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Visiting Foreign Dignitaries
July 3rd, 2012 02:35 pmKiyoko's parents are coming to visit!
[recap: Kiyoko was my room-mate for five months in college, when she was doing an English program organized by her university in Tokyo. She's awesome and we kept in touch after she went home. Last year she came back to the US for more english education, and lived with my parents for four or five months before moving up to Auburn to go to the community college there.]
They don't speak English, and will be staying with my parents, who don't speak Japanese. I suspect Kiyoko will have her hands (mouth?) full with translating. Everyone -- on our end, at least -- is super excited about this.
I'm kind of interested in the etiquette and normality of visiting and staying at people's homes. I've read that it's much, much less common in Japan, at least outside of family, but I've never been clear on whether that's 'advice for foreign visitors' or a reflection of a broader norm. When I was there I bypassed that completely by being "The friend of a kid" -- I stayed with Kiyoko's parents, and Rina's, and Yuriko's, and I was just one of their kid's friends having a sleep-over -- an idea that seems to cross some cultural divides. Etiquette just doesn't apply as much to your kids' friends, apparently. It's like the cheat-code into casual family life.
It was really fun to be the borrowed kid. I'd feel guilty about all the things my friends' parents paid for, but my parents have done the same for all of their kids, so I suppose it evens out.
Anyway, it'll be fun to see Kiyo's folks' again, though I'm afraid our giant-fireworks-and-patriotic-jingoism day won't be quite as cool as a walk up mount Fuji and a soak in the onsen afterward. I wish we had a bit more time -- we could at least get out to the Olympics or down to Mt. Saint Helens or something. Oh well.
[recap: Kiyoko was my room-mate for five months in college, when she was doing an English program organized by her university in Tokyo. She's awesome and we kept in touch after she went home. Last year she came back to the US for more english education, and lived with my parents for four or five months before moving up to Auburn to go to the community college there.]
They don't speak English, and will be staying with my parents, who don't speak Japanese. I suspect Kiyoko will have her hands (mouth?) full with translating. Everyone -- on our end, at least -- is super excited about this.
I'm kind of interested in the etiquette and normality of visiting and staying at people's homes. I've read that it's much, much less common in Japan, at least outside of family, but I've never been clear on whether that's 'advice for foreign visitors' or a reflection of a broader norm. When I was there I bypassed that completely by being "The friend of a kid" -- I stayed with Kiyoko's parents, and Rina's, and Yuriko's, and I was just one of their kid's friends having a sleep-over -- an idea that seems to cross some cultural divides. Etiquette just doesn't apply as much to your kids' friends, apparently. It's like the cheat-code into casual family life.
It was really fun to be the borrowed kid. I'd feel guilty about all the things my friends' parents paid for, but my parents have done the same for all of their kids, so I suppose it evens out.
Anyway, it'll be fun to see Kiyo's folks' again, though I'm afraid our giant-fireworks-and-patriotic-jingoism day won't be quite as cool as a walk up mount Fuji and a soak in the onsen afterward. I wish we had a bit more time -- we could at least get out to the Olympics or down to Mt. Saint Helens or something. Oh well.
