The Final Orientation

*****For reference throughout this post, Katsumi Itoh is my country officer, that means he chose me for Japan and is handling much of the logistical preparations. He and his wife are from Japan, but he has lived in America for many years now and speaks perfect English. He also has been hosting meetings for the Japanese outbounds, (girls going to Japan) so that we are more well prepared in the areas of Japanese language, culture, and etiquette. Iyasko Itoh is his wife.

The Final Orientation
As I approached the front door of the Itoh house, Iyasko greeted me in Japanese. When I stepped inside she told me to say, “osokunarimashita“, and about the third time I got it right. I asked her what it meant and she said it means, “sorry for being late”. I wasn’t aware I was running late, but no way on earth was I about to question a Japanese person on punctuality. I took a seat on the couch with Amelia. Katsumi was sitting in a nearby chair. I glanced at his watch to see just how late I was. It was exactly 1:32, (the meeting started at 1:30). By the time I walked to the door, greeted Iyasko, pronounced osokunarimashita correctly, took my shoes off, said hi to the dog, and took my seat, it would be reasonable to say that about 1 minute had passed since my initial arrival, meaning I arrived at 1:31. Lesson learned: they aren’t joking when they say punctuality is important in Japan. When it begins at 1:30, it begins at 1:30. As soon as I sat down, Iyasko brought over some pictures of the Fujii’s! I was thrilled to see some pictures of my host parents. Admittedly, they were a bit older than what I was expecting, but they look such nice people. Shortly after, Jill arrived and we began. First, we talked about flight arrangements. Then Katsumi gave us an extensive lecture. I hate to use the word “lecture” here, because lecture usually carries a negative connotation. It was very motivational, but at the same time, somewhat provocative of fear. But of a healthy fear, and that is, perhaps, what made it so motivational. He spoke of a girl whose best friend died while she was on exchange, but rather than taking the next plane home, she chose to finish her exchange. He then talked about how you have to be strong, because it’s not just a year away from home, and it won’t always be easy, (I imagine it will rarely be easy), and you won’t have your parents or your friends there to support you. About how you need to have purpose and make goals for yourself, or you’ll get no where. The fear that this envoked was only a fear, a terrible fear, of wanting to do more than just ok. But then he talked about how you gain so much from the experience. Then onto Japanese. We practiced pronunciation and reading. After that, he informally quizzed us on Japanese history, asking formidable questions about the names of certain emperors and military leaders and the origin of the samurai. Although the questions were difficult, it was cool to learn some Japanese history. While we had been talking, Iyasko prepared a Japanese snack for us. I had a bit of difficulty with the ohashi, or chopsticks, but the snack itself was quite good. It was rice inside of a sort of brown skin or something. It was sweet. When we started to eat, Katsumi gave the orders, “ok, no more English”. So he began talking to us in Japanese. I didn’t catch much of it….ok, any of it. I did manage to say “wakarimasen”, or “I don’t understand”. But you can usually guess their meaning from context , facial expressions, and gestures. For example, Katsumi had just finished his first, whatever the rice things are called, maybe it was ohagi, anyways, he something that included kudasai, which is used as please when you’re asking for something, so I passed the ohagi plate and I was right! Wooo! A minor victory, but I was quite pleased with myself. This proves that even when you can’t understand a word of what they’re saying, you can still understand them…well, sometimes. Then the inbounds, (students from Japan) , along with Katie, (a girl who on exchange to Iyo a few years ago), arrived and the outbounds left. My ride was a few minutes late. The minute the other outbounds were out the door, everyone started talking in Japanese. I distinctly remember my name coming up followed by outbursts of laughter. Anyways, I was perfectly content to listen and pretend like I was following them. When my brother arrived to pick me up, Katsumi said, “oh, your brother, are you sure it’s not your boyfriend?” I laughed. He can be quite the comedian sometimes. As I left they said “matte something”, which is like “see you later”, I think.