard to get to Yutaka's house. And... the whole time I was there, I think I was only ever at Yutaka's house maybe 2 or 3 times.
Yuko's house was modern and immaculately clean. As with all Japanese houses, it was also quite small and maximized space. Entering through the front door, you were faced first with a foyer. This was where you changed from your outdoor shoes into your indoor slippers. (They had a new pair of slippers all ready for me upon arrival). One does not wear shoes inside Japanese houses.
Proceeding through the foyer door into the house, the main "hallway" was really just a small square. If you went left, you would be in essentially the main living space of the house. Which was... a bar. Rather than a raised bar with chairs, it was a sunken bar - the bar itself was only about 6 inches above the floor, and essentially the floor ended about 1 foot away from the bar and dropped down into a little seating area. The area served as dining room, living room, den, and entertainment space. The floor was dark brown wood, highly polished. Again with the theme of space maximixation, the entire back wall of the room were closets - but it just looked like wall. Inside the bar was a sink, a refrigerator, and lots of space for (expensive) booze. There was a TV over the bar. If you walked all the way through the main room, the kitchen was on the far end, and on the right, before the kitchen, was a tiny little utility room - my only recollection of its use was to hang laundry dry. I'm thinking that the "bath" room (not the toilet) was to the right of the kitchen, but I'm not fully remembering. I do know that it was its own room. Japanese take their baths very seriously. They take them pretty much every night. The shower area was separate from the tub - and the tub was small and relatively deep. And... hot. Japanese bathed HOT. One did not take a bath in Japan to get clean - you did that outside, in the shower, before the bath. Baths were... spiritual. That was it for the downstairs left side of the house. Except... the exit to Yutaka's house, which was essentially on the far end of the bar.
On the right hand side of the main hallway was the toilet. Which (thank goodness) was a Western style toilet (with a puffy heated seat). I discovered early on during my first 2 orientation days that many Japanese toilet were "squatties" - hygienic, for sure, but something to get used to for Western folks used to sitting.
Straight in front of the entrance was a very narrow steep staircase. At the top of the stairs on the left was my bedroom. It was small, very modern, sparse, and very comfortable. The bed was a futon style bed, on top of a platform under which were a set of drawers. The furniture was all black, and the bedding was expensive and off white. Across from the bed was a black desk and chair; There was a closet next to the door. Japanese style shades covered the windows. Then, across from my room was my host mother's room. I don't recall actually EVER being in her room - or at least very often. I don't have any good memory of what it looked like.
What I do remember, strongly, is the smell of the house. Which was... an extremely strong clean scent of lemon type furniture polish, covering up the smell of cigarette smoke. Both Yuko and Yutaka were heavy smokers - which likely was one of the reasons I was placed with them. At that point in time, in the 80's, many Japanese still smoked - particularly men. Much more so than in the US, where smoking was already starting to be banned in public places. Which makes me, just now, remember that they also had an air filter system in the Bar room.
I remember my first breakfast in the house. I arrived in late August. The summer Olympics were still going one. Kyoto was hot - it was still pretty high summer there. And humid. So, the air conditioner was running pretty constantly. I came down from my new bedroom to the breakfast which Yuko had prepared for me - which ended up being breakfast daily for pretty much the rest of the "warm" season. There was super-strong dark good coffee. There were these HUGE pieces of essentially "Texas Toast" - really thick toasted white bread. There was butter and jam for the toast, and there were these enormous dark purple grapes - a bit sour, with seeds in them. I think this was probably considered a "Western" style breakfast.
There were a couple of days of settling in before school started. I realized pretty early on that my host parents were wealthy. For one, Yutaka had a car. It was VERY expensive to maintain a car in Japan. The car (like many Japanese cars) was white - it was Yutaka's pride and joy, and he kept it immaculately clean. Yutaka ALSO had... a yacht. Which he took me out on early on - like that first weekend, with some friends. After which... we had lunch in the yacht club. One of the dishes you could find in many places in Japan was spaghetti - not a good old fashioned loads of Italian sauce and meatballs sort of dish, but something a little shorter on sauce and meat. Which... was served with Tabasco sauce on the side. This was an early experience for me in that Japanese phenomenon where pretty much every Western style (food, product, concept) has its own unique Japanese twist placed on it. Nothing, NOTHING was ever exactly as it is in the West.
On one of those early days, too, we had Yuko's brother's family over. He was a young good looking guy with a young good looking wife and a couple of young boys. I remember one of them was "Dai-chan". (Chan is an affectionate way to address either close friends or children, and is much less formal than "San"). At all of these get togethers (this was just the first of many, many... my host family was very gregarious...), there was much eating, drinking, and being merry. As noted - the living room was essentially a bar. The Kozus drank scotch. Expensive scotch. Which they mixed with water to produce a (noxious, in my book) drink called "Mizuari"). Fortunately for me (not a scotch drinker) they kept plenty of beer around too. There was also a trap door in the floor of that room which lifted up, and where there was a whole stash of bar snacks.
One of the things that would often start to happen during these drinking parties was singing. Generally off key, loudly, using beer bottles as microphones.
A couple of days after my arrival, it was time to start school. Yuko-san had given me careful instructions on where to walk to catch the bus, which bus to catch, where to get off, and how to get to the school. I was pretty nervous about this trip (imagine being in a country where you really can't read much of anything). But... I made it to the school alright. It was the first of many days where I started to have to get used to being the only non-Japanese person in a particular environment. Feeling self conscious was pretty much a constant in Japan.
I really don't remember much about my first day at school.... except... coming home. Which is to say, I got lost. I got off at the correct bus stop... but from there, really had no idea whatsoever where to go. (It's that 2 X chromosome thing - regularly screws me up. It screws me up running in the woods too.) This, of course, was in the days before cell phones. (Japanese pay phones were also a novelty... by the way...
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| Pink phones were for local calls |
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| You needed a green phone for long distance or international |
Alas... I don't think I even knew Yuko's telephone number at that point. Or maybe I did. I don't recall exactly how I managed to make my way home (which was only a couple of blocks). I have a vague recollection of talking to a stranger who kindly walked me most of the way. That was actually the only time I ever got lost.
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