Upon getting to Tokyo Station I made my way to the Chuo line, the line I always used to get downtown when I lived in Tokyo two years ago. I feel like that trip to Japan was ages ago. I was so young (all of 20), and everything was so different. I was still in college, barely knew any Japanese, and never went anywhere alone. I was somewhat shocked by how busy Tokyo was. Even though I lived there, having lived in the suburbs of Japan for so long now, it took me by surprise. When I got to Mitaka, I called my host mom and she came to pick me up with her husband and kids. I couldn't believe how big they were.
When I first stayed at their apartment Ryota was 3 and Anzu was barely 1. Now, he is 6 and she is 3. Anzu was still breast feeding when I was there the first time, and the second time she could barely speak. Now she kept talking. "Ano ne, ano sa, ano ne...." It was hilarious. She was so cute. This year was like a repeat of all my favorite things about my stay with them 2 years ago, only I could communicate better and didn't feel the desire to go sightseeing. After stopping by the apartment we went on a short drive through ICU and then to Jindaiji, which was one of my favorite spots. It is a small shrine with a little pottery shop and restaurants all over. It was so different from summer when it is ridiculously hot. Instead the leaves had turned colors and it was really crowded. We went to the famous soba restaurant that we went to 2 years ago too. We stopped into the pottery shop where I bought all my Christmas presents my first year in Japan and we actually got to paint our own. It was like Jen's birthday party when we were really young in Michigan. Though I had no idea what to do so I had Ryota draw for me and I painted it. It was so cute. He drew me a sunflower.
It took the kids only about 20 minutes to warm up to me, and even though they called me Cordelia (the girl who stayed with them last summer) on and off for most of my stay, I could tell that on some level they remembered something about me. They remembered the games we used to play together, like when I would hang the boy behind my back upside down by his ankles and walk around asking where he had gone (a game I actually stole from my Dad). Or when I would swing them around like airplanes or let them do flips by holding my hands and jumping up then pushing off my legs.
By the end of that day though I was exhausted. I slept in the spare living room which has sliding doors. The next morning I woke up to two little kids "stealthily" sliding open the door to my room and shutting it. Then whispering "let's look at her again. He he he." I actually was up before their parents, so I got dressed and went out and played quietly with them.
Hiroko was busy preparing for her family visiting that evening so I went to the zoo with Yuji and the kids. When I first stayed with them I thought that he and I never really talked because my Japanese wasn't good enough. Well, now I know it is just because he is really shy. He still didn't really talk to me, and I noticed later that when his wife's family was over, he barely spoke to any of them either. At the zoo (if you can call it that), the kids did the stamp activity (you go to each station and get a stamp that spells something out), so we actually spent most of our time running around looking for stamps. The zoo was basically birds, guinea pigs, cows, an elephant, some monkeys, really big hedgehogs, and mountain cats. But the kids had fun, and I had fun chasing them.
We biked back home and just after we got there Hiroko's family arrived. It was her sisters and her parents, who I had met 2 years ago. It was a bit overwhelming having that many people around me speaking a foreign language. I was actually pretty grateful when Ryota left the kids table to sit on my lap and eat his dinner. It gave me and out when I lost track of the conversation. The reason for this gathering was actually a joint birthday party for me, Ryota and Hiroko's mother. It was really nice to spend my birthday with people who were somewhat like my family. Hiroko baked a cake and they gave me a really nice scarf, seeing as Kyoto gets so darned cold. The kids made me presents too. Ryota gave me a handful of those shapes you make from melting beads together and a drawing of a Christmas tree, which may become my Christmas tree in my apartment. It was about the cutest thing I had ever seen. He got really shy after he gave it to me too.
Anzu also gave me gifts. She gave me a sheet of paper with saran wrap glued to it and the numbers 1-6 written on the back. She also drew the cutest picture of me, her, and her brother. We are just a head with legs coming out of us. She tried to write my name but got some of the characters backward. It's the cutest thing I have ever seen.
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