September 30, 2006 - page 2

There are Coca-Cola machines rubbing shoulders with ancient Buddhist shrines, but any resemblance to American soft drinks ends at the brand (“Bubble Man II,” anyone? Or perhaps you’d like to try “Pocari Sweat?”). Crosswalks have the familiar walking man sign signaling that it’s safe to cross, but the man is green instead of white. Traffic lights seem the same, until you realize that blue means “go.” My first bit of culture shock, ironically, was in the airport bathroom, where the sheer number of buttons and controls seemed more appropriate for some rather advanced electronics. Actually, I suppose the real shock was that these toilets were, in fact, rather advanced electronics. They even have motion-activated speakers that played water sounds, to disguise and inspire, but mostly to disguise. As ridiculous as I thought that was, I must say that the bold red “Emergency” button raised the most questions.

The one stable factor in this adventure is our host family. As soon as we arrived in Yamaguchi, having spent the night on our own in a hostel in Narita, we were split up and dropped off at our host families’ homes. I’m living with the Akabanes, a wonderful couple who live about 15 minutes from the university (by bike).

My host father, Kiyoshi, is a professor at YPU (Yamaguchi Prefectural University). His wife, Tomoko, teaches fifth-graders at the local elementary school. They are both absolutely charming: kind, outgoing, and quick to laugh. Luckily they speak a little English, so although our conversations are a little rough, between the three of us (and our three dictionaries), we manage to talk for hours every night. It’s amazing how much you can say by pointing and pantomiming, but sometimes the limitations of one year of study can be extremely frustrating.