Day 12 | Changing the host family, welcome party and karaoke bar

Back to our stories from Japan, luckily there is plenty of them and the memories and the excitement have not abandoned me. I will have to start now "in medias res" as I wrote on my other blog some things of the first 11 days. Later on I am going to make here one post as a summary of everything that happened there.

And many things indeed happened and involved working at the restaurant of my host family, visiting the Pacific coast (sounds better than saying just normal beaches), my first experience at the Buddhist temples (visited 2) and learning more about the Japanese philosophy, mentality, culture, eating at the restaurants in the town, visited Wakayama city, my first baseball match in general where I cheered for our local school, volunteering at the preschool, visited elementary and high school and spent a few minutes in the classrooms including the introduction in English, had a welcome party and visited the major of Gobo town, participated in a tea ceremony and had a small dinner party at home before leaving today for the new family.

I stayed there about 28 days in total and now we are slowly approaching the half of my stay there. It is now time to refresh some memories.

Day 12. Moving to the third family, welcome party in the evening and the second time in a karaoke bar

I was dead tired at the end of the last day. The day before we had to wake up around 7 or earlier after coming home the same night about 1 a. m. after spending 2 hours at the karaoke bar somewhere in Gobo. We went by car to Wakayama city with Mr. Yamashita (who had pretty fun time in the karaoke bar after few glasses of suspicious water) and spent there several hours which included watching the baseball match between Hidaka High School (our team) and Wakayama high school. Hidaka of course won. For me it was much more interesting to observe the atmosphere and listen to the school orchestra. Unfortunately, though it was a bit cloudy all the time I understimated the power of sun and got sunburnt on my nose a bit and my knees looked completely red. Afterwards we went for lunch to some restaurant in the center and then back home. I slept a bit at home dead tired. In the evening my host family organized a dinner party to which came high school friends of my host sister and some of our mom. We spent the time eating delicious food, talking about the adventures and of course differences between "Kuroachia" and Japan. And I was shocking them all the time by adding sugar into the tea. After 2-3 hours it was time for the friends to go home. And time to go to sleep for me.

In the morning, after having breakfast I packed all of my stuff and was ready to change the family for the second time. I really enjoyed my stay here and learned more of the Japanese everyday, habits, students and tradition (the tea ceremony! ) and had lots of fun. My host mom walked me to the car and we went to our new destination and my home for the next 2 nights and 3 days.

We arrived to a big house near some marketplace next to the road and relatively close to the river and the bridge in the middle of Gobo. Once I stepped out I met my new host family who was waiting for us on the outside. My new host family was a bit older than the previous two and I also called them 'host grandparents' actually. They live in a big family house which has more than more than enough (yes, double) space for a few persons. I will call the new host family by the name of Yanse, Mr. Yanse, though short and old, offered himself to take up one of my bags. I knew how heavy they were and there was no way I would ask the others, especially the elderly, for help but he refused and was happy to help me. He showed no weakness though. Up the stairs on the second floor I met with my host grandma and other members of the house who came there. There were also two students, apparently the grandchildren of my Japanese grandparents. What I remembered from the short conversation between my new host family and the previous host mom they were going to prepare another welcome party for me in the evening on the top of the building. This time nothing official with Lions but rather informal and with about 15-20 people in total who were about to come this evening.

Again huge language barriers but...

.. we succeeded to overcome them.

Speaking of language barriers they existed here almost at the same level as with my first host family. Maybe it was even more difficult as there was only 3 of us living at home in those days. And there was no Internet to use the dictionary. I would have died of shock if my host grandparents knew some English (never forget that English is not everywhere spoken and not being learned by all the living things in the World as it is not needed everywhere). Thus I had to brush up further more my Japanese. We used to use the picture dictionaries. They had two of them and then in combination with the app on my mobile phone we managed to survive somehow. It took us sometimes 15 minutes to just check a question or two but for my Japanese grandparents it was pretty much fun to communicate. They especially enjoyed it when I tried to speak in Japanese with my modest elementary knowledge I was learning there.

What I noticed again when entering the enormous house was the box at the entrance with lots of slippers. In case you do not know the Japanese take off the shoes all the time right after entering the house and leave them there in the enclosed area. While walking around the house you are most likely going to use one pair of slippers. Not rarely are there special ones for the bathroom and the rest room (toilet) too!

I entered my room and just like it is the case with practically all the apartments and homes I visited and have been to - there is an air conditioner in every living or bedroom. And it was really hot, I remember I could not sleep sometimes or just wake up early in the morning at the sunrise. I had a table there but as mentioned earlier the thing that killed me a little bit was having no Internet at home. I mean, I know that the grandparents there did not need it for themselves, they had something in the office in the building and store right across the yard. I was just unable to use the dictionaries or write something on the blog (and still haven't finished the story, it continues here). There was a Yu-Gi-Oh! background for the desk as I believe one of the grandchildren was in this room before I came. I also found a doll of a dog which was as same as the one my sister got for birthday 10 years ago. The look from my windows was towards the east (one more reason it was impossible to be in the room without the air conditioner). And this is what I saw first and the closest to me. Over the narrow street on the other side there was a landfill for the old unused cars and some little house that could have been also a car mechanic. This all looked pretty much like a robot graveyard a little bit (if we imagined cars to be Transformers). There I saw an older Japanese guy walking around. Later on when I tried to get in to make some photographs he was not much fond of it. As you can guess I did not know how to explain what I want precisely and he was suspicious of my plans. The other day he talked with my host family, they explained to him which planet and country I came from and he was then very curious and allowed me to go around.

Tour around the area and plans for tonight

Soon after leaving my stuff there they went to show me the house and the store they own. There we had a huge nice kitchen with a big fridge. Since I am pretty modest it was all too much for me and did not want to brake something, the eternal fear. My Japanese grandma showed me what to eat from the fridge and that I can take Pocari or any other drink any time I want. Actually, the store they own has tons of drink so this was a huge luxury for me there. I took maybe 2 Pocari juices in total when going on the bike tours around (more in the next column! ) to have something to refresh me during the hot days. The bathroom had pretty much the same concept like those I have seen and used earlier.

• You can read more of my descriptions of some things considering life in Japan at the same blog here. There are 5 parts.

The toilet was also automatic with lots of buttons which gave me a headache in the beginning. Luckily I learned some tricks and since there were pictograms I quickly learned which any of them means. (And yes, I pressed something and jumped back in order not to get my face instead of my buttocks washed).

There was also one room they showed me and I have been there maybe 2 times in total quickly. They hold in a corner some kind of a "religious" wooden stand (some would first think special kind of a rack or altar from the church). There in the middle is a photograph of some person who died, most likely a family member. I guess we would call this "a prayer room".

There in the living room were also the doors to the balcony so I had a chance to enjoy my meal also outside once. The other day when no one was at home for a few hours and before my bike adventures I used to take some snack, go to the balcony, sit and watch everything in front of me. It was the summer midday and I would follow the clouds over the sky moving left and right quickly, the cars and cyclist on the road, some of the pedestrians passing through the street and the workers from the store (I am going to meet now in our timeline) doing their business out. In these moments I would think how far I am right now from Zagreb and the everyday, but at the same time I did not regret at all not being in Croatia and did not want to go back because who knows if I am going to have a chance ever again to go there.

Anyway, before the store I went with my grandpa Mr. Yanse up on the roof where he wanted to show me the place we were going to have our second welcome party the same evening. We came to a relatively large roof (as it is flat by the way) and I saw that the tables were already up. Mr. Yanse showed me then the inside of one sort of a warehouse (also on the roof) where they kept in a fridge the drinks under the ice and other stuff for grilling. I felt a huge respect towards this family (and nothing less for those who hosted me in the days before) as they were doing pretty much all of that just because I was their guest. All of that was more than what I am used to normally.

And the last on the list are the store and the employees

I met several of the employees in front of the store and outside it. I had no idea what to expect to see inside as I could not understand much my grandpa (and would have to quickly start trying to search for the words or what I thought I had heard in my offline dictionary). He guided me sort of throughout the whole shop and showed where he got his bottle of fine drink and other products. He was so happy that I was with him and introduced me to the others there as well as the rest of the family. He also told me I could take any bottle from the shelf for myself if I wanted (if "freedom - you - any - bottle- wish- take" could be translated as that) which gave me a headache. Of course I took none. After trying to introduce myself to the others in Japanese and after seeing everything at the first floor Mr. Yanse led me to the office above. We climbed up the stairs and he showed me the place he spends half of the day at managing the company.

The second welcome party on the top of the house

I spent the rest of the day before evening mostly in my room resting on the bed and trying to read and write some Japanese. I also checked the photographs that I would later on upload online on Facebook or Tumblr. Before the dinner (party) I shaved myself and still looked like a red tomato because of the mistake of the earlier day. And especially the day after it was more red than before which I hate and looked like a clown during the evening.

When the time for the dinner came they called me to climb up and sit at the table. I went upstairs excited to see what was going on and found out there were already 10 people up on the floor. Some of them I had already known from the Lions Club or just slightly remembered, some of them came to me happy to apparently see me again but I had no idea who they were... some I saw for the first time. Some were grilling and it smelled pretty delicious and tasted indeed (proved later! ). There I saw one of the stuff from Lions Club Gobo who waited for me with other members at the airport, she could speak English and she helped me a bit to get to know the others around. There was also some other student there who looked pretty much younger than me but was several years older (you know this phenomenon, they never age! ) who also spoke a little bit English so for me it was easier to hang out with. The employees were also invited and I remember one guy with the curly hair and the red cap who reminded me of some Pokemon trainers or some characters from the DragonBall Z. Oh yeah, DragonBall Z and Son-Goku are the universal language and everyone understands me and I to them when we discuss it. You just have to jump around with "Kamehameha" and we turn ultra happy and excited! He did not speak much English except for a few words so the others helpd us translate the things or I just tried to use every gram of my brain to remember all the vocabulary I heard and ask the questions. And succeeded.

We had several tables and occuppied I would say 10 meters or more of the surface. Then we started serving the cold drinks from the fridge with ice. There was the delicious okonomiyaki (barbecue), lots of meat and vegetables. Talking about the drink we had a bit of Pocari (which I was grabbing all the time), the green tea (I was running away all the time) and the alcohol free beer where I tried to tell them a joke about difference between Croatia and Japan. And succeeded.

There came the other guest soon. Mr. Ishikura from the Anchin Restaurant (my first host family) came there and he sat on the other side of the table surrounded with a few other guys. A few times I heard my name there and people laughing. Ishikura-san is a big joker but a good guy. Then I also came there after getting that he was making some jokes on me and made a joke on him in front of the others so that they could understand. It was fun.

This all lasted for about 2 or a bit more hours, cannot remember any more, and the guests had to slowly start going home. I was talking with many of them as they were curious about me and got more or less the same questions but I never got bored and wanted to have a chance to talk with as many of them as possible. There were also the youngest grandchildren of Mr. Yanse whom I played Gameboy earlier around the lunch time with. Mr. Yanse was also having a camera in his hand and was jumping around laughing and documenting everything. He took lots of pictures of me and later printed them in his own Foto Studio. I received the photographs from him and family Ishikura on my last days in Japan when I got back to Gobo after 2 weeks of fun with the youth camp.

After a few hours there was no more drink in the fridge but still some food left so I tried to help the others by eating it. Nothing to be thrown away! However, not everyone left. There were still about 6-7 guests from the Lions Club as the plan was that we go to the karaoke bar. I helped a little bit to clean the tables but they just say I go downstairs if I need to go to prepare myself and we were off to the karaoke bar.

Karaoke bar as a finale of the day

I already had some experience with the karaoke bar 2 nights earlier when I went there with the previous host family. I felt uncomfortable for the first time as it was breaking the ice and I did not like the idea of embarrassing myself in front of the other people. But it turned out to be lots of fun. Except for the parts when I just heard my voice only and wanted to stick the chopsticks into my head.

They told me the karaoke bar was pretty close to us and it was about 9-10 p. m. when we went there. It took us about 5 minutes or less walking as it was in the same street. Its size was similar to the one I had been before. Relatively small bar for the people from the neigbhourhood. Do not forget that Gobo, my town, has a population of about 25. 000 and there are many karaoke bars so the capacities were not that important.

We entered the bar and there was no one else except for us. The interior was in red colors with a few sofas and bar chairs. I sat with a friend of mine (who spoke somewhat English) at the bar and the others (Mr. Yanse and his friends) on the sofas next to us. The waitress came to ask us for a drink and we automatically got green tea and some cakes. Then she handled both to our table and off the old guys there a device to choose the songs and put them on a waiting list. My friend did not know too many songs in English that I knew and due to the obvious reasons I could not sing the songs in Japanese. Because I either had no clue of them, or more obvious - I could not read both 3 scripts mixed in lyrics just like that.

The old pals started to sing first and each of the men from the group sang about 2-3 songs. I think Mr. Yanse started the first. They were singing more of less some older Japanese love songs or some popular folk music. I never heard of any of it of course but it was interesting and some of them, including my host grandpa, had a pretty good voice. Then our turn came. While the others were singing we were having the problem to find some appropriate song. And when we found it we still had to wait for the others. You also have to pay attention to it that karaoke was invented in Japan (I mean, ka-ra-o-ke cannot sound anything else than only Japanese) and they enjoy going there and singing. And what was the first song? If you know me it is more than obvious!

Yes, Dragonball! I can sing western songs in the West but since I only live once and visited Japan for sure only this time (and hopefully more) I could not miss the opportunity to get totally into Dragonball since, you have to understand, no other words can explain it. Both my colleague and I got the microphones and were preparing ourselves. I was though fully aware of one problem - the lyrics on the screen were in the Japanese writing system and I could not follow it. So we quickly used the Internet on her mobile phone to find the "Doragonboru" lyrics with Roman letters. Thus we ended up with her watching the karaoke screen and singing while I was doing the same but watching the screen of the mobile phone and scrolling down the text with one finger. Singing "Doragonboru" in Japanese in Japan was pretty special experience. And our seniors were also very excited about it and joined us a few times with the main refrain. Once we were done they were clapping their hands and I heard "Sugoi ne! Subarashii" a few times and took it as a good sign.

Now our older friends started changing between themselves again singing their songs and my colleague and I searched for 2 more songs for that evening. One of the song was something Western this time I knew but only the main part, the rest was a bit foggy in my head. We tried it and it was good. It is much easier to sing as a duet than alone, then I do not hear my voice that much. It can be bad if the other side sucks. Meanwhile grandma Yanse came to join us and sang as well. Just like the Lions stuff who spoke in English, she has a very good voice and probably beat us all there.

The last song I picked up (as could not find anything else) was something from Depeche Mode, cannot remember what precisely. I knew the lyrics and had it all perfectly prepared in my head but as soon as I opened my mouth and heard my voice I just got instant diarrhea.

Going back home with my "merry" Japanese grandpa and plans for the following day

Speaking of drinks, the senours did not want us to drink anything alcoholic as "it was dangerous for us". Alright. Yet they were the ones who got a bit drunk in the end, but it's okay. We had to celebrate, right!? It was time to go home as it was around midnight. We thanked the waitress and left the bar. It was pretty silent around and one could hear a few cars from one of the main roads that go through Gobo over the bridge.

My Japanese grandpa apparently drank a bit more than he should have and was pretty 'happy' all the time. Since he was pretty old we were worried he would not have some problems while walking towards the home so both my colleague and I took him from both sides for under the arms and helped him on our way home. I could not help but think to myself at the moment "Whoa, it is 12th of July 2016, I just left the karaoke bar and am holding my (a bit) drunk Japanese grandpa who had an awesome night on our way back home. That does not happen every day! ". After reaching the doors of the house our grandma Yanse was already there, came a bit earlier to prepare the beds, and thanked for the help. I ate something a little bit, went to the bathroom and checked if Mr. Yanse was okay. He fell asleep pretty fast. The next day he had no problems and everything was fine.

I went to sleep thinking of what should I do on the next day. And I had a plan. Time to look for some bicycle and make a tour around. And maybe surprise someone.

Thanks for reading.

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