My First Week In Japan

Above, two pictures of Kanazawa from the top of some government building (thanks for the camera sis). Note that one picture has the sea in the background while the other has mountains. As my host mother keeps telling me, Kanazawa is the perfect mix of city and nature.

I'd like to say hello to my parents and Kelly. If you are one of the handful of people who are not obligated to read my blog but have stumbled upon in it anyway, I welcome you too.
In my first post I mentioned that my host family has a dog. In response, Maruyama Sensei told me a few useful commands I could use on dogs in Japan. I would like to add one more: くつ　を 食べない で. This morning the dog, Wendy, ate through the strap of sandal. If she eats my shoes too, then I will have zero footwear in Japan. And unlike my hometown in Arkansas, walking down the street barefoot in Kanazawa is unacceptable. So I think I will be saying "kutsu o tabenai de!" quite a bit for the next few months.
Besides this minor incident, the first week of life with my host family has been a wonderful experience. I've already played Wii Sports with my 10 year-old imooto, Rio, and 8 of her classmates; I've listened to my 13 year-old otooto, Kooji, play the drums; and I've played cards with my okaasan, Eriko, and barbequed with my otoosan, Ken. The only family member I haven't spent much time with is Yuta, the 16 year-old. His schedule easily puts the ambitious american high schooler's schedule to shame. He is out from 7 in the morning till 10 at night from monday to saturday. However, tomorrow he plans to show me around town with another of his friends. Before arriving at Princeton in Ishikawa, I was most nervous about the homestay portion of the program. I thought that I would unknowingly offend my family several times, isolating myself. Luckily, my family is used to gaijin, so they have not gotten angry at the many rude things I've probably done. It also helps that the three oldest members of the family can speak English when a misunderstanding arises.
Although I have not been forced to speak Japanese at home all of the time, I think my Japanese has improved dramatically over the past week. When I first arrived in Japan, I was so nervous about speaking, I could not even buy a train ticket by myself. Instead, a more confident and competent gaizin bought it for me. Today, however, I think I had my first real success with Japanese. Friday night, I had lost my umbrella, just like my dad had predicted I would. So today I retraced my (semi-wobbly) steps, and when I told the cook at the curry restaurant "yuube wa, kuroi kasa o wasureta n desu kedo", he immediately produced the black umbrella I had left the day before. He said "doozo." I said "arigatoo." And now I have my umbrella and some new found confidence in my language ability.
Next time: a few more a facts about Japan, a few less anecdotes about my life in Japan.
Jaa, mata nee.