New Housemate

This week a new house-mate moved in with my host family. I first learned of this last weekend when I was abruptly woken up by the sound of a vacuum cleaner. My father was cleaning the empty guest room at 8 in the morning when he should have still been sleeping. He told me that I was going to be getting a buddy who doesn't speak English. I nodded and went back to bed.

So I have not written about my new house-mate because of lack of info. I was really busy this week and just got to know him little bits each day. He moved in Wednesday and has been eating breakfast and dinner with me every day. His name is Aaron and he is from Sweeden. He does not speak English or Japanese very well at all. He says that he has been studying Japanese for a year and a half, but I find that really hard to believe. He doesn't know the short form or te form... His vocabulary list seems pretty limited too. In any case, it reminds me of when I first came to Japan last year. I know for a fact that I had a really hard time communicating.

So Aaron is going to be here until the end of March studying at an international school somewhere. Near the end of his stay he said he was going to go traveling around Japan. As to why he is studying Japanese I do not know, but it will be interesting to see how far he advances in these 3 months. I am really beginning to realize how far I have come in my own language skills.

Today I went with Toshi to the Waseda vs Keio rugby game. It was my very first experience ever with rugby and I must say that it is pretty cool. It is like American Football but much much better. For one thing the clock is always running. There is no stopping it when a penalty comes up or other BS like that. This made the game feel really intense and fast. There are also no plays per se. The ball is always moving back and forth. Whenever someone is pulled to the ground, a group of 5 guys or so from each team fight for the ball. Really intense stuff. The game is 40-45 minutes per half. You score 5 points for making a "touchdown" and another 2 with the goal kick afterwards. You can also do a penalty kick for 3 points. I thought it was really interesting that wherever the touchdown is scored, that is the position that from where the goal must be kicked. So potentially they could be kicking from the sideline! In any case, Rugby is a sweet game!

That was the good part of the game. The other part consisted of us freezing our asses off in the rain and coldness. Upon reaching the stadium, we bought some lunch (onigiri) and I bought a raincoat. I was told that umbrellas would not be allowed in the stadium, which turned out not to be true. In any case I was still grateful for the extra protection from the rain. I thanked Toshi over and over again for coming prepared. He brought towels to wipe off the seats, plastic to sit on, and handwarmers. I feel forever in his debt for keeping me much warmer than I would have been.

I am glad this week is over, it was pretty busy. It seems that from now until the end of the month I will have quite a few tests and papers due. It is nothing compared to being back at school, but not living 5 minutes away from campus really puts a dent in the time I have to do things!