Experiencing Japanese family life?

Sometimes I wonder why my host family isn't embarrassed to act the way they do around me. The children throw tantrums, my host mom emasculates and henpecks my host dad, the host dad blatantly ignores my host mom. And that's just a few examples. Meanwhile, I'll just be sitting there at the dinner table thinking, "aren't they ashamed of themselves?"

Perhaps they're trying to treat me as part of the family, not as a guest. So sometimes I feel bad that I don't spend more time with them. But seriously, if they wanted me to be part of their family, maybe they should have made their family life more appealing.

One thing that really frustrates me is the way Origami Boy is allowed to treat his little brother. Origami Boy has serious anger problems. I truly worry about him. I think he inherited them from his mom because the actions he takes and the voice he uses when he's angry is an obvious imitation of hers. When Origami Boy is angry with Whiney for whatever reason, he screams at him and hits him mercilessly. If Whiney is doing something Origami Boy doesn't like, Origami Boy will physically force him to stop. One day he was particularly angry and was torturing Whiney so relentlessly that Whiney locked himself in the bathroom just to escape.

And the weird thing is, my host parents don't do a thing about this! I don't know why. Today Origami Boy screamed at Whiney, hit him on the head and kicked him in the stomach. My host mom saw it all and didn't do a thing. I think this explains why Whiney cries so dramatically. He's trying to get someone to notice and stick up for him. I'd do the same if I was in his situation.

I'm only here for a semester. Of the exchange students who are studying for a whole year in Japan, a surprising amount of them have applied to move out of host families and live in dormitories instead. If I was here for another semester, I think I would do the same. Luckily I only have one more week with my host family.