Japanese culture is very orientated on gifts. People give each other gifts all the time. Employees give their bosses gifts, friends give their friends gifts and in-laws give their in-laws gifts (usually..) It is expected when visiting.
Different places in Japan are filled with pre-made souvenirs specific to that area. When traveling people bring these home to share with everybody. Japanese are especially crazy about food items.
Yesterday I finally decided to give my temporary host family a call.
They only speak Japanese (great for learning the language.)
It went well.
First my host father answered the phone with “moshimoshi” and I said “こんにちは！僕のの前はヘンリーです。僕はホスト即” which means “Hello! My name is Henry. I’m your host son.”
After a few moments my host father gave the phone to my host mother and we talked for almost 2 hours.
She was using a Japanese-English dictionary and I kept on thinking of what to say to cover up the long pauses. My host father is a computer engineer and host mother is an accountant. They live alone in a small apartment in Tokyo as their kids are all grown up.
In the end I think it went really well and they seem very nice.
It looks like on the last few posts the comments were not working correctly and when wanting to comment it does not show up. This should be fixed now. Very sorry for the trouble!
If you can, here’s a basic list of what every exchange student should take no matter where you are going.
In your pocket:
- Wallet with travelers checks, credit card or another form of money
- Some cash in your country’s currency and the host country’s currency is a good idea too
- Password with visa
- Copy of birth certificate
- Something with all of the contact information including your host family, areas rep, exchange program and airline
- Airplane tickets
Carry-on:
- Prescriptions for glasses/contacts and/or medications
- Health insurance card or claim forms
- Change of clothing (incase luggage is lost)
- Entertainment for the flight
- Any other important documents
Luggage:
- At least 2 weeks of basic clothes (socks, undershirts, underwear, bras, etc)
- Host family gifts
- Toiletries (toothbrush, toothpaste, comb, etc)
- A few clothes that you can mix and match such as jeans, pants and shirts
- Sneakers or everyday shoes
- Dress shoes
- Sweater or similar
- Something that you can wear to formal events
- Accessories
This should cover about everything!
