Okaasan

So, I asked my host-dad the other day and he said that my host-mom is fine, but she's staying at the hospital until at least this coming Thursday. That seems like an awfully long time to me. And then he said that they were running tests on her. But when he first said it I freaked out because in Japanese the word for these medical tests sounds like a Japanized way of saying "cancer." So I still don't know what's really going on.

But the house is slowly falling into decay in her absence. My host-dad apparently does not have the ability or the inclination to do housework of almost any kind. Most of the rooms are fine, maybe gathering some dust and debris on the floor, but the kitchen looks rather like a disaster zone. He doesn't really wash the dishes and newspapers are everywhere. Not to mention the packaged snacks that my host-mom usually put out for tea time. The laundry is piling up in the washing machine, and I seriously doubt that he squeegees the floor when he's finished showering.

And he can't cook, either, it seems. So we've been having lunch and dinners next door at his older sister's house. The food is good, but, honestly, not nearly as good as my host-mom's. And they absolutely STUFFED us on my birthday. They threw me a small birthday party. I had gone out with friends for sushi for lunch and when I got home we went next door to have...sushi...and cake. Lots of it. And then they talked and talked and talked. And most of it I couldn't understand. And they sang the happy birthday song to me...which was a bit awkward, because a couple of them didn't really know the words all that well (the ENGLISH happy birthday song).

But when I came back home last night after kendo, the house was all dark, which was odd. I've never come home to a dark house. Besides he had left a couple of hours before I had so that he could go visit my host-mom in the hospital. Well, I walk inside and Hachi RUNS for the door. Haha, she had spent the whole day inside. So I go around the house turning on lights and closing the gates over the glass doors and windows. I ate my McDonald's (the shrimp burger is actually REALLY good!) and then did the dishes that had accumulated in the sink. He told me this morning that he'd probably be late again tonight, so I think I'll do some sweeping and vacuuming.

And when he came home, he asked if his sister had come over (because the gates had been closed) and he seemed surprised when I told him that I'd closed them.

...I AM an adult, you know. I think I can manage to walk around the outside of the house and close metal gates without being asked...

And Hachi, I can tell, really misses her. She was unusually friendly when she came back in after I let her out.