Day 3: もう少し先 (A little further ahead)

Yesterday, we had more placement tests to do, and so I woke up to my roommate studying at 6:30AM, which made me feel just great about my work ethic… At any rate, I snoozed for another hour and a half, then went to the breakfast buffet at our hotel. And oh man, it was excellent – even better than yesterday's. I was slightly more adventurous in my choices:

So, the raw shrimp and pollock roe didn't go so well. In fact, I had a tiny bite of each and called it a day. But I ate everything else! And MY GOODNESS the MILK was SO GOOD. It was truly the best milk I have ever had – and my family knows I don't like to drink milk in the morning. It was so, so fresh, probably like what you would have on a farm. Needless to say, I had another glass.

After that, everyone met in the lobby at 9AM and the HIF staff walked us over the HIF building, about 15 minutes away. It was great to walk around and start to get to know this unique little city.

Weather-wise, it's been quite rainy (apparently supposed to continue that way for a few days) and ranging from cool to chilly. But still, the air is fresh, and with a jacket on it's lovely. Our school building is up a steep hill that runs from Mount Hakodate down to the sea. Some great sights to see there.

The street rolls right down into the sea

A shrine just down the street

So we arrived at the HIF building and, oh joy, more placement tests. The worst was the Oral Proficiency Exam, basically a guided conversation with a professor, which was a splendid reminder of my limitations (in case the essay yesterday was not clear enough proof). At one point, the sensee asked me what my favorite book was. I said The Little Prince. Then she asked me to tell the story of the book, and that went something like this:

"Uh… Well… There is a man. The man does planes. He goes... in planes. Then… in *desert* [I said that in English] plane becomes bad. And… there is a boy-child. Uh… The boy-child and the man become friends. Oh! And, uh, the boy-child comes from, uh, another… *planet* [also in English]…"

At that point she cut me off because time had run out. Oh well. I will definitely need to stay in that good old posture-of-humility throughout this experience.

Lunch was another nice bento box: chicken with thin noodles, a salad, rice (of course), pickled something, and the Japanese equivalent of mashed potatoes.

After that, 2 hours of written tests (by the way, this is not just to torture us, but to place us in the right level, since we have 140 hours of Japanese class ahead of us this summer). Then, an orientation with the 6 professors of the program. They emphasized goal-setting, including a large/broad goal and a small/more immediate goal for our Japanese study. And they pointed out that "becoming good at Japanese" is not a specific enough goal. Well, I generally struggle with goal-setting anyway, so I have some thinking to do. What do I want to get out of this, specifically? (It goes back to that why-am-I-here question). The sensee's voice saying "biiig goal… biiig goal" (in Japanese) has been playing over and over in my head.

The sensees also talked about our Independent Study project, which we spend six weeks developing, and which is absolutely open-ended. I have no idea what I want to do. But I'll have to figure it out. Perhaps something to do with Japanese music. OH, and they also discussed the Nihongo Dake Rule – Japanese only. No other languages can be spoken in the school building, which I don't have a problem with, actually. (In middle school French camp, I was the nerd who refused to speak any English with the other campers). The practice certainly won't hurt my speaking ability.

Next, the director general of HIF came and spoke to us, telling us a little bit more about the foundation and encouraging us as we near the start of the program proper. Then, once again, we had the rest of the evening to ourselves. On the walk back to the hotel, I made a few friends, and we stopped for soft-serve ice cream (using that same Hakodate milk I was raving about above).

アイスクレーム！

The four of us then met again for dinner. We decided to walk the opposite direction that we had in the morning, and after perusing a bit we ate at the restaurant on the second floor of the Hakodate train station. I decided on soba (Japanese buckwheat noodles, a staple), and also tried sake for the first time. It is pretty strong to the taste, but has about as much alcohol content as wine. I only had a bit, and had it heated it up – very delicious.

I have to say, the fish egg thing continues to weird me out. At breakfast some people eat an entire bowl full with a spoon, like cereal. I guess it's analogous to eating chicken eggs, but I can't get the image out of my mind of little tiny fish fetuses being squashed (sorry for putting it in YOUR mind too).

After dinner we stopped by the 7/11 (I got a blue popsicle), and on the walk balk to the hotel I was once again struck by the beauty of this place – the sky at dusk was a radiant blue. When I got back to my room I was pretty tired, and from what I hear this program is bound to keep me quite busy with work in the coming weeks (let's hope I can keep the blogging up). Fast forward a few hours to this morning, where I once again woke up to my roommate studying (come on!). Then, another round of breakfast buffet:

Aaaah well in about 15 minutes I have the opening ceremony for the program, after which I meet my host mother (Yoneuchi-san, a part-time nurse in her mid-sixties). I'm a bit nervous! But I'm sure it will work out well. Plus, I have another student staying with me to help diffuse any awkwardness. And he's much better at Japanese, in case I have no clue what's going on. Wish me luck!

ミラー (Miraa – the Japanese rendering of my last name)

A giant hot dog self-applying ketchup
...as hot dogs are bound to do...