Days 6-12

Day 6

I woke up again early to the sound of beating drums and praying coming from down stairs. My Tenrikyo family was conducting their morning prayers and doubling as my alarm clock. Surprisingly, my family does not talk about religion very much, nor do they talk about it much with me when I try. They have a whole bunch of friends who come over almost every day. I think they are people who go to the church adjoining our house (my host father is a priest).

Class was fun because we started doing some Drama Work. We watch a Japanese drama about a stay at home dad, and it is interesting now that I:ve stayed for a bit with my family to see how my host mom actually does most of the work. No wonder this kind of role-reversal drama was a hit in Japan.

For lunch, I ate at a local ramen shop just up the hill from HIF. I tried soft shell turtle ramen and it was quite tasty. After that, I went to the big department store (Boni Mori-ya) near the station with some friends to do a bit more school shopping. While walking around the area near the station I found a store called Mongol Man, and several others like it that sold used American clothing at exhorbitantly high prices. The Japanese fascination with American clothing, especially American 80`s clothing strikes me as very odd. What:s more is that the Japanese people all have 80`s ish hair. The men:s hair is ragged and messy in a Flock of Seagulls manner and the women wear ponytails on the side of their heads.

I also bought a cellphone from AU. HIF provided a special offer to prebuy a cellphone at a reduced rate, so I bought one of those. Unfortunately, or fortunately all the cellphones are pink!


Day 7

I don:t have too many notes for this day in my journal because I was feeling sick that day. I remember having a sore throat and not being too happy. Earlier that day before I got the sore throat, I went jogging at a local park near my house. I noticed that the Japanese people here wear full track suits, gloves, and of course a hat when running no matter how hot it is outside...strange


Day 8

Today there was a lecture by professor Dan Dewey on second language acquisition and at his recommendation, I started writing all my entries in Japanese. After the lecture, I went out with some Japanese students at the Russian University downstairs and they took a couple of friends and I around down town. We ended up at a foot ohnsen or bath in the middle of a shopping mall. It was pretty neat as I:d never seen one in America before. The Japanese students:s ages ranged from 18 to 29. Apparently one of them was a teacher when he was younger and now studies Russian. When I hung out with them, I spoke only Japanese to them and they spoke English. The Japanese people here seem to like to practice their English with foreigners.

When I got home, my host mom taught me how to use the washing machine. After the laundry finished, I asked about the dryer, but she just gave me a bunch of hangars. Apparently they don:t use dryers here, but instead hang everything up (all over the house) to dry overnight (now I know where my mom gets it from!).


Day 9

Today was the first HIF sponsored cultural activity. After classes, I went to a Pottery Studio where I learned how to make Japanese Pottery from a pottery sensei. The sensei was very nice and jolly, much more than I thought she would be because I thought she would be some sort of strict Pottery master. It took some students several tries to make a pot right, but the sensei was polite and patient with them even though we eventually ended up running late. The sensei had an adorable pet dog, whose name was hachi, or eight. Apparently they hatchi is a common name for a dog in Japan.

Afterwards, I found my way back to the Hakodate Eki with my friend, Alyssa. We went walking around the station area again and found the movie theatre (it:s down the main street past the Wako Department store).

When I went home, I tried to be more social with my family and do my homework in the living room instead of in my bedroom, but my family had some guests over (as they do every day) and my father asked me to go in another room because they wanted to smoke. Now the host families aren:t supposed to smoke in the house, but I guess when guests come over, smoking:s the thing to do. It:s unfortunate that smoking is still such a large part of Japanese society.


Day 10

Woohooo finally Saturday. I went to Goryokaku park with some friends to try to go up the tower, but when I got there, my friends and I decided that it was too expensive, so we didn:t. Instead, we went on a row boat in the moat around the star-shaped fort. Good times were had by all, especially when I got bogged down paddling in the lily patch. After that, we ate lunch at Lucky Pierrot, the infamous Hakodate burger chain. Apparently each restaurant has a different theme. This one was the angel Lucky Pierrot and was adorned with angels from the ceiling and tapestries of them on the wall.

Then, it was time for HIF Cultural activity #2: Japanese Confectionry making. I went to the cooking school in Goryokaku and made Japanese sweets. The first one I made was made mostly of kanten Jelly and sugar. The second was a flower shaped sweet filled with a ball of sweet beans. I noticed that both sweets that I made were completely vegan and featured no animal products. I think many of the Japanese Wagashi (confectionry) is like that. Perhaps it is because they didn:t really use sugar and bread until after the westerners came and by then they had established confectionry making. Anyways, it was quite unique and tasty.

After that I went out for sushi with some other HIF kids. We ate fairly normal sushi, but when the bill came I was surprised at how expensive it was. I expected it to be cheaper because a) we were in Japan, birthplace of sushi and b) Hakodate is an ocean city, so I htought that seafood would be cheap. But it wasn:t. It was pretty expensive. So after that, some HIF people and I went Karaoke singing at Manekineko, a cheap and sweet karaoke bar close to the Goryokaku coen cable car stop.

I returned home sometime around 9:45 and at night and my parents were cool with it. I expected them to be more strict judging from the horror stories I:d heard from other HIFfers.


Day 11

I woke up to go to a baseball game this morning. My brothers had a big match at the park that I go running in. They won the game, but while watching, I learned a lot about Japanese baseball culture. One of　the main differences I noticed was that at the end of the game, the two teams line up facing each other. The captains shake hands ( a Western tradition) and then the two teams bow to each other (Japanese style). I thought it was an interesting fusion of the two cultures. After bowing, the team came in front of the audience, bowed, and said their thanks. In America, we:d never do that. WE just high fived the other team and went home. But I guess they do things differently in Japan.


Day 12

Today I went to class. For lunch, i tried to find a restaurant where I could eat vegetarian food with some friends who were vegetarians because the dining hall at HIF doesn:t have too many vegetarian options besides onigiri musubis. I spent much of my time walking around the HIF area but found that there aren:t too many actual restaurants. Eventually I ended up going ot a supermarket and getting some bentos ( boxed lunches) and taking them back to school. Now I:ve got to go, otherwise I:ll miss my train home!"