Beyond Squidville

The day after the program ended, my parents arrived from the US so we could do some sightseeing as a family. Before heading off though, we had one final celebratory dinner with my host family and my sister's host family.









After leaving Hakodate, our first stop was Sapporo. While there we visited Odori park, a long strip of greenery running throught the center of the city and featuring this awesome slide/sculpture which I want to transplant to my hometown.

Next stop was the old capital of Kyoto with its scores of shrines and temples. We stopped as some of the more famous ones, including the lovely Golden Pavilion.

My final days in Japan were spent exploring Tokyo, with its strange mix of modern and ancient. A trip through the culinary district revealed a shop selling nothing but the plastic food reproductions that are used in restaurant windows, answering for me the niggling question of where all that plastic food was coming from.



From a maze of shrine gates created to bring good luck to business to a floor-to-ceiling Hello Kitty, Tokyo has it all.

More Adventures in Japan

Apologies for yet another extended hiatus from blogging. HIF has come to a close and I am left wondering where the time went. The last week has been a flurry of final presentations and preparations for the final exam yesterday and today's final ceremony, including song rehearsals, because every class must of course say goodbye in song.

My class performed "島歌” (Island Song), a classic Okinawan melody. The signs we are holding read "Ra ra ra ra ra...", which is actually part of the lyrics.

To rewind, a lot has happened between when this picture was taken and when I last wrote, but here are selected highlights:
My host brother is adorable and sure knows how to rock my shades, even if he isn't spot on about how many fingers to hold up for "piisu."

As an optional culture class, I learned about making washi, traditional Japanese sweets, which, so far as I can tell, almost universally involve sweet bean paste. Here we see Hwee holding a tray of steamed bean buns, and a photo of a flowery creation made by our choujouzu sensei out of, you guessed it, bean paste.

In a direct contrast to the refined delicacy of the sweet-making, our next cooking class involved making mochi, sweet glutinous rice paste, by pounding it vigorously with a mallet as demonstrated here by Lee-san. The guy turning the mochi was lucky that none of us accidentally hit him, though someone *cough Sarai * got really close...

Other highlights included a trip with friends to Sapporo over a long weekend. We visited the factory-turned-museum where they used to manufacture Sapporo beer. There were plenty of vintage beer ads including this one. Most of them seem to feature the usual people with beer combo, but the people, oddly enough, are not actually interacting with the beer. Not sure why... Also, I am going to regret returning to a country where I am not of legal drinking age...

Jokes aside, I will be happy to return to the US. While this program has been fantastic, I am about ready for a break, not just from school, but from the sustained mental effort that I have to put forth simply to understand and be understood. I never expected it to be quite as taxing, but it can be, especially when the novelty wears off... Fortunately my host family has been wonderfully kind and patient through all my fumblings, and I am going to miss them a great deal. At least we have promised to write, they in Engrish and I in waseigo...