Day 34-37 :章を改める (beginning a new chapter)

On Monday (7/14), the last day of our four-day-weekend-break, Okaasan had us invite over a few friends for a BBQ – and it turned out to be a veritable feast, with plate after plate of delicious food. A few of our HIF friends and a few of Okaasan's friends came, as well as Mariko and Otoosan (Okaasan's husband), and we spent the afternoon munching, chatting, and enjoying ourselves together. It was incredibly generous and hospitable of Okaasan, and I can only imagine how much work went into preparing everything.

 And, with the end of the day, tomorrow would bring the second semester, and half of my time in Japan was officially over – wow! I knew the rest would go by equally as fast, and I hoped to always remember that this is a special opportunity to be made the most of. Exactly what that meant, and how to indeed make the most, I still don't know exactly, but I set a few goals for the second half:

• Maintaining a good attitude. Period.
• Challenging myself to learn while not sacrificing the experience of actually being in Japan. Making the most of the environment has been at the core of my academic purpose here.
• Getting enough sleep, ideally 8 hours a night. I figure, if I can't do it now, when the stakes are relatively low, when will I?
• I also set a lower-priority goal of exercising more. I've spent about the past year without getting much physical exercise at all, and my body is beginning to show it. (When my friend Daniel went to Korea after freshman year, he came back completely skinny, yet somehow this hasn't happened to me so far…)

[And that night, of course, I inadvertently knocked over a glass of water and onto my laptop. I immediately set it out to dry for a few days – and, as I write this, it is functional again. Praise God.]

Without delay, semester two began. We received a new textbook, and I very soon began feeling more challenged with the material. At the end of the first semester, I had expressed a lot of my frustrations on the course evaluation survey, and felt both relieved to make my thoughts known and bad because I didn't want to seem rude or ungrateful. But I now feel that my teacher was receptive to my comments,  and I am feeling a lot better about class itself. In addition, I was class partners with リウさん (Liu-san), who is hilarious. Since we spend a lot of the three hours of class practicing with the person we sit next to, it can make a big difference on how the day goes.

(I'm now afraid I'm boring all of you with my classroom stories, so let's move on:)

Tuesday's activity was Japanese cooking, at a local culinary school. We worked in groups of four, with two culinary students each helping us, and the results were delicious (mostly because they told us exactly what to do and did half of it for us): a sashimi dish, a steak dish, and somen noodle dish. I was using Okaasan's apron, so I looked somewhat like Dorothy Gale, but anyway..

おいしい！

That evening for dinner, Okaasan made Tofu burgers. Now, if you gave me a tofu burger in America, I would probably not be too excited, but these were absolutely delicious. I have never eaten tofu so enthusiastically.

Wednesday morning I rode my bike to school – I had the day before as well, in accordance with my exercise goal. I also have been making a point of trying to ride up the hill to class each day, for an extra challenge. It's so steep I have to flail in first gear, and it's probably entertaining for those watching. As a result, I have to bring a change of shirt each day because, after arriving and climbing the four flights of stairs to the classrooms, I'm covered with sweat. That afternoon, a small group of us went to take a tour of the old Hakodate Magistrate's office, at the center of Goryokaku Park, established about 150 years ago.

 Wednesday's dinner was, well, more of a "challenge," including a pretty thick beef stew, but I tried to embrace it – I even asked to try natto again, even though I don't love it (and Okaasan knew this, too, so she wasn't going to give me any). I got through about half of it. Maybe I'll try again another time.

After another bike ride to school (I'm trying hard! I haven't bought a tram pass yet, hoping to bike whenever possible), Thursday's after-school activity was Go, the ancient East Asian strategy game. The nice man spent about an hour explaining to us, and in very good English, before we gave it a shot in pairs. It was fun, though neither me nor my friend Louisa fully understood the nuances – one of the Japanese men would come around and explain to us that we were making an illegal move, or that our game was actually already over, etc.

All in all, things continue to be well in Japan. Getting better, even. I'm happy to be here.

Statue of a catcher outside the baseball stadium

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Day 31-33: 札幌 (Sapporo)

For our mid-term break, HIF organized an optional weekend trip to Sapporo, and it was a blast. After the 6-ish-hour bus ride on Friday, the 40-ish of us arrived at the youth hostel we'd be staying at and dropped off our stuff before beginning to explore the city. I had forgotten how exciting it was to be in a real metropolitan, and I was so glad for this chance to explore – Hakodate is lovely, but definitely a different feel.

The first destination of the group I was with was a huge shopping center located at the Sapporo train station – and specifically, the Pokemon center there. I'm not the biggest Pokémon nerd, but it still was fun to visit (even though the merchandise was very expensive). Afterwards, Aaron and I walked several blocks to visit the Sapporo Beer Museum / Brewery – a popular tourist destination.

Fishing for Pokeballs...

After a little more walking around in a group – passing by a lovely park near the town, and a group protesting nuclear proliferation – we all went searching for a good place to eat. After about an hour of wandering, we arrived at an 居酒屋 (izakaya restaurant) that turned out to be very delicious. At the end of the evening, everyone decided to try out a local club, and I decided to walk home – on the way stopping to ride the ferris wheel that overlooked the entire city.

Saturday, early in the morning, we had a meet-and-greet "party" with local university students. I'm not sure "party" was the right term for a 9:30am gathering, but all the same, it was another opportunity to interact with friendly local people and share our languages, backgrounds, and dreams.

The rest of the day, I was feeling the need to explore a little on my own, to refresh and reflect on my experience. I spent some time at the nearby botanical gardens, walking around and thinking and praying. Re-exploring the questions: What is my purpose here? What am I to learn? What do you have to show me, Lord?

After the botanical gardens and more walking, I found a restaurant that served hamburgers and tacos, and was intrigued at the thought of what a Japanese taco would be. The rest of the afternoon I spent reading a novel, The Alchemist, that I had received a few years prior but had never gotten around to reading.

 

In the evening, I dropped into a bookstore and was amazed by the quantity of books. It wasn't that different from any large bookstore you'd find in America, but the fact that they were all in Japanese – all containing information that was as of yet mostly beyond my comprehension – was fascinating. I eventually found a couple of Japanese workbooks at half the price they would be in the states, and bought them. I also stumbled upon a huge selection of sheet music in the bookstore, and was nerdily excited because you will never find this quantity of music books in a US chain bookstore!

That evening for dinner, eight of us went to a nearby Genghis Khan restaurant (delicious lamb meat cooked at your table – refer to my Onuma post), which was once again a delicious experience. Later that night, I and three friends went to do karaoke – my first time, in fact – and I had a lot of fun singing (perhaps more screaming at times) late into the night. 

Sunday morning we climbed back on the bus and I slept for most all of the 6 hours back. All in all, I quite enjoyed Sapporo, and could even see myself living in a city like this – busy, but not huge, and clean!

The youth hostel – 10 of us packed into a tatami room

Hello, Kitty

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Days 28-30: 大変なこと ("difficult things")

Okay, before I begin, it is hopefully clear that my life is not actually very "difficult." I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to be here in Japan (thanks once again to the Yale Japanese Department and the Light Fellowship). Tuesday through Thursday of last week was the end of the first "semester" here, so it was crunch time, right at the height of my previously-discussed frustrations in class.

(Oh, by the way, I should have made this clear earlier, but I am completely safe and avoided the typhoon that came roaring about to the south this time last week. For those who were concerned, thank you for your thoughts, and sorry to worry you!)

After class on Tuesday, it became clear I'd have to do a significant amount of self-study before returning to Yale if I hoped to place into 3rd-year Japanese. My hope has been that I can spend this next year auditing the next level of Japanese, then take 4th year my super-senior year. But even if this doesn't pan out, it's ok. I have to remind myself that I am not here, primarily, for class. Not at all in fact. I am here for the experience. After all, it makes little sense to spend my time living in Japan geared toward preparing for Japanese class at Yale... It should be the inverse, no? (And the Light Fellowship has encouraged this: "Go for the A minus," they say).

Well, in my frustration, of course I had to get soft serve with friends (c.f. "my life is not actually very difficult," above). We then headed to a local high school to participate in a tea ceremony, hosted by a club of high school students who spend twice a week training in the highly ritualized practice. The tea ceremony holds a significant position in Japanese culture historically, and traditionally could take up to several hours. We got to experience a brief version, thankfully, and the freshly whipped-up matcha tea was delicious.

That night I set about memorizing a four-minute speech I had written, entirely in Japanese, for the mandatory speech contest the next day. My topic was "大変なこと" (difficult things) – my message being that difficult experiences are necessary and help you grow (yes, I know, I need to listen to my own advice).

On Wednesday, I was actually fairly nervous for the speech itself. I mean, it's a pretty big feat to create and memorize and deliver a significant chunk of text in a foreign language, let alone a newly-learned one, no? Well, everyone did quite well, and before my speech one of my classmates, Hassan-san from Stanford, kindly listened as I practiced babbling my speech to her in the hallway.

The speeches done, several of us went out to lunch together and found a nearby soba restaurant to eat at. We ended up mulling around for about an hour while they made space for us, but it was well worth it; I had a rather delicious soba set, both cold and hot soba noodles, with some Japanese sake to drink. There doesn't seem to be too much nutritional value to soba, as its pretty much just plain noodles, but regardless...

Thursday was the last day of the semester, and thus the final exam, which went fine. The oral exam was less excellent on my part, but what can you do. (Study endlessly? I suppose, but once again, the goal is for the experience of Japan here.) On the way home, the semester over, I walked leisurely, stopping to think and read along the way – and to swing on a swingset I came across.

Now, I NEED to just brag about the meal that Okaasan made for us on Thursday evening. It was a literal feast; she kept bringing out plate after plate of genuinely delicious food. The main feature was a bowl of rice topped with sashimi (sashimi being my favorite Japanese food), a salad with crab, squid sashimi, grilled squid legs, miso soup, pork and grilled onions and peppers, and some pickled vegetables. Wow. It took me about 2.5 hours to eat.

By the way, I must add that squid legs is exactly the kind of thing that would have made me squeamish at a month ago, but which I now find delicious. I am learning...

Next up, I packed my bags and headed to Sapporo – a large metropolitan to the north – for the weekend. Stay tuned!

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Days 25-27: More adventures

ARGH so in the process of updating my blog last night, I knocked over a glass of water and spilled some onto the keyboard of my laptop.. Dag nab it. The jury is still out on whether it will be usable... I will know in a few days after it has dried out completely. Thankfully, though, I have my ipad and it is relatively easy to write blog posts on (though you'll have to forgive any typos along the way). So here we go...

On Saturday (7/5), the big activity for the day was a trip to an archaeological/historical centrer on the Jomon era (pre-historic Japan). We were accompanied by students from Hakodate University, who I later found out were required to join us on this trip – it wasn't for the thrill of meeting us. At any rate, we spent an hour-and-a-half bus ride to get to the center. I didn't know much about the Jomon period, and unfortunately I still don't because the lecture we were given on it in Japanese was pretty much inscrutable to me. However, they had some very cool remains on display. One is an intact doll-like figure (dogu) dating back about 3500 years. It was in its own display room, and is apparently on the waiting list to become a national treasure.

Millennia old!

Another striking artifact were a series of stone tablet with small footprints in them. Apparently the Jomon people (at the time of these footprints, anyway, since the period lasted thousands of years), when they lost a child, would imprint the footprint onto such tablets as a memento (and, potentially, would hang them in their home, given the holes appearing on most of these tablets). The historians point to this as a sign of Jomon spirituality. It's gripping and sad, at any rate, and reminded me that the human experience, in all its joy and pain, goes way, way back.

On Sunday (7/6), Okaasan very kindly took me to her sister's house so I practice piano. I practiced for an hour and a half and was very grateful, to her and her sister. Later that day, one of my Yale Japanese professors, Nishimura-sensee, was in town to visit the four of us Yalies in the program. She was in the process of making a tour to all the Japanese programs with Yale students in them, coming to Hakodate in between visits to Ishikawa and Tokyo. We all got a wonderful lunch at a Japanese inn and talked about the program, what we thought/were learning. I voiced my frustrations with the pace of my class, and was interested to see what she would think we she observed class on Monday. It was a great time to catch up, anyway; I had been missing my own Yale Japanese class, largely due to the dedication, enthusiasm, and generosity of our Japanese professors. Once we were done eating (and it was quite the array), we went to the onset at the inn. (Thankfully all of us are guys, and since make and female baths are separated, there was no awkwardness).

Monday (7/7), my frustration with class reached a peak; I found myself complaining internally a lot and becoming impatient with the repetition of the material. The fact that class takes 3 hours out of every day, combined with the fact I was learning very little new information in this final unit of the semester... Well, I was having trouble just sucking it up and dealing with it, especially knowing that even after completing this program I will still have to study a lot more independently to successfully skip a level of Japanese. Anyway, I don't intend to bore you with my whining, but this frustration was becoming a real part of my daily experience; outside of class, I was so enjoying exploring and learning within the culture; inside class, I was bored. (Thankfully, my classmates are very fun, kind people to be around, and we have a great group dynamic). So, after class I met up with my Yale professor and we talked about possible options. It was pretty much too late to move into the higher level, because there would be too much catching up to do; yet it was clear the work in this level was not challenging enough. I could ask for more work from my teacher (but why would I want to take more time away from actually experiencing Japan?). At any rate, it was clear I should make clear to my teacher here some of my concerns.

Monday evening, things took a very pleasant turn as the celebration of the Tanabata Festival took place. Tanabata, in practice, looks a lot like the America's Halloween, though it's origins are really not much alike at all. Children up through middle school years dress up in yukata (the light, summer equivalent of a kimono) and go to local homes and businesses and receive treats. (Actually, apparently, this may just be how it's celebrated in Hakodate. Unclear to my foreign understanding.) at any rate, the streets are crowded with children in beautiful traditional clothing, and at each stop along the way, they would give a short chant, asking for treats (literally asking for "a big wow"). I walked around with Mariko and Haruto as he filled up his bag all around the neighborhood. Video of Haruto doing the Tanabata chant forthcoming, if/when I am able to use my computer again.

{Update: my computer is now working, thank the Lord, so here is the video, as promised}

Out of snacks :(

Riding with his brother (a neurologist's nightmare)

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