What many of you don't know, is that after I got home from Japan in December 2000, I never even sent so much as a post card to my host family. I didn't even attempt to contact them once!
Things didn't exactly end well with us. We still were friends and everything, but we never really
got to know each other. I couldn't speak Japanese all that well, and they couldn't speak English at all (except for their daughter who could speak English somewhat well). It was a very lonely time in my life because I just didn't have a lot of friends, and I was really glad to go home.
After I got home I continued to study Japanese, and then after I served my mission in Japan, I felt
that my Japanese had improved a lot. However, I knew that I wanted to continue studying Japanese to the point where I thought my Japanese was good enough to impress my home stay family. I had wanted to contact them for years. I even (through a lot of research on the internet) was able to find their e-mail address over a year ago, however I still wanted to wait a little bit longer until I thought my Japanese was good enough.
Sadly, I don't think my Japanese will ever be at the level I think is good enough, so I decided last week to e-mail them to let them know that I was still alive.
Here is the e-mail that I wrote to them. (Obviously I wrote it in Japanese, but this is the english translation)
I have thought many many times about what I would say to you now that I can speak Japanese.
All the things that I wish I could have told you when I was living with you and your family, and how much time I have wasted knowing that for years I could have contacted you to thank you for everything you did for me.
First I want to apologize that I never really thanked you. I never thanked you for giving me an opportunity to come and live in your house, and to share experiences with your family. I never thanked you for taking me to Kyoto, or to Nara, or even driving me to the bus stop every day for school.
I never thanked you for making me lunch every day, or for the wonderful dinners that you prepared for me, or even for letting me make my favorite desert (ice cream and cookie shake) whenever I wanted.
I never thanked you for doing my laundry every week, or for letting me play the same piano song over and over and over, even though I am sure it was very annoying after a while. I never thanked you for letting me use your internet to talk to my friends, even though I am sure it was very expensive, and it probably cost you a lot of money (for that, I am very sorry)
I never thanked you for finding me my uniform for school, or for driving me to Takayama on Sunday so that I could go to church. I never thanked you for letting me participate in the festivals in the village, or for taking me over to see your neighbors and friends.
I never thanked Kana for her friendship, or for how hard she tried to speak English to me. I never told her how much that meant to me, and how much I enjoyed walking home from the bus stop with her as she would teach me Japanese and I would teach her English. I never thanked Kei for her friendship, or told her how proud of her I was when I saw her do so well at jump roping with her class. I never thanked her for showing me around Takayama city, even though we got lost.
I never thanked du (or ru, or however you spell his name) for being a okii, chiisai, debu, baka, inu, and I never thanked everyone that I met at school, in the city, and in the town of asahi for being so kind to me. I didn’t deserve any of it. I was a lonely, selfish, and depressed teenager, and if I could go back and do it all over again, I would.
So much has happened to me in the past 10 years since I have seen you, and just from reading your blogs, I have learned so much about what you have been doing. I will write you again soon letting you know what has been happening in my life for the past 10 years, but for now, I just wanted to say thank you, and that I am so sorry for the way I acted and the way I behaved in your home. One of my biggest regrets in my entire life is how we left at the airport in December. I don’t think I even said goodbye.
I want to thank you for all of this, for everything that you have done for me. If it is alright with you, please send me an e-mail back at gootar@gmail.com
i will be looking forward to it.
Also, if you happen to have Kana's e-mail, please send that to me as well.
I am still studying Japanese, so I don't know how ease this e-mail was for you to read, sorry about that.
- Devin (Tim) Andersen
Well, they were pretty surprised I think, and they sent me an e-mail back. I am going to
include the actual version that they sent, as well as the translation that I wrote for it. The reason for the actual transcript of the original format is because I wanted you guys to see how
funny it looked, and how hard it was for me to transcribe and then translate. Most of you
will just think this is jibberish below, but for those of you who can speak Japanese, have fun
trying to read it :)
Tim, we are so glad to hear that you are doing well.
My eyes filled with tears to get an e-mail from you after 10 years, and all the way from Utah!
We wanted to reply to you in Japanese, but we didn’t know if your computer could receive Japanese characters, so we had to send it in this strange and barely readable format, sorry about that. The 4 months that you spent with us were filled with so many fun experiences, it brings back such cool and nostalgic memories to think about it.
What are you up to these days?
Kana is currently working for a bank in Nagoya city, and Kei is working in Takaya (probably Takayama city) and she commutes from home by car.
Papa, do (the dog), and I are all doing great. Although we can e-mail you, is it alright if we do it in Japanese? There are lots of things that we would like to talk to you about, but it would be easiest for us if we did it in Japanese.
For now we just want to tell you how impressed we were with the e-mail you sent us. Thank you, and we would be so happy if you would e-mail us again. Because Kana doesn’t own a computer, Kei sent your e-mail to her via text message. Kana also seems very excited to talk with you and reminisce about old times.
We hope you are well, and want you to do your best! We will be waiting for your e-mail
- Aida family
I e-mailed them back and this is what I wrote (again, I wrote in Japanese, but this is the English translation for it)
I have been planning on talking with you for nearly 10 years now. Ever since I came home from Japan, I have been planning on one day, being able to tell you everything I always wanted to, I kept waiting and waiting until I thought that my Japanese was good enough. I still don’t think it is good enough, but if I wait any longer, I will probably never do it. I figured 10 years is long enough.
I think instead of telling you everything that has happened in the past 10 years very simply, I will start with what happened after I came home from Japan. I think it will be much more interesting and fun to e-mail you every few days with another story of growing up, until eventually I get to now. This way, you will get to know me slowly as I grow up through the stories, you will be happy during my good times, and sad with me when I was sad. There was so much I wanted to tell you, so many stories I wanted to share, and so many experiences I wanted to help you see. I think that if I didn’t do it this way, you wouldn’t really get to know me. We would send each other a few e-mails, and then that would be it, we would probably not say anything else to each other for another couple of years, and then it would be over. I have thought about your family many times over the past 10 years, and although I am sure you want to know how I am doing right now, if I am married, if I am in school, if I am working, how did I learn Japanese etc. I want to tell you all of that, but I don’t want to do it all right away. I want to show you how much I really do care about your family, by taking the time to show you who I really am, and not the teenage kid you once knew. For all that you did for me, I think you deserve that.
So starting tomorrow, expect an e-mail every few days from me, telling you what happened after I left you and came back to America. I promise it will be fun to read, and you will enjoy getting my e-mails. I don’t have a lot of time, but I will do my best to make it as much like a story as possible.
To answer your questions, - yes, my computer is able to receive Japanese kanji, so please write to me in Japanese. I can read Japanese just fine, in fact I can read much better than I can speak or write, so don’t worry about using difficult Japanese, it will help me learn. Please e-mail me any time with what is happening in your lives. Please send me Kana’s e-mail address as well. I am glad to know that kei is still living at home, and that Kana is in Nagoya working for a bank.
Well, I will write to you tomorrow. Until then!
- Devin (Tim) Andersen
So, we have started e-mailing each other. I have received one more e-mail from them, and
I intend to write them a lot to help prepare me to translate and write in Japanese more for when we move to Japan.
Other than that, we are doing great. Sarah and I are both working, and trying to save up our money. We are going to go to Sarah's brother's wedding in San Diego late next week, and then after that we will just be waiting to hear back about Japan. We are excited for Sarah's brother, as well as my brother Tyler to come home from his mission.
We are grateful for all of our friends and family, especially the Ferrero's and the Allsop's and all that they do for us. They are truly the best friends/family we could ever ask for.
Well, until next time, this is Devin Andersen, signing off!
