My Japanese Host Family

So as promised via annotations in the vid, here are some basic pictures of the home, if you are interested in what an average Japanese house looks like.

My bedroom is on the 3rd floor, where we shall start.

The bed is more western style I suppose, but all it really is about 2 inches of padding on top of a hard wooden frame. It's still pretty comfortable though, it was the hard pillow I couldn't get used to (eventually bought my own fluffy one for like $4)

    

There's an air-conditioner in the window, which I had to shut off every time I left the room. There was also a timer for it so I would set it for an hour after I went to bed.

Where I keep most of my clothes, the rest are in the dresser to the right.

This room is across from my mine and Ayami/sometimes the parents sleep here.

Down the treacherous steps with Pikachu to the 2nd floor!

Basically the living room, there's 1 massage-chair thingy but otherwise we sit on the floor. (the clothes are hanging inside because it was raining)

This is the dining room, and past it the kitchen.

2nd set of perilous stairs, down 2 the first floor.

Where we keep our shoes, though there's a rack outside that I keep just mine on as well.

The first floor room, where they pray to their shrine (off to the side and not pictured) and sleep with a few blankets spread out on the floor.

That's a covered piano back there.

Another toilet, and the washer. It is common to sometimes use old bath water from the night before to fill up the washer to do laundry with.

To the right of the washer, the bathing room! As you can see, the shower head is detachable. And the bath has a cover, for when they heat up the water in there.

And that concludes the tour of the home!

I mentioned a shrine,  and that's because my family practice Soka Gakkai, which Wikipedia tells me is based off the teachings of Buddhism (there are more specifics but this isn't a class. look it up yourself ^_^).

Every morning, possibly afternoon, and evening before bed, my host father and sometimes mother/ayami pray. They do these chants that were a little startling to hear at first, but I quickly got used to it. I do know some people whose families like them to go to church or other religious meetings with them, but my family has never asked me to do anything like that.

Okay, that's it for now, unless I think of anything else to add later. I forgot to take a picture of the 2nd floor toilet that has all the nifty gadgets, but it's just a toilet so use your imagination!

Also, the microwaves here not simply microwaves. They are 3-in-1: microwave, oven, and toaster. Mind-blown, I want to bring one of these babies back with me.

Bonus random picture:

In a dressing room you have to wear this nifty mask thing to protect the clothes from the pounds of make-up Japanese girls wear. I was amused.