Day 2: 函館 (Hakodate)

Howdy, all. It's Friday morning here and I'm writing from the comfort of the HIF (Hokkaido International Foundation) building, where I'll be taking classes starting on Monday. We are here for our second round of placement tests – for the next hour or so I'm waiting for my oral interview, then I take a 2-hour written exam.

But for now, I have internet access and a chance to update on yesterday (Thursday, the 12th)… There were about 30 of us from the HIF program staying at the hotel, and we had to be out of the hotel by 8AM for a 10AM flight to Hakodate. So we started the day early with a breakfast buffet in the hotel. It was a nice selection, though I'm slightly to ashamed to say my choice of foods was rather tame for this meal, as you can see below.

Breakfast at the Grand Pacific Le Daiba hotel

NOTE: I've been taking pictures of all my meals; hopefully you won't get tired of looking at them. One of my goals is definitely to become more adventurous with my palette… so hopefully the food will become more and more interesting.

The Japanese foods turned out to be the best (no surprise there, I guess), so after finishing my first plate I tried once again. Still pretty mild, but I'm on my way.

After breakfast, we all clogged the elevators (since all 30 of us were leaving our floor at the same time with all our luggage). Half an hour later, we made it to the bus to Haneda airport, then got on a quick puddle jumper north to Hakodate, Hokkaido, where the program is located.

A squid – the town mascot – welcomes us

Hakodate Airport

On the way to the hotel, I got my first glimpses of the city. It's somewhat small, definitely not very busy, but quite nice. It is somewhat quaint, yet also modern. Nice, but not flashy. I'm excited to cut my teeth on the Japanese language in this environment, starting in a "smaller pond" as it were, and  one where English is not as well-known. And it is right by the sea. The air is salty and fresh – it's definitely a fishing town. It's been a bit chilly and rainy lately, though as the summer goes on it's supposed to get hot (and stay humid).

The sea, right outside the bus window

At the hotel, we were served lunch (a nice bento, below), and then immediately began placement tests. The first part was a listening portion where we had to listen to 60 sentences (spoken one time each) in about 10 minutes and fill in the missing Japanese syllable じゃあ… After that, we had to write an essay on social media, using as much grammar and kanji (Chinese-style characters) as we could. Mine was embarrassing; hardly two paragraphs, and I repeated the characters for "friend" and "use" about twenty times. だめだねえ。。。

Bento box for lunch

After the testing, we stayed in the same room for a Japanese harp concert, which was pretty interesting. She played variations on "Sakura," as well as a couple other short pieces. I'd definitely like to get to know Japanese music better (especially being a music major and whatnot), since I know very little at the moment.

Then, we got our room keys and had free time for the rest of the day. Around 5PM a large group went out to dinner at a restaurant right down the block, Hakodate Beer. Naturally, I ordered a beer (a peach-flavored one, actually), which was pretty good. Then, after scouring the menu (or rather, looking at the pictures in the menu, since I couldn't read any of the characters) for something that seemed authentically Japanese yet was comfortable enough, I decided on soy-glazed squid. Squid is a specialty of the area, so I decided to brave it. And what do you know, it was actually delicious – extremely fresh and tender, not weird at all, and definitely better than any calamari I've had in the states.

Where they make the beer, apparently

Squid! Mmm...

If you can't tell from the picture, the serving size was quite small. In general this seems to be the case over here, and since many of us were still hungry we headed over to the 7/11 across the street for more food. Now before you scoff, the 7/11 is a common convenience store here (who knows why), full of ready-to-go fresh Japanese foods, much more nutritionally substantial than in the US. 

Huge selection at the 7/11

Once again I tried to find something I'd be comfortable eating, which was difficult. I think from now on I'll have to wait to be told what I'm eating after I eat it so that I don't wimp out. At any rate, I got a little tuna roll, a chocolate bread (literally called choku bureddo) for dessert, and a grape soda. Hehe. Then I went back to the hotel to eat with Araki-san, a friend from my Yale japanese class. As we were eating, I was cracking up because an orchestral version of "Killing Me Softly" was playing through the hotel speaker system. (The interaction of Japanese and American cultures is very interesting indeed).

Post-dinner meal

After our post-dinner snack, Araki-san and I decided we would check out the onsen (public baths), at the recommendation of the program staff. Historically, onsen operated as the places where people would bathe themselves, and today they remain as a Japanese cultural staple, where many come to relax in the very hot pools of water. Oh, and everyone is naked. ...BUT (imagining my parents' mortification right now), I think I'll write in full about that experience in a later post. Let's just say that I'm definitely plunging right into the culture.

また明日！ (Until tomorrow!)

Hakodate from my hotel room window – though this view does not do the city justice!
I'll have to take some better pictures to show you.