A post I wrote last night

So I'm homesick and bored to the point where I am watching A Knight's Tale. Yes, I know that just made a lot of you very, very sad. Seriously I don't know why I like this movie so much, it's super bad in a couple of respects but it does have early Heath Ledger and pre-firefly british accented Alan Tudyk. Oh and Paul Bettany as a completely naked Geoffrey Chaucer. Okay I do know why I like it. Before I get to all the excitement this weekend, I'll let you know I now sit on three episodes of Venture Brothers. I first got episode 6, which I just saw before I left with my brother. I was actually kinda happy I got this one even though I'd seen it. I loved the episode and got to watch the part where Dean points up at Brock and goes, "Naked". like 600 times and giggle. I made me think of James. I know that sounds weird, but if you know the episode you get it.

Oh, also everyone keeps asking why I don't just go to adult swim fix and watch these episodes online, well when I download them I'm normally in the lounge and I'm chatting with people (like, Kim) and doing a million different things (epsn.com, flickr, email, AIM, etc.), so I can't pay attention. The better part is that I now have them and can watch them multiple times when I have the time after my bath here at my host family's house. So, it makes perfect sense.

This weekend was long and crazy, the long part is easy to explain. It was a three day weekend with today being a day off because it is "Respect for the Eldery Day". It was super low key, I'll have to compare notes later with Kim to see how her homestay family handeled today, but mine was pretty relaxed. See, what this day is (I think) is like Mother's day and Father's day combined into Grandparents/old people day. So you go and visit said grandma and grandpa or take them out to dinner or in some cases the baseball game. No, seriously I watch all the Hanshin Tiger games, today there were TONS of grandparents in the crowds looking all shades of bewildered. I don't know if there are any living elder relatives of this family and since we didn't visit or invite any over or refer to any today then I'm going to guess there aren't. I was given some heads up by Soji (host brother) last night was we were taking laundry in before the typhoon hit that my host mom's little brother and wife where going to stop by today. This morning was the first she mentioned it and they were already here. I guess she just isn't keen on filling me in on stuff like this, but it didn't really matter in this case. We ate lunch and watched old home movies that had baby Soji and Okaasan and her brother's parents, and one of Minami (host sisters) elementary school play/dance. They were very very nice and it was cool to see old home movies although lunch consisted of takoyaki balls, which I don't like and rarely treat me well. They're basically little meatball sized pancake batter balls with octopus and some cabbage inside them. After lunch we hung around for a bit and then I was asked if I wanted to ride along with my host family to Kyoto, not to shop, but to drop people off at the train station. Which I assumed was host mom's family, but found out later it was just the younger brother's wife, since the younger brother is going to be living with us for 1-3 months while he works for Komatsu, the huge heavy machinery factory next to campus. He's staying down in the room near the front door and he's a nice enough guy, I'm just in shock that NO ONE told me. I was barely around Satuday and Sunday due to festivals and birthdays (getting to that, promise), but I would assume something like a move from Tokyo to Osaka in search of work for a guy whose got kids that are 16 and 14ish would be involve some planning. I guess maybe they had talked about it, I mean there was lots of talking going on that seemed serious in tone, but I had no clue what was being said. You'd think someone would pull me aside at one point and be like, "Hey stupid gaijin, the cat is on the table. Okay now that you feel cool that you know what I just said, little brother, come here, stay, for long time. FYI."

So the car ride was about two hours total, one hour to and one hour back. Once we got there the younger brother (I honestly don't know his name or what to call him, that's how so out of the loop I am) went to the train platform to say good by to his wife (no clue what her real classfication is either) I hung out with Okaasan for a few minutes. It was then I asked her if they had children, what her job was and why didn't he have a job in Tokyo (where there's from). The answers are, that his wife is a teacher and had to get back for school on Tuesday, he had a job, but has a heart problem that causes him to be sick a lot so he lost his job (or it was too hard for him to continue). Also they have three children, one girl that's 16 or so and twin (boys?) that are 13 maybe, I wasn't too fast on catching the ages. We picked up some dark bean pasty things (anko) and returned home. We drove by the Yogo River and took a couple of back roads to miss traffic, which was really fun and very pretty.

Once we got back we started in on making dinner, which was a horrifying prospect to me since lunch was very very overwelming. We had tacoyaki balls (those octopus things) and my Otoosan kept saying, "it's the only thing for lunch, I just made these, eat." It's hard to tell when he's joking so I kept choking down 3-4 more everytime he said that. I honestly ate waaaaay to much and could only pick at my rice and soup at dinner. Okaasan was worried, but she didn't take offense when Otoosan kind of confessed to overfeeding me. Thank God. Then I had another "OMG I'm so confused" moment right after everyone else was mid-way through their meal. The door opened to the kitchen, which caused me to look around and realize that everyone who lives in the house (plus little brother) were there and therefore this is a bad/good/I don't know thing. Then three people walked in with a bag and much laughter was had by all. It was a guy my age that was quiet, then a super tan guy and a woman that laughs like Mrs. Hardy/Betty Rubble, that apparently work with Okaasan at the Komatsu factory and came by to meet the little brother. They all moved to the big table in the kitchen leaving me, Soji and Minami at the new "kids" table by the tv. All I could do was just sit there in comlete shock. I had no idea who these people where, they scared the hell of me by being so loud and friendly all at once, I was full to the point of passing out, and now I had no clue how to run and hide in my room or take my bath. Thankfully these people were so nice that they laughed at my bewilderment and Okaasan explained (kind of) what was going on. Then a half an hour later she told me I could go use the bath ahead of Otoosan since he'd be talking with the adults for longer. This was aroun 8:30pm or so and since I don't like being in myPJ's around the family in general and there were these new people so after my shower at 9:00 or 9:30pm I said, "Good night" and ran up to bed. As I was walking up the stairs I heard Okaasan say to the other woman, "yeah she gets embarassed, but it's really cute." or something along those lines. They laughed and well, atleast I'm cute. :) And I love this movie, sadly my favorite line is in the deleted scenes from Chaucer's wife:

"They seem much more fun than those boring old pilgrims you hung out with last year."

Night!