Lots.

I moved in with my second host family two days ago. Going to miss the Kawamura's. But I think good days are ahead. Or at least very interesting ones... My new host family is kind of crazy. Being rotarians they are kind of rich, so the house is big. Very very clean. My okasan is a clean freak, literally. I'm pretty sure she has some sort of compulsive disorder. She knocks on my bedroom door before entering even when no one is in it. She knocked on the door when I was standing behind her and she was going to show me the room. They had an aussie a couple of years before me so maybe she got in the habit and never got out. ANYWAY. Everything is so completely organised I get headaches sometimes. I have to wear a traditional japanese housecoat around the house EVERY time I wear my pajamas. Have to clean the shower and sink out after every use. Have to wear slippers in the house. And every sunday is cleaning day - I moved in on a sunday and had to clean the room, even though I had just unpacked and she cleaned it before I came. So yeah. A tad crazy. But they are both really nice people. I have two host brothers who are married, one with two kids and the other with two kids plus one on the way. So I'm a host-auntie. Neato. Oh and they have a tatami mat tea room which I love. There is a little Buhdda shrine in it as well as a shrine to her dad and two brothers who died in a jet plane crash. She sets coffee out on the shrine every morning.

AND we live beside a crazy lady. She is really bonkers. She rambles random stuff that I can't understand. Okasan says it's Japanese but it doesn't make sense, and to be careful around her because she is a nutcase. Her front yard is full of the strangest garbage, like what looks like a giant globe with the countries painted over. And her foyer is stacked to the ceiling with garbage. She rummages around in it all the time, just moving it around and not doing much else. So now you know about the Crazy Lady.

So, with this backround info, today was pretty freaking neat. In the morning Me and okasan went out to the bus terminal, got my card. nothing much there. I had originally planned to go to Sapporo eki to study with Donny but he forgot and made other plans, so I texted up my lovely Lian (the aussie version of Darby) and we made plans to go to the eki to hang. Because Lian lives out in the middle of nowhere and never comes to Sapporo so the last time I saw her was when I met her. Since I didn't know how to get to the eki from the new house, okasan went with me. We were really early when we got there so we decided to go around shopping for a bit. She wanted to buy me some stuff so we went to the 3 coins store (sanbbyaku en shop) and got some random stuff… Really awesome knee socks, and two pairs of leg warmers that I can double as arm warmers, a necklace and chains for my pants. Then we went to a panya and got some bready stuff… For me a bagel and maple scone. Then to another bigger pastry shop for coffee. After that we parted and I met up with Lian.

We went shopping around the eki for most of the time we spent there. A little trip to the Loft, where I bought the best poster EVER. Featuring Mau, Stalin, Lenin, Castro and Karl Marx, all with booze and party hats with the caption ‘Welcome to the Party‘. In the eki we also went to puri kura which was awesome, but we couldn’t get it on either of our keitais, and we diddled around in the arcade. It was all really fun.

After the eki, me and Lian split ways and I went home. I remembered how to get home using the chikatestsu (subway) and the bus. But by the time I reached my stop it was pretty dark outside and all my landmarks looked too different to identify. So I didn’t know where to go from there. I got kind of lost. Went in a straight line up and down one street, which I knew was the right one, but didn’t know which leg off that street was the right one. I went down three other streets but none of them seemed right. This all took a good 45 minutes. I gave up eventually and went back to the bus stop, phoned okasan and asked her to come get me because I am baka gaijin. So otosan came instead and walked me back to the house. I made new landmarks.

Now for the scary part. When we were about to walk past the Crazy Lady’s house, I pointed a bit and said “okashii onna” which translates roughly into ‘the crazy lady’ because my Japanese is bad. I didn’t know that the crazy lady was in fact OUTSIDE her house, and crouching in amongst her garbage. I didn’t see her. But when she heard what I said she stood up, in time to catch my pointing (straight at her as it turned out). There was a little weird moment of silence. Then she started talked. I didn’t know what she was saying but she sounded pissed. And I was laughing a bit too because the situation was just so funny. That couldn’t have helped. We got back into the house and I asked my otosan to get the dictionary and tell me what she said. So he got the dictionary, but couldn’t seem to find something. Then he showed me the word ‘murderer’. I thought he was saying the Crazy Lady was a murderer. He looked serious and kind of worried and nervous. So I was like ‘Honto??’ and we was all…yeeaahh…. So I was a bit scared. She was going to kill me now. Okasan and otosan were telling me to go quickly past her house especially when it was dark out. Then the cover for the light fell and the corner shattered, wiping out the lillies on the table (but not the vase, somehow. Only the flower parts.). Then I found out that she was actually calling ME a killer. Which was a big relief. I wish my Japanese was better so I could understand her ramblings. Well, I’ve got three months living beside her. And now she hates me because I called her a crazy lady. Let the good times roll.