Uno in Japanese is...Uno

I actually finished my homework early today! And even better, my end of semester report topic got approved. I'm writing about the relationship between youth and Shinto. (In case you haven't noticed, I have a little bit too much enthusiasm when it comes to Shinto. But it's fascinating, I swear!) Anyway, I'm taking a short break and then diving straight into Wednesday's homework.

Let's see, what other exciting things have been happening? I played Uno with my little host brother and my host father after dinner. It was basically exactly the same as American Uno, except none of the cards had words on them. (So the skip and reverse cards only had the symbols, as did the wild cards.) Also, I lost. Twice. Well, technically I got in second the first game and lost the second. My host brother was far too pleased, and I was far too pleased, and then somehow I wound up explaining the difference between robbery and burglary. My conversations always seem to veer into the Land of Strange.

Um, what else? Dinner was delicious, as always, although my host mother took pity on my total inability to cut meat with chopsticks and gave me a knife and fork instead.

Oh, I had my first two bits of "culture shock" on Saturday.

The first bit of culture shock came though a conversation with my host mom.

Me: Yeah, we went to Tetsugaku no Michi with our residential director.

Host mom: Oh, the fat woman?

Me: I'm sorry?

I figured that I was mishearing what she was saying, or maybe that there was some other meaning for 太っています that I wasn't aware of.

HM: You know, the big woman?

Me: She has red hair...?

HM: Yes, that's her. You don't think she's fat?

Well, I don't think she's fat at all. Full figured maybe, but definitely not fat. Or particularly large. She's not much bigger than me.

Me: Um, no, I don't think she's fat, but then again, Americans have different body types than Japanese do, right? For example, compared to most Americans, I'm pretty small, but compared to Japanese people, I'm kind of big.

HM: Big? [skeptical look]

Me: I mean, I'm tall. I'm probably taller than most Japanese girls.

HM: But I'm taller than you.

AND THEN MY SOUL WAS CRUSHED FOREVER.

I'm assuming that there's some sort of connotation to 太っています that I'm missing, or just that the word "fat" in English has a much more negative connotation than it does in Japanese. Either that, or anyone who isn't as skinny as a beanpole is automatically "fat." I'm actually leaning toward the last one, because my favorite teacher from last summer said she was fat, and by American standards, she wasn't even chunky. It's interesting to think about how standards vary from place to place.

My second bit of culture shock came when a Japanese girl I was talking to told me that she preferred American men to Japanese men because men from California are "blonde, cool, and outspoken" and Japanese men are "shy, boring, uncool, yellow monkeys." I...well. Yeah. That was an interesting situation. I am not sure that I know any men from California who fit that description. And I definitely don't agree with that stereotype of Japanese men. (And I said so, and then I said that there are some American girls who like shy, quiet Japanese boys and that not all American men are like that--some of them are shy and quiet too--and she started going, "うそ!" (No way!) at me. But then she started asking about cross-cultural dating in the U.S., and why American girls would like Japanese men, so maybe I managed to break down a stereotype a little bit? Maybe?)

Anyway, I'm going to go do some more homework and then call it a night. じゃ、ね！