Daily life and a national catastrophe

I finally got a camera last week so I have pictures to post. Well, actually, I had some before from my phone, so I'll post those as well. But first a little about the current state of Japan:

I am living in Hirakata city (枚方市) which is in the Osaka (大阪) prefecture, so the earthquake has not directly affected me. I personally am not even sure if I felt it because I was in a building that shakes a lot anyway, but a lot of people here did feel it. The tsunamis also spared the Osaka area, although they were absolutely devastating in other parts of Japan. Due to the earthquake and tsunami, several nuclear power plants have been damaged and radiation has been released into the surrounding areas of Japan, displacing thousands of people. The death count is still rising, and it looks like it will be quite a while before things go back to normal for the people in eastern Japan. I would give more details, but I'm sure you've all been following the news, so you probably already know what's going on. Maybe even better than I do since I keep trying to get my information from Japanese TV and newspapers, although I have been online also. It makes everything seem even worse when you're watching TV with a family who understands it, but all you can understand is the family when they say かわすぎるね！(too scary, isn't it!) Yesterday, I tried to read this newspaper:

This is just fire in a flooded area, but later on TV there were burning houses being swept along by the tsunami

The headline (東日本地震 大津波) means "East Japan earthquake big tsunami," which I can actually read, despite it being in kanji, to my host family's surprise. Unfortunately, that was about all I could read. Still, the pictures show what's going on well enough, and it isn't pretty.....

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I was going to start this blog with a description of my trip to Hiroshima (広島), but given the morbid nature of that trip and the already not very uplifting start to this blog, I think I will leave that for later and talk about my everyday life here first. I am currently living in Hirakata with my host family, the 日下部s (Kusakabes). It only takes me 20 mins to walk to school, and the Kusakabes are very kind to me so I'm definitely glad I chose not to live in a dorm. There are challenges too of course, no one in my host family speaks very good English, although they all know a little, and they have breakfast at 7:20 most days, which is way too early for me. I think getting up that early is taking it's toll on me, or maybe it's the fact I have to speak so much Japanese, but I feel like I'm always tired even though I don't do that much. Even so, I'm really enjoying Japan, and have already learned more than I thought I would in the entire semester, so I do not regret coming here.

This is the first picture I took of the Kusakabe's house, it's 3 stories tall but each floor is tiny so it's actually not very big.

My home while in Japan

Looking through the doorway into my room

Note the "God Bless America" plaque on the door, not what I'd have picked at all, but still kinda sweet. My room isn't that large, but it's definitely big enough for me, especially since I get to fold up my bed every day. 

My room during the day

The carpet is heated, which is nice since it gets pretty cold in Japanese houses

My host sister practices the piano in my room, but makes sure it doesn't bother me

My room at night

りな (Rina), the Kusakabe's cat, in her favorite spot in front of the heater, although it was off when I took this pic

Everything is all squashed together here and the Japanese idea of what needs space is very different from the American one. For example, there are shrines all over but they're right next to trash and grocery stores:

I pass by this shrine on my way to school every day.
You can't see it in this pic, but there's a trash collection place right next to it.

The roads are very narrow, but I haven't been hit by a bus yet (pic taken on my way home from school)

Beautiful Japanese roof next to an ugly water tank (pic taken near Kansai Gaidai)

Soon after I got here, it snowed (which it hardly has since). This is what my school, Kansai Gaidai (関西外大), looks like in the snow:

View out of a window of CIE (Center for International Education)

And another

Flowers covered in snow

A closer look at the same flowers

My host brother and sister were very excited by the snow, and I spent quite a while outside with them and the other neighborhood kids, who didn't seem to mind that I don't speak much Japanese.

Snowball fight

The kids always want me to juggle
(Yes, I know I'm about to drop, but snowballs stick to gloves pretty bad and this is the only pic my host mother got of me juggling)

I made a "yuki neko"

It was pretty ugly, but the kids loved it...

....and somehow carried it back to their house without too much damage
Although the legs and tail had to be put back on

It's been a while since it's snowed now though, and the weather, while not warm, is a lot warmer. About a week ago I saw the first うめ (plum) blossoms:

うめ (ume) at night

Now there are ume blossoms everywhere, but it'll be a few weeks before the sakura is out.