Second

Since arriving in Japan and experiencing the joys of orientation, icebreakers, et cetera, I moved into the home of the kind people that are allowing me to be their awkward, semi-deaf-mute, white son for the year. As the director of the program loves to say, 'when people come to Kyoto (especially foreigners), they expect to be immediately greeted by machi-ya, geisha, and a big pile of temples. When they get off a perfectly modern train and are faced with perfectly modern apartments, offices, and Lawson convenience stores, they feel somehow shortchanged. So, while I will doubtless visit many temples, shrines, and a castle or two, most will be 'life in Japan' stuff. I have no doubt every city is unique- Japan is, as it turns out, a pretty big country with a lot of people, and there's a whole lot of variation. However, as someone who has never left the US, things like 'oh my god there is a porcelain basin in the floor with a hood on one end, what wrong turn did I take when I meant to go to the bathroom' are what I am like to notice. Maybe I'll ascribe Kyoto things as Japan things.. such is life. As a (there is no non-pretentious way to say this.. I started with 'a student of history' and nearly vomited in my mouth) history major, and one that is caught up in the current trend for "invented tradition" (hell, one of the classes I'm taking is straight up about invented "historical-ness" in Kyoto today), I have a concern for properly classifying things. On the other hand, I am an American wondering why the remote control for the air conditioner exists, first off, and then, why it has about as many buttons as the remote control for the television.
I know many, many blogs exist about 'life in Japan' (the venn diagram of people likely to blog and people likely to do a JET programme or otherwise live in Japan is a circle). Many are probably based in Kyoto! I don't know and I don't care. This is for my friends, not for the internet, and the latter can collectively suck it.
So anyway, home. My host parents are extremely kind, and bear my attempts at speaking their language with (so far) unflagging patience. I am apparently their 21st homestay student (the mantle is covered with framed pictures of my predecessors), so they have had practice. Japanese food has defied my expectations- for one thing, everyone seemed convinced I would be losing some weight here on tiny Japanese portions. It seems that my host mother has anticipated my giant foreigner appitite, and has been preparing food accordingly. In order to not seem rude, I have eaten it all.. at times, a struggle. She has also tried to make me feel at home- one night, we had corn soup- as far as I could tell, corn boiled (maybe blendered first) until it was soup. She asked me if it was like we had at home, which I cauld not answer. Hell, maybe I don't know my own country (my mother (as a note- mother means my real mother, homestay mother will always be distinguished as such or as 'Japan-mom') informs me that native americans made corn soup, but that hardly counts), and somewhere in the south they eat it with every meal. She's still making the very mistake I excuse myself for by assuming that all America eats and lives the same way, though. Also, either way, it tasted very good and was paired with more Japanese-y but no less delicious dishes. In double addition, I might be assuming 'she's trying to make me feel at home' when in reality these are just things that the Japanese people have adopted and made their own. For instance, bread for breakfast is a staple all of my other friends in homestays have reported they recieved at least once. It is usually toasted, but sliced extremely thick- almost an inch. Strange! Some days the more traditional route is taken, rice and miso soup. These two things also make an appearance at almost every meal- rice is a huge thing for the Japanese (miso is extremely common, but I haven't heard it have the same cultural, almost religious importance given to it). I read a paper in civ class about how this was constructed in the meiji period, and so calling Japan a 'rice country' is silly (written by a Japanese scholar). Be that as it may, constructed or no, the Japanese today place tremendous importance on rice. One of my friends was told "A single grain of rice can create 80 grains, so every grain you leave uneaten in your bowl is 80 grains wasted." Though, again regarding invented tradition, it's not like the Scottish don't go crazy about kilts, which were invented in the 1700s by an Englishman.

In other foods we have eaten, I was taught for the first time how to eat non-yaki soba. I was a little confused when presented with a plate of totally plain soba fresh from the boiling water.. I knew that the cuisine I was looking forward to was more subtle than the Bold American Flavors I am accustomed to, but this was a little much, I thought. It turns out I was right; the trick is to fill a short cup with soy sauce, spring onions, wasabi, and other things I couldn't identify. You take a mouthful of soba noodles at a time, drop them in the cup, then fish out the now perfectly flavored noodles and eat them immediately. An interesting solution to the sauce soaking into the noodles too much and making them soggy and overly flavored, not so much a problem with tomato-based sauces but an omnipresent danger when using soy sauce. How cool!

Anyway, check back whenever for more tales about 'whatever I think is interesting when I am putting off my homework!'