I have no way of gauging my host family's comfort level with me. I know I can try to pick up on context clues, such as what is said, or how people behave in my company, but that is difficult to do in a country that bases its communication on subtlety, conformity, and consensus. I simply wish to fit in with my family, and I know that the process may take time, but I am of course curious about what they think of me.

I have been so bold as to ask the host siblings whether or not they think I spend too much time with them. Of course they immediately assure me that they both want to spend time with me and that I do not take up too much of their time, but I don't suppose they could answer me honestly if they did not enjoy my company.

Today I took the second part of my placement examination, and tomorrow I will find out my language class placement. I also went to the downtown, trendy, shopping district of Kobe called Sannomiya with my host sister. We took pictures together in a tiny photo booth used for the activity called purikura, which stands for "print camera." We entered into a small booth, had our picture taken by a machine, decorated them at a computer, and then printed the pictures. My host sister is a wonderful Japanese teacher. She uses up-to-date phrases and unique vocabulary words that are simply unknown to me, and she speaks fluidly. That combined with the fact that she will repeat words and phrases endlessly for my benefit and use circumlocution in Japanese make her an invaluable language instructor to me! Doumo arigatou, Yoko!

The mystery meat from Saturday's Fiesta Mexicana in Osaka turned out to be chicken cartilage, by the way. That's definitely one of the most unusual foods I've eaten in Japan.