Hello Hakodate!

I have arrived in Hakodate and have finally gotten settled in with my host family. I have to admit that staying with a host family as an adult has been one of my primary concerns for this program--I know that they are fantastic for learning to speak the language, but for someone who is used to a certain degree of independence, it can be a rough transition. Additionally, host families really are a mixed bag. It's kind of like getting a roommate in the college lottery system: sometimes you get someone you're really compatible with and then things go pretty smoothly, but sometimes you get matched with the devil incarnate. Host families are pretty much the same. You can spend hours filling out profiles, but sometimes you just get a family that doesn't quite meet the expectations you had for the experience (and vice versa, I'm sure). So far, I don't think that is going to be a problem with my host family.

There are three people in my immediate host family--a mother (Okaa-san) and her son (Y-san) and daughter (M-san). Okaasan makes a living as a fortune-teller. Y-san has traveled the world following around reggae bands. M-san has been taking a year off and is trying to learn English with her mother. They are all very friendly and have been beyond accommodating and helpful as S-chan (my homestay partner-in-crime) and I try to adapt to life in Hakodate. Okaa-san's house is located near a local historic park, Goryōkaku, where the Boshin War was fought in 1869 (for anyone who cares about Japanese history, that was kind of a big deal). They have a gorgeous two story home, located right next to Okaa-san's brother's family and her parents. Okaa-san also loves ice cream, so we've been using the excuse of the fantastic Hokkaido dairy cows to get some whenever we can.

Okaa-san, M-san, and S-chan waiting in line for ソフト・クリーム (ice cream)

This weekend has been a nice vacation before the storm that is going to be this intensive program. Okaa-san has taken us to eat at Lucky Pierrot (a local burger chain with amazing chicken burgers), curry soup (spicy and amazing), kaiten sushi (the kind that spins around so you can grab what you want, and, of course, the Hokkaido Milk Plant that sells fresh ice cream. That's right; be jealous. I got to make friends with some awesome Hakodate cows!

My new friends, Ba-nira and Maccha.

As the one place in Japan that really has the space and climate for good dairy cows, Hokkaido milk is pretty widely celebrated in Japan. They import the milk and milk-products to Tokyo from the northern island, and people around here really seem to love it. Not that I disagree with them, because it it very good milk, but all the same I think I am more impressed with the fact that there is fresh ice cream everywhere in this town. A girl has to have her priorities, after all.

Yo-garuto and Cho-ko

We've also been sitting around and relaxing, which has been nice because I had to run out of Chicago after finishing two of my finals and had to spend some of my first nights in Japan working on a third. We've spent both of the past couple nights watching TV. I found an amazing show about a taxi driver in Kyoto who solves crime using clues from and about food. We also drew a bath tonight, so I got a chance to soak in a Japanese tub for a while before I got too hot and needed to get out. Besides that, ice cream and cow friends are about all of the summer vacation I'm going to get until I get back home in August.

Tomorrow, we will be assigned to our classes and start doing what we came here to do and learn some Japanese. It's an intensive program, and we've been hearing from Okaa-san about how some students have complained about the amount of homework and the strictness of the teachers. I'm sure that it will be fine, but I'm still tired from all the packing and running around and have really enjoyed the chance not to have to worry about studying for a while. Oh well. It's not like I want to be a student for a living, right? :p

Soooooo delicious!

きょうはうしにあいました！ともだちになりました！