Life in Kunebetsu II...

So things have been pretty boring this weekend. Really boring actually. I've done my best to keep it interesting. Yesterday all my friends were doing stuff with their host families so I went into town alone and just walked around a lot. This could have been risky since the G8 Summit is in Hokkaido right near where I am, Police are stopping any foreigners they see and if you don't have your passport with you, no questions asked, you go to a holding cell. Of course they'd call my host mom and she'd come and get me but it'd be inconvenient. Whatever, it won't happen to me because I bring my passport with me everywhere. Anyway, on my walk I found a camera store and a music store. Neither of them were particularly interesting, but they made good rest stops.

Today I had the option of either going bowling with friends or going to see Hikari and Nozomi perform with their wind ensemble. I decided I'd be the good exchange student and go with the family. The lesson I learned was this... sometimes there's a right thing to do and a less-right-but-still-ok thing to do and sometimes the second choice is the better choice. The concert was 15 minutes short 5 hours long. It had 16 wind ensembles from around the area performing songs. There was an intermission after the 9th group. I thought I was home free when there were only two groups left, but then they ended up performing two songs each.

For some reason, having 16 bands didn't really make things feel long enough I guess because three of the bands performed the same song. So I heard some piece, I'm not sure what it was, three times.

It was nice to see Hikari and Nozomi perform for 10 minutes of the 4.75 hours, but I gotta say. I coulda used a nice afternoon of bowling with some peers. When I'm in public with the twins they get really embarrassed by me being there and try and avoid making any type of relations to me. Today after the concert Nozomi was so embarrassed by me that she crawled on all 4s to avoid seeing me, then her friend picked her up and put her on her shoulders and they ran out the doors of the venue. One of the doors closed and the girl, with Nozomi on her back. Ran into the closed door, Nozomi started sobbing and the girl ran out, still with nozomi on her back. I'm not going to lie, I laughed. Hard. So did my host mom. That'll teach em to avoid me.

If you've been reading this blog, then you know that the twins aren't the best behaved kids on the block. The problem is that they aren't really disciplined. I'm not one to comment on parenting since I'm 22. But it's kind of a cultural thing because I've seen it with lots and lots of kids here. They do something bad and the parents say "stop" and thats where the disciplining ends. For instance, Hikari spit on me one day and the mom just goes "DON'T!" and that was the end of it. Hikari didn't care at all because she knew that was the extent of getting in trouble. Next time she bugs me I so badly want to stand up yell at her in English because I know that'll scare her. The Chucky doll also scares them, but it doesn't really prevent them from misbehaving it only stops them from misbehaving once they already started...

Well, looks like we're going to go out for hamburgers for dinner tonight. I hope we get some ice cream afterwards, I could really use something kick me into gear after that long ass concert.


-Mike