Reiko , my japanese host friend

    Reiko san is my host mother, but I actually consider her my “host friend”. She is not a easy person to describe, as I have been noticing that she has a very distinctive personality. I was surprised when I first met her, and she keeps surprising me everyday  with her actions . Our first meeting at school started very differently. The family was about 30 minutes late to meet me, and at the time I was wondering what the reason was, because I thought Japanese people only get late when something really serious happens. When they arrived I was greeted with a very strong hug which I also wasn’t expecting from a Japanese person. In Brazil, we touch people a lot, hold hands and touch shoulders without thinking about it. In Japan, I always try to hold my first reactions because it might be too eccentric for the Japanese standards. When I feel comfortable in a certain environment I talk about everything openly which can be a problem even in Brazil, but with Reiko, when I noticed, I already had said things that could cause a culture shock... Fortunately not with her. Now we have become closer friends, and we feel free to talk about everything. After a while I realized how foreign cultures are important for her as she is always so interested and has been receiving international students in her house for the last four years.

    I can think about two moments that illustrate a little bit of her personality.One day we were walking near a cemetery and I tried to compare Japanese and Brazilian funeral practices. The majority of Japanese are cremated when they die and in Brazil, people are usually buried.  Then, I said “when I die I want to be cremated , because it all ends at once, while staying  under the ground just freaks me out". She was surprised and said she did not want to be cremated at all. The idea of been burned torments her. “ Being buried is much more beautiful”, she said.So, I joked that it might be best for me to die in Japan and she said that perhaps for her, Brazil is a  good place to die. That was a great exchange of cultural ideas.

    Another interesting conversation was about learning Japanese. Reiko has been helping me a lot with my Japanese , but unfortunately I haven’t been making too much progress . Reiko told me she heard from a TV show that it’s very difficult to learn Japanese for a foreigner  because , as some research shows , European languages and Japanese are processed in opposite hemispheres of the brain. That’s why its hard for a Japanese person to speak English also. Reiko speaks  very good English for someone that has never been to an English speaking country . Her explanation for having such English skills  :” Well... because often I don’t think like a Japanese.”