Homestay

My homestay started Saturday. Because they are short on families this year, there are actually 3 of us with the same family. At first I thought this would be cramped, but it has turned out fine, because we are not actually staying in the same house as our family. We are in the apartment next door, which is one of several they own in the vicinity. It’s nicely furnished and spacious. The latter means it is probably expensive, which is probably why it is not inhabited by a student like the others are.

The family is a middle-aged couple and the 30-ish son. They have two other children who are married and live elsewhere. The father hasn’t participated much in our stay yet, but the mother is pretty active in making sure we are well accommodated. Even so, so far we have only really been in contact during meals, because of the separate house thing. This is maybe not what I would consider an optimal scenario for homestay experience, but I’m sure we’ll do more stuff together throughout the week.

Already today we went to a sports festival at a nearby elementary school. It was pretty fun. There are some pics coming and a video or two as well eventually.

We happen to be the closest homestay, located about 20 minutes walk from the Kan (east past the Daiei). Some people are quite distant, requiring an hour or more or multiple train transfers to get to school. I’ve been told our location makes us lucky, and perhaps later in the week being able to get up later will cause me to agree, but right now I’m unsure. I kind of enjoy train commuting, so I think an excuse like that to take a couple every day wouldn’t have been bad at all. Oh well. It’s certainly nothing to complain about.