Hakodate Yama!

Gah, I've been pretty bad about blogging lately... I beg off on account of the weekend trip and piles of homework rivaling the height of Mt. Hakodate.

Speaking of which, I finally made it up to the top of aforementioned mountain last Wednesday. I'd been planning on going up earlier, but (predicted) rain/fog had kept me away. (A side note--Japanese weather forecasts, at least in Hakodate, are surprisingly terrible: raining cloud icons on the morning weather report herald gorgeous days and zero percent chance of rain = shower on the walk to school... fortunately by then I was already distrustful enough to have left my umbrella in my bag, and as a result my okaasan and I did not get soaked on our morning walk to the train station.)

Mt. Hakodate is a small mountain (300 meters) near the edge of town. It offers a nice day hike, which the local grandmas seem to take quite often, and a beautiful view of the surrounding area (when the summit is not shrouded in layers of fog which make it look vaguely mysterious). Helen, Jamar and I hiked up after class, stopping along the way to take pictures of the view and puzzle over the kanji inscriptions on the little buddha statues that dot the path on the way up.

pretty!

Jamar, windblown survivor of attack by insane raven near the top of the mountain.

(Seriously, the crows here are enormous and fearless.)

Hakodate, doesn't seem so small when stretched out below you...

At the top we took a bajillion pictures and wandered around the gift shop at the summit. There's also a restaurant with glass walls so you can enjoy the view while you eat, though it seemed lost on the only people there, two businessmen in some sort of serious discussion who were completely ignoring the fact that they were seated next to a stunning view on a perfect day.

some Engrish from the gift shop

Instead of hiking back down, we opted for the cable car... rather exhilerating to descend over the treetops. The cables look quite thin and there are no supports midway, but I'm trusting in the excellence of Japanese engineering here.

cable car

At the base of the mountain we strolled through a nearby park with a fountain commemorating Hakodate's status as the second Japanese city with public waterworks... apparently a big deal because of previous cholera epidemics in the area.

fountain with poetic inscription which Helen couldn't quite explain in English

After that we hit the local gelato shop for some hard-earned tiramisu ice cream at Saltima Bocca, where I earned an eyebrow raise from the cashier by paying for an ice cream cone with a 10,000 yen bill since I was out of change. (That's like 100 dollars, but it's the only denomination that comes out of the ATM at the local Seven-Eleven.)

I'm hoping to go up Mount Hakodate again sometime soon, hopefully after dark since the night view from the summit is supposedly amazing. In the meantime though, it's back to the homework I've been avoiding.

Playboy Bunny and Shopping!

I've noticed something odd over the course of the past couple weeks: maybe it's just Hakodate, but Japanese people seem to love the playboy bunny. I've seen the stylized rabbit logo on everything from sweater vests to necklaces to the kneesocks worn by local schoolgirls. (There is even a mini-shop of playboy merchandise at the local shopping center I visited yesterday.) I mentioned the phenomenon to my host mom, and she suggested that perhaps the bunny just fit in with the general culture of cuteness and not everyone even knew its significance.

playboy sweater vest?

playboy clutch

Also, shopping in Japan reinforced to me that I'm no longer considered particularly small /vertically challenged, since I had to go up a size to wear Japanese clothes. (In fact at 5'1.5" I'm not far from average --I'd probably feel tall if it weren't for all the other gaijin HIF-ers.)

Japanese clothing seems to lean more to the extreme... the stores seem to show either loose-fitting hippy-wear, neon skater-punk, or uber-frilly bow laden confections, and then there are tons of pretty conservative blouses and skirts for the hordes of young women filling secretary type positions as ORs (office ladies). I also found a pair of shiny neon pink spandex leggings that practically screamed Safety Dance, and since they were on clearance I couldn't help but oblige their wish to make a debut at that annual 80s dance fest.

On a completely unrekated note...

Witness Jamar and Philip making the trek to HIF--the hill is so steep that there are stairs built into the sidewalk...

... eleven flights of them, to be climbed every day we have class.

First week and homestay!

I've officially made it through the first week of classes, and more importantly, I finally got to meet and move in with my host family. My host mom (okaasan) is incredibly sweet and fortunately very accostumed to deciphering ungrammatical Japanese after ten years as a host mother.

Me and my okaasan!

I had my first dance lesson today, which went pretty well considering I've never done it before and I have to dance with feet turned inward (ie work against sixteen years of ballet training).

Note how I am not correctly hiding behing my fan

The sensei is a very friendly older woman who offers classes in traditional arts like dance, ikebana (flower arranging), and tea ceremony. Speaking of which, we got to take part in a tea ceremony done by the sadou club from a nearby high school. The ceremony is a series of very ritualized movements in the making and serving of green tea.

Sadou

Beyond all the various cultural activities HIF offers, Saito-sensei keeps us pretty busy with lots of homework. This weekend I have a couple worksheets and two essays in addition to vocab and kanji. (Yikes!) Better start writing...

Asaichi and the Beginning of Classes

Yesterday I dragged myself out of bed at 5:30 (I've already gotten over jet lag, so it felt ungodly early...) and headed out to see the nearby asaichi (morning market) where you can see loads of fresh seafood and some very expensive melons (at 10,000 yen, they're about $100 each). I was able to sample a tiny slice for the bargain price of 100 yen, and though it was without a doubt the best melon I have ever tasted, it's hard to justify charging that much for fruit.

seafood everywhere

some very pricey melons

The morning market is also home to a host of tiny restaurants, all specializing in seafood. With such stiff competition it's no wonder that they turn to extreme measures to attract attention.... like serving squid ink ice cream or a special donburi with raw squid tentacles still squirming atop it!

one of the unfotunate victims outside the donburiya

squid ink ice cream

Classes began yesterday with the posting of level assignments. Apparently I didn't fail the placement test as much as I thought and ended up in the advanced level (yay!), which will mean playing catch-up on kanji and vocab (though I think I'm ok when it comes to grammar). If the first night's homework is any indication, the textbook is quite challenging with readings pulled from scholarly articles and vocab lists miles long.

HIF requires that we do some sort of independent study project in the community. I was thinking of doing mine on traditional Japanese dance after a suggestion by my teacher, so I asked the office to help me check if there was a studio nearby. It turns out there is one in Hakodate, and the program director very kindly took me there and helped me set up twice weekly lessons. By a stroke of luck, one of the fellow students lives next to my homestay house and can give me a ride to my lessons (which would be two transfers and more than an hour away by bus). After a beautiful demonstration by one of the students I can't wait for my first class on Saturday!

The squid chronicles... a continuation

While I know I am not the only one documenting Hakodate's obsession with a certain cephalopod, here are a few choice squid pictures I couldn't help but post:

Adorable squid cellphone charms

Tiny glass squid


Cartoon squid in comment book at a local curry shop.
(Actually, I drew this one...)

Onsen!

Today I went to an onsen (public bath house) for the first time. It's actually very nice once you get over being naked in front of a bunch of equally naked strangers. The extremely hot water for the onsen is pumped in from a natural hot spring below and is filled with enough iron and magnesium to turn it a rather murky brown. The particular onsen I visited had three indoor pools of various temperatures and a lovely (though scalding) outdoor pool where you could enjoy both a hot bath and a cool breeze.

Even though the onsen was amazing, they aren't terribly popular with the youger generation, so most of the women who visited the onsen were elderly to middle-aged. (The onsen in the cities are gender segregated, though apparently very rural areas still have mixed gender ones.) The women chat with their friends while they soak, simply relaxing and enjoying a hot bath. It's an incredibly calming experience and one I definitely plan on repeating.

(No pictures with this post, for obvious reasons.)

Instead, I give you....

Engrish of the Day!

Courtesy of Hakodate Beer, home to the guriinu appuru biiru kkuteru (green apple beer cocktail), a violently green drink that tastes exactly like green apple jolly ranchers dissolved in beer.

Welcome. Our staff will soon service you shortly.

Not ungrammatical, just a hilariously unfortunate choice of words...

Goryokyaku

Yesterday I went to 五稜郭公園 (goryokyaku kouen), what was once a star shaped fort built in the middle of the 19th century. Now, however, it's a beautifully landscaped public park where locals walk their dogs and children (and frolicking college students) play on the playground and swingsets.

An aerial picture, stolen from the interwebs

Unfortunately, the part of the original fort being restored isn't slated to open until next summer, but it seems I will be in town for a summer festival celebrating the history of the area. We found all this out when we asked a park employee about the stage and stands that were already under constuction in the park. Not only did she give us flyers for the festival and a brief rundown of the local history, she also pointed us to the stand where we could rent rowboats to row around the moat.

The moat (you can't tell that it's infested with water plants)

We're on a boat!

Helen, Leah, and I quickly piled into a boat without much forethought (None of us have much upper body strength or any rowing experience, and all the boys were in the other boats.) The result was a glorious sendoff in which we crashed backwards into a bridge support near our dock while the next boat cruised past effortlessly. We eventually got the hang of rowing (one person per oar) and even matched a nearby duck for speed, getting back around the fort to the boat launch just in time to avoid paying a fine for going beyond our 45 minute rental.

Afterwards, we wandered around the nearby town, stopping at an arcade to make girly photo stickers and marvel at the amazing Engrish.

Rising is the name of the arcade...

It is the century arrival to an amusement.

RISING reverses common sense.

Please spend the pleasant time of a thrill and excitement.

After a delicious dinner at a sobaya we went out for karaoke, singing such Japanese class classics as sobaniirune and SMAP's 世界にひとつだけの花 leading to the unfortunate realization that I'd forgotten most of the songs beyond the chorus. I guess I need to practice my J-pop.

Hakodate (aka squidville)

The town of Hakodate is a small port known for its seafood and summer festival involving thousands of people performing the ika odori (squid dance). The squid seems to be the city's unofficial mascot, popping up everywhere I look. There are real ones swimming in tanks in front of seafood stores, plastic ones with googly eyes in the windows of restaurants, and adorable cartoon ones adorning street maps and signs for local businesses. Our program even offers a culture class in squid cookery, though I admit being a bit too squeamish to sign up for it.

Japan, at last!

After a long flight and more Continental airlines soy burgers than I ever want to face again, I’ve arrived in Japan. HIF had a counter waiting for us at Tokyo’s Narita airport, and from there we headed to the hotel where we would spend the night before an early morning flight to Hakodate. With the evening free to explore the city, some fellow HIF-ers and I ventured out into Tokyo, stopping first at a tiny ramen shop to eat huge bowls of delicious ramen (infinitely better than the Maruchan I often eat at 2 AM). From there we navigated the subway system to Shibuya, home of enormous electric signs and eventually wandered through Harajuku and Shinjuku, stopping along the way for crepes and karaoke.

One of the first things that struck me as we walked through the streets was the sheer amount of English I saw--English on the street signs, the storefronts, the clothing of passersby, English everywhere, though not all of it logical nor spelled correctly. I saw t-shirts emblazoned with the words “Flap” and “Spoon” and a clothing shop named "girl love gallery," but my favorite language oddity was in Japanese:a drink named yasai seikatsu, or roughly “vegetable lifestyle.”

My Host Family

I've recently found out my host family assignment for my stay in Hakodate-- I'll be living with the Hirano family. My host mom, Mrs. Hirano, has already e-mailed me a couple times and seems terribly sweet; she even uses smiley-face emoticons in her e-mails! ^_^ I can't wait to meet her, but I'll have to.... I've also been notified that I'm spending my first week in quarantine to prove that I'm not infected with swine flu. After that, it will be just me and my host mom for a couple weeks until my host sisters, Reina (16) and Sachiko (13), come back from boarding school and dad (a professional cyclist!) comes back from a trip.

It's hard to believe I'll be in Japan in less than a week! In the meantime, I'm alternating between franticly cramming my brain with kanji/grammar and stuffing my suitcases with belongings. I spent a lot of time pondering hometown gifts for my host family... trouble is, Ohio is really quite boring. I'm told baseball paraphernalia makes a good gift, but considering the Indians are currently the worst team in the league, it didn't seem like the best idea. In the end I settled on fancy soaps, jams, Yale gear, and some chocolate buckeyes (definitely Ohio-y, though I'm still not sure why the state symbol is a poisonous nut).

Much to my delight, my denshi jisho arrived in the mail on Monday, leaving me to much frustrated fiddling until I figured out how to change the menus into English. I got a Canon G90 (I ordered the V90, but I ended up with a nicer one because mine was out of stock). It has a stylus and a very impressive kanji recognition tool, plus a lot of neat features and doodads, many of which remain a mystery. Regardless, the basic dictionary function will probably be the most useful. I'll be consulting it a lot since my host mom knows no English, and when that doesn't work, there's always charades/pictionary. At any rate, it should be exciting!