So FRIDAY turned out to be a trip to Meito's school and Mt. Higashi, this super awesome, super pointy volcano that's about an hour's drive from my host family's house. (Pictures will come when I have faster internet) After that, Yoh-chan and I went to the HIF-organized meet-and-greet at a local rec center with a group of 36 young (at heart) Japanese folks.
Said meet-and-greet involved being broken up into two teams to play this crazy, whacky game involving throwing balls into a basket mounted about ten feet in the air. Our team won every time. :D Then there was food and chit-chatting (involving me making a few new friends that I'll probably never see again) and then I got to be the awkward one exchange student to go up and receive the photo that we all (60 of us) took together from the guy in charge of the rec center. Whatever, it was cool.
After that the Moritas came and picked me and Yoh-chan up to go up Mt. Hakodate to see the night view of the city. They don't let cars go up until after 10 o'clock so we had some time to hang out and wait before we could go up. Once we did though, it was a bit of an awkward drive, but TOTALLY worth the view.
Seriously, it was freaking AMAZING. And yes, that IS the ocean on either side of the city. Like I said. GORGEOUS.
SATURDAY was the day that I realized just how grossly I'd underestimated what exactly it is that Otou-san does.
We went next door for church.
Yeah. Next door. The house is ATTACHED to the chapel. Otou-san's a freakin' MINISTER. Which definitely made a lot of things around the house make a lot more sense (including the bit where he said a prayer before he drove us up to Mt. Higashi. The irony of it? We go stopped be a cop on that drive and he got a $150+ ticket.), but threw me for a loop. Like I said, I CLEARLY wasn't paying attention at some crucial point in the introductions. *awkward* Anyway, after mass Yoh-chan and I hung out and chatted/had lunch with the church members for a while before we headed out to Goryoukaku park, this crazy awesome park shaped like a star that boasts a super tall tower of awesome. I'd put in pictures of both, but I couldn't get the whole park in one shot and none of the tower shots are cool enough to merit putting straight onto the blog rather than in a facebook album (although I probably could have uploaded the pictures in the time it took me to write that sentence. Although maybe not on this connection. Hmmm. Anyway,) so here's a picture of me at the top because it has me in it, which automatically makes it cool enough for the blog.
After the trip to the park, Okaa-san took me, Yoh-chan, and the kids out to another Ainu concert, although this time there was just one guy. It was still totally cool though. ALSO, all the kids totally passed out for at least some portion of the concert. Misaki (the middle girl) was sitting next to me and all but falling off her chair so I grabbed her and held her for the rest of the concert while she slept, which kinda made the whole experience for me. Of course she totally denied having fallen asleep afterward, but whatever, it was cute.
SUNDAY was brunch with some of the family (READ: me keeping an eye on the girls while they ate because Okaa-san was at Meito's baseball game and Otou-san was working) and then some more sightseeing. Yoh-chan and I headed out to Jujikai together and were gonna stick together while we wandered, but as a result of some communication fail that didn't quite work out. So we went our separate ways and were both home in time for dinner at 6. I wound up wandering past 3 of the 4 big churches, plus one of the old temples, as well as all of the major Western-influenced buildings near Jujikai. I also got a REALLY BAD sunburn. AWESOME. (NOT.) Whatever, I'll live.
After dinner, we all went out karaoke-ing. I definitely had a blast watching the kids sing their ridiculously adorable kid songs (including the current Pokemon theme song) while I sang my equally ridiculously out-of-date anime songs and failed at my one attempt to rap along with Orange Range's Asterisk (first Bleach opening theme song). Also got Otou-san to finish the song he tried to chicken out on halfway through which was fun; he and Okaa-san both have GREAT voices. It was SO MUCH FUUUUNNNN!!! (UGH, I WISH I'd taken pictures... I totally forgot my camera. I'M SO BUMMED!!!)
YESTERDAY we went on a potato-picking excursion courtesy of the HIF folks. It was actually tons of fun (except the bit where my muscles HATE ME today), especially the part where I got to ride on a tractor-thing with Misaki.
After we were done, the folks at the farm cooked the potatoes for us and we had a little picnic until it started getting a bit to chilly to be worth it. Then we went to a nearby milk farm and had some DELICIOUS soft serve. (I spent pretty much the whole time thinking about how much Mary would want to spend some time there.) After that we headed back and I pretty much passed out for the whole afternoon. Then we had dinner and Yoh-chan and I matched kanji-wits against seven-year-old Meito (he had a kanji test today). Yoh-chan met him at only 4 phrases missed.
I got my butt kicked; missed almost half of the 25 Okaa-san threw at us.
Whatever, we all got a laugh out of my drawing a six-year-old's version of a cloud because I didn't know the kanji for it. It was fun, if a bit humiliating. Then it was ofuro and BEDTIME!!
TODAY was laziness in the morning followed by KIMONO-WEARING in the early afternoon. It was SO MUCH FUN; and when I say kimono, I mean KIMONO, not a yukata. It was definitely an adventure getting me into mine; I was way too tall for it so we had to fold it over shorter than normal under the obi, the socks they gave me were a centimeter too small, and the zouri they gave me barely made it past the instep of my feet. But that's okay because the kimono was GORGEOUS and I got to have fun pretending to be a yakuza (Japanese mob) boss. (Those shots will be up later, I mostly just want to let you guys see how GORGEOUS this kimono was.
After that I did one more round of sightseeing just past Jujikai; I had an errand to run (READ: SOUVENIRS) down that way and decided to totally exhaust the plae of it's cultural AWESOMENESS. This DID mean that I missed dinner at the Moritas', but it also meant that I found this adorable little park jutting into the ocean and got to go back to Ajisai for ramen and gyoza for dinner, so whatever, it was cool. The sightseeing trip was also a disturbing mix of a half dozen cemeteries and a beautiful sunset; you'll see when I stick the pictures up. ALSO, my camera died on me right before my last building. :( BUT, that means I may need/have an excuse to go back. :D ANYWAY, it was still TONS of fun, so whatever. YAY!!
(9/23 Edit: Associated photo albums can be found here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2039196&id=1186934580&l=cc04bcdcd5
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2039198&id=1186934580&l=c34b3a0812
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2039199&id=1186934580&l=9f9f6c0465
Enjoy!!)
Just three (and a half?) more days in Hakodate and then it's back to the real world. NOOOOOO!!!!!! WHERE HAS THE TIME GONE?!?!
~ Anna
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