June 28, 2009, 11pm: Onuma Park

This weekend, HIF sent all the students to Onuma park so we could get to know each other a bit better. Of course, they know that this involves drinking every year, they warned us to not throw up on the tatami mat on our room floor, but to do it in the toilet if we must (or we get charged like $100).

Onuma park was kind of like an amusement park. I went on this outdoor slide. You sit on this black flat thing and hold onto one rod that allows you to control the speed. It brings you to the top of the hill, then you literally fly down on the slide and through the tunnels. I do not know why it didn’t occur to me to bring my camera with me and videotape the way down. Then again, I am glad I didn’t do that. It was fun and I was going so fast, I was kind of scared I would fly off the slide, so a little scream caused a spider-like bug to swerve into my mouth. Disgusted I tried spitting, but it didn’t leave, so I reached my hand in and yanked it out, but as I swept my arm to the side to get rid of the vermin, I leaned and skidded across the inside of the tunnel. It hurt a bit, and as I struggled to rebalance myself so I would not flip over, my arm felt the burn 2 minutes later. Ow! Now, it feels like I lifted weights the whole weekend, my left arm is completely sore. It hurts to lift it above my head. I paid $4 for a scrape and a couple bruises. But, it was worth it!

Next I went on this jungle gym. Felt like a kid again. Then my friends and I rented 2 person buggies (with 4 wheels) and bicycles. We rode up a hill to feel the thrill of the downward danger. Momentum made the going down feel like we were riding on one side of the buggy, two wheels in midair for a few seconds. It was hella fun.

Then we swam in the pool that had a slide. Apart from the correct way to slide down, I decided to get a little more creative, thus dangerous. I went belly down face first, holding onto a person, and also backwards.

Then we had an amazing dinner at the hotel because of HIF, with tons of different Japanese foods, and all of it was delicious, especially the raw fish/baby shrimp. They had some performances, and every class had to sing a song in Japanese. Videos will be posted soon. (Should I post my videos on youtube?)

Then we drank some wine and beer, and hit up Karaoke in the hotel. We wanted to bowl, but it was 10pm and they had closed. I was tipsy, but absolutely coherent, of course, as I sang Britney Spears, Thriller, and etc. Then we all decided to take a dip in the hot Onsen.

After we were sooo hungry, but nothing in the hotel was open. And there is no life outside of the hotel at all. If we would have stepped outside though, we might have been devoured by insects. I’m so used to New York and being able to get a slice at Koronets at midnight.

So we chilled in the hallway of the hotel and I was quite amused by how drunk some people were. After Karaoke, I was totally 100% sober. I was never drunk in the first place anyway. How can you get drunk off of wine that’s 6% and beer that is 5% alcohol?
I really don’t want to go to school tomorrow.

I haven't uploaded the pics to my labtop. When I do, I'll post them as Onuma Park pics.

June 26, 2009, 11pm

Being grateful for the little things.
I have never had 3 square meals a day at the same time every day in America. I swear I’m overfed here. But, the Japanese are right. Eating a big breakfast is the key. I told my host mom I can’t eat that much in the morning, I’m just not that hungry, so she packed me something small to take to school so I can eat it after I get to school (small sandwich, banana, yogurt). Big mistake: after eating a small breakfast for 3 days, I realized how brain dead I was once I reached school. I mean, I do bike 25 minutes everyday to get there. I told my host mom I wanted to try to eat breakfast at home the next morning before school, before my exam. I did, and felt much better. Since then, I’ll always eat the hot and delicious huge breakfast my host mom makes for me in the morning. She’s happy that I’m really becoming Japanese. Another thing I noticed about my eating habits is that now I can eat rice everyday (maybe not in the mornings, but I can definitely eat it during dinner). Tea, I drink at least 3 times a day. Is drinking tea bad for you? I must admit thought, the routine of 3 square meals a day, school, hw, afterschool activity, and study, is a little too much for me. I realize I thrive off of adventure. Adventure is out there! What’s an adventurous career path? Suggestions anyone?

June 25, 2009, 11pm: The weekend before

Last weekend:
I went to the flower festival. Saw some flowers/cacti (love them cacti) I have never seen before, and a robotic squid that danced. Also went to a concert nearby my school. Nature loved the music so much; the birds sang along and chirped the whole way through. Also went to the Hakodate Art Museum. Alone. Because I thought my friends ditched me, but really I misinterpreted where we were supposed to meet. But, it’s ok, it’s such a small world, I randomly bumped into them 3 hours later while I was trying to find my way home, but got lost.

I always get lost. I bike to school everyday, and one day I biked 30 minutes in the opposite direction before I realized it wasn’t the right way. That day it took me an hour to get to school. I was just on time but that’s because I went so fast on my bike that I almost got hit by a car. To think, that Melissa Lohmann would have dropped off the face of this earth just like that!

On a lighter note, Japanese ceramic pottery class is pretty fun. I’m just really bad at it. They basically made mine for me. Kendo is cool: I like yelling while swinging a wooden stick. O violence.

June 24, 2009: Culture Shock-ish

Culture Shock-ish

Surrounded by conformity,
I’ve mistaken for perfection:
Efficiency, simplicity, serenity.

Yet the idyllic scenery
that swallows me
fails to provide tranquility.
Happy yet incomplete,
immobility strikes.
Stuck in the middle of two identities.

The compulsion
To break away and rebel
overwhelms my inner spirit.

Friday, June 19, 2009, 11pm

Friday, June 19, 2009, 11pm

Two days ago, I met my home stay family yesterday. My host mother is so nice; always in the kitchen cooking though. That is her job, besides teaching Japanese to foreigners that are beginners and want to learn “survival Japanese”. My host father loves baseball, used to play as a kid, and loves Hideki Matsui. I also live with an 80 year old grandma. This morning I had a hot dog, croissant, and yogurt (the yogurt is amazing here because Hokkaido is largely known for the farming agriculture). They told me that Japanese people eat a lot of breakfast. That’s going to take some time getting used to I guess, because I usually hate breakfast, but, I eat everything and the mom seems happy that I do. I think it would be rude to leave anything over. I eat dinner with the Japanese high school girls that live in the dorm next door that the father and mother run.

Today I told my host mom that breakfast is a little much for me. I asked if on some days when it’s convenient if I could bring it to school and eat it and she was really nice about it. My problem is that it takes some time to get to school, and let’s just say my metabolism is quite fast.

School takes about 35 minutes: walking to the street car takes 10 minutes, the street car takes 15 min and the walk to school from the street car takes about 10 minutes. But I told my host dad I wanted to use a bicycle and he told me he could let me borrow one, but that it is dangerous to use a bike. (Dangerous? Japan feels like the safest place to me! People leave their bikes unattended in one spot for the whole day and no one takes it!) He said it might be dangerous because of traffic. I kind of live in the busy part of town, but it’s nothing like NY.

I think I’ll experiment with my bicycle this weekend so I can figure out if I can get to school or not. All the streets are paved so it should be easy.

I really like my host mom. I had a two hour long conversation with her today solely in Japanese. I think I need to be more confident in my Japanese. I’m scared I might be too informal, so I speak slowly so I can catch myself before I talk. My host mom is surprisingly easy to talk you. My host dad tells me to tell him things frankly, but I still feel quite a mountain of distance between us that I don’t think we’ll ever overcome. I feel like I should be speaking to my host grandma in honorific form so I feel bad when I speak to her in Japanese. It’s a totally indirect conversation. My host dad and grandma talk about me when I am in the same room not even 3 feet away. I understand everything and they even say that it seems that I understand everything yet their conversation about me continues: Slightly weird. My mom told me a bike cost about $100 (10000 yen). It’s cheap because they import it from China. They are pretty nice looking bikes that seem to be made for short Asian people. I can’t wait to get lost within this city!

We have to do an independent study project for the HIF program. I decided to do my project in relation to sexism and how men/women view each other as well as the opposite sex. If I want to live in this country one day, I need to know if traditional Japanese thoughts are changing. I’ll keep you updated.
Today I had another cultural class: tea ceremony. We went to a high school in which girls that had the interest, took tea ceremony classes 3 times a week. It’s like an etiquette class. Although the activity welcomes males and females, the males don’t seem to participate: it was all females. We sat on a tatami mat, ate some sweets, and drank some sencha (I learned that oolong tea is partially fermented and black tea is completely fermented. Green tea and sencha are not fermented at all). There was a scroll in the room that explained the importance of respect and harmony and this was written in Japanese calligraphy. I realized my room in my host family’s house has this same set up: tatami mat, and a hanging scroll with calligraphy. It was then I realized I shouldn’t have moved my bed in front of the scroll in my room, even if it meant to make my room look spacious. I know my host mom came into my room the other day and today I saw her and profusely apologized. My family is used to have host kids I guess (they have been doing it for 14 years) so she said it doesn’t matter and I can do as I like with my room, but I felt bad so I told her I already moved it back to the original space and she was so surprised. I kind of like the hanging scroll and flower arrangement in front of it. It’s supposed to convey the feeling of the season. Since summer is coming, she put some real flowers in it so that one can look at it, smile, and be able to feel the approaching season.

Tomorrow is Saturday. I get to sleep in for once. Everyday I have to wake up at 7am and I sleep around midnight. My host mom and dad are taking me to the flower festival. All of the local flower shops and etc bring their flowers and there’s a show. I’m curious.

Oh, by the way, Hokkaido is really cold. I have been wearing 3 layers everyday (shirt, long sleeve, and jacket). My host grandma is so worried I’m going to catch a cold. Which is a great example of the paranoia of swine flu that is sweeping this nation.

PS- I only brought one suitcase, so I think I went through my entire wardrobe of clothes in one week. Damn, I’m a bum.

Hakodate: Thursday, June 18, 2009, 11pm

So a lot has happened since last week when I wrote my first blog. I think I am starting to get used to this country a little more. I didn’t realize how relaxing it is to be in Japan. Unlike America, or rather NY, I don’t feel overwhelmed most of the time. I think just being in NY is nerve racking.

During my last days of freedom, before school (intensive language and cultural classes) started, I spent my last few days of freedom exploring. I went to a regular onsen (public bath) and a brown onsen. I went to the regular-clear onsen first, which was in Yunokawa, Hokkaido. It was here I sat in the 100+ degree water for 2 hours while I dehydrated myself with a bottle of sake. It was nice, but I thought I was going to pass out. Note to self: Do not drink an alcoholic beverage while boiling like a crab in a hot pot. It was an outdoor onsen by the sea, but if you stood up anyone who happened to pass by will be able to get a good look at your nude figure. Yes, you go in the onsen completely naked! Which is wonderful.

The brown onsen is brown because of the minerals it contains. I prefer it to the regular-clear kind. The one I went to was in Yachigashira, Hokkaido, I think. After a bit in the brown onsen, your skin feels soft and you feel completely rejuvenated. I wish America had onsens. It’s amazing how Japanese people are able to relax after a hard day’s work.

I also climbed the Hakodate mountain. Although it’s a pretty small mountain in my eye, my friends and I took the long route to the top, so it took forever. But, you wouldn’t believe what was on top of the mountain. Apart from the view, which I missed out on because it was so foggy you couldn’t see 30 feet in front of you, there are a ton of vending machines: Everything from ice cream, to cigarettes, to drinks. Also there is a store that sells various goods such as candy, corn ice cream, whole dried squid, and bite size baby crabs that you pop in your mouth. Going up was so steep it took us 4 hours to get to the top. So we decided to take the ropeway back down.

We also went to the museum, and apparently the day we went it was free. It depicted the Ainu people of Hokkaido, the natives of the area. Painted as brown, hairy, half naked, and almost animalistic, the Ainu were seen as savages that wrestled bears. They were basically the Indians of Japan. So I was witness to a bit of history…

We also tried to go to the zoo, which was next to the museum, but it was being repaired. But we did see a really sexy albino peacock, who was separated from the females, but strutting his stuff and showing off. I think the peacock came from India. It’s strange, because around a church at Columbia University, they have the same albino peacocks, except the one I saw in Japan was bigger. Next to the zoo was an amusement park, and I got on one really old-looking kids ride. The amusement park was worn down, but in and of itself it looked like an antique. The ride cost 250 yen, about $2.50. Not worth it.

We also went to this soba noodle place. It was a restaurant run by an old couple within the comfort of their home. Soba noodles are supposed to be really good for you because they use buckwheat to make it. At the place we went to, they made the noodles themselves and they were so friendly and talkative that we managed to speak to them in Japanese for about 2.5 hours. After we took a picture with them and they took one with their camera as well.

We also went to a bar/food place run by Markkun and Hiromi. And although the drinks are really good, even when they put a lot of sake, it just tastes so good (but alcoholically speaking, soo weak) you want to drink it all in one gulp. They loved all of us, and we took pictures with them too. Japan never IDs and the legal drinking age is 20 years old.

I went shopping and got a really nice green scarf for about $7.50. It was at a thrift store, but it was 50% off and new. Apparently a lot of Japanese people like thrift stores and they are all over the place. They are also pretty pricey. They can be more expensive than new clothes, but a lot of the clothes they sell have American logos on them. Japan loves clothes with English on them, even though they are misspelled and/or the grammar/meaning is embarrassingly off.

The sushi here is amazing. Anything seafood here is incredible. My host family told me that Hakodate is known for their squid.

So anyway, I started my first day of official school this past Monday, June 15th. There are only 10-12 people per class so it’s nice. We have class Monday-Friday from 9am to 12:15pm. Then we have cultural classes or kendo/judo/kyudo (Japanese fencing, martial arts, or archery).

Today I learned the art of Japanese ceramic pottery. In Japanese they told me the way to make it is by building it up and then killing it (the word they use literally means to kill). You squeeze the clay together as the machine moves it round and round and so the clay becomes tall or long, then you let go and hold onto it as you push it down to kill it down.

I wrote too much.

Beginning

My First Steps in Japan: Tokyo to Hakodate, June 11, 2009

June 11, 2009, 11pm

After about a 13 hour plane ride from JFK, NYC, I landed in Narita airport in Tokyo, Japan. I am not scared of flying, and actually feel like it is becoming an addictive high. As I tried to sleep on the plane, the thought of being on a plane completely left me, but I had a intense feeling of falling, and so I failed to catch even a wink of sleep. Then as I went to customs and immigration, my heart froze: I had no way of proving that I would leave in 90 days and feared I would be denied entry, as I heard this was a strict rule. As I was greeted by face masks, a big black dog sniffed me for illegal narcotics. Luckily, I sailed through smoothly with almost no questions asked. I was lucky.

I found it interesting that the nice Canadian man in front of me was asked to open his very light, small suitcase filled with maybe 4 days worth of clothes. On the other hand, my big, bulky luggage was waived away.

After my flight to Narita landed, I exchanged my money. I brought about $1000 and changed it for about 94000 Yen. That’s about 94 yen to the dollar. So it’s like I exchanged $1000 for $940. Yes, the American economy sucks! But their money is definitely worth it: the coins are so pretty. I’ll post a picture of them soon.

Then I hopped on a bus for 1.5 hours to a hotel in Tokyo. I stayed one night at Tokyo Pacific Hotel, then got on another bus and plane to Hakodate. In total, I don’t even want to sum up my travel time.

The Japanese people have an efficient way of running their country. Something I have begun to deeply admire about these people. Unlike America, there are no visible garbage cans on the street, yet surprisingly there is no littering at all. The garbage bins are small and they are hidden to the naked foreigner eye. How the country manages such cleanliness is a surprise to me. It makes me feel as if America is swimming in garbage. Also, they separate everything: from plastic, to burnable, to unburnable. One plastic bottle is separated to be thrown away in 2 different garbage disposals. The toilets are amazing: who knew one could be so grateful for a nice butt washing! And you can buy all the beer and cigarettes you want without any ID from vending machines located all over the streets whenever you wish. Everyone is extremely polite. Even in jeans and a shirt that screamed Columbia University, I was given a steep, 90 degree-angle bow from a hostess at the hotel.

I have never felt so safe in my life.

I have a confession to make: I love Hakodate. It only opened its ports to foreigners 150 years ago. Since then, you can see how this has affected their architecture. Many buildings are a fusion between Japanese and Western culture and even I notice this. This is the perfect place for me to assimilate into Japanese culture. I feel like I could live here.

I took my proficiency exam for HIF today. I think I did badly in some parts. But, I can’t wait for the experience. They have sports clubs that are free to join: kendo, archery, and judo. They all meet a few times a week. I really am excited for kendo, but can’t wait to try all of them. They also have cultural classes such as flower arrangement, Japanese sweet making classes, and Japanese pottery and ceramics. These cost a small fee. I signed up for all of them. I cannot wait!

I explored Hakodate with a few people I met. I went to Lucky Perriot, a local favorite, and ate their specialty: a Chinese chicken burger. I know it sounds weird, but it actually was pretty good, and cheap (about 350 yen). Then I had some ice cream, and stopped at Hakodate Beer for some beer tasting. I don’t like American beer at all, but Japanese beer is tolerable and some are pretty tasty. One of them tasted like a corona (ew). But they don’t card, which is good for all those young bucks out there. I actually like the darker, bitter ones, and my favorite out of the 4 was the Hakodate specialty beer. And instead of drinking with peanuts, you eat corn!

I used to think of myself as a terrible Buddhist or a very good atheist. This is because after a few years of practicing Nichiren Buddhism in High School and the beginning of college, I unintentionally quit. I just didn’t have time.

I decided to start up my practice again: starting tonight. I did my prayer for the night, and since it’s already after 12 midnight, I think I’m going to sleep soon.