Family time

This week I stayed with the Nagano family. Their home and lifestyle was one of the most modern of the families I have stayed with. They had a son and daughter my age. The father and mother spoke really good English, especially the father. He had more of a British accent than Japanese. Both nights they entertained me with wine and desserts. Because of their language skills, it allowed us to have some pretty intimate conversations.


We were watching a BBC story about Chinese and Japanese leaders are trying to overcome tensions between the two countries. I asked about the source of the conflict. Apparently, it stems from WWII. Unlike Japan and America, they have never overcome the hard feelings that followed. He told me that perhaps it was because China is a communist country and Japan constitutional monarch. Approaching understanding from such different perspectives is difficult.

The conversation offered me the opportunity to ask about Japanese sentiment toward Americans after we dropped the bombs. He replied that he doesn't see much hostility left. It's a new generation now, who admires America. We also talked about the American sentiment toward Japan, which I think is largely positive, save for a few veterans and elderly who lived through Pearl Harbor and fighting the Japanese.

Lesson learned: Intercountry relations is never simple.

Breaking down the barriers

We spent most of our time in Kesennuma exploring the Rikuchu Coast National Park. It's pretty impressive. I'll let the photos speak for themselves. The great thing about being outdoors is that it takes no translation, no special culturual understanding. There are no faux pas.







I'm learning that when we have homestays, the first night is the hardest. It's sometimes hard to judge where they want to you be and how happy they are that you're there. I find that I sort of freeze up in any of the language that I have learned. Then, the second night we all seem to open up. Dinner became a mix of words and phrases from both languages, as we tried to get to know each other with limited means.

My first impression of our host mother was that she was hosting us out of obligation, but by the morning of our departure, she told us that we was sad we were leaving and wished we were staying four days instead of two.


Lesson learned: Just got to break down that first wall.