End of Hakodate (BELATED)

Hey, All!! Sorry it's been so long since my last post. I've had a weird couple of days here involving moving out of one home stay and into another, with LOTS of travel in between, so I've been pretty exhausted and haven't felt up to taking the time to finish up by Hokkaido posts. But I got to hang out with the other Pomona folks today and FINALLY got moving toward fall semester (even if I did fall asleep at the matriculation ceremony) so I'm feeling a lot better. Thus, without further ado, I present

The End of My Trip to Hokkaido

WEDNESDAY: Taiwanese Cooking

One of the other students in the program was apparently a cooking teacher in Taiwan, so we spent Wednesday learning about Taiwanese cooking with her. I was fortunate enough to be in a group with two other of the Taiwanese students who happen to be rather proficient cooks, so they let me do the easy stuff (like crushing biscuits for the cheesecake crust) while they did all the actual cooking. The meal consisted of daikon soup, a chicken dish, and banana cheesecake. It turned out pretty good!!

After that I wandered around Hakodate some more and managed to get all the way over to Tachimachi Point from which you can see Aoyama, one of the northernmost prefectures on Honshu (the main island of Japan). It was ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS; I'm gonna work on throwing up a video in a little bit here. After that it was dinner and ofuro and bedtime.

THURSDAY: Shougakkou

The last prepared activity for us was a visit to a local elementary school. When we got there, the president gave a speech, one of the study abroad students gave an introduction, and then we all did our own self-introductions. After that the students did the traditional Hakodate Ika Odori (Squid Dance. Squids are practically the city mascot; don't ask) and then we did it with them; it was pretty entertaining. I wanted to get it on tape, but I was too slow. :( After that, they paired each student (sometimes two) with one of the classes. [For those of you that don't know, in most public Japanese schools, each grade is divided up into at least three separate classes and enumerated by grade and class number, e.g Grade 2, Class 1 would be 2-1, Grade 6, Class 1 is called 6-1.] I got put with a class of first graders that were just the CUTEST things. I introduced myself again and then they came up and introduced themselves to me and gave me cards and origami stuff. After that I answered questions about myself and the States for a while, until one of the students asked about American games, which led to us playing Red Light, Green Light, and then Daruma-san ga Koronda (The Daruma Doll Fell Down) which is pretty much the Japanese equivalent of Red Light, Green Light. Then I taught them some English (fruit and animal names and the like), after which we had lunch and did some origami together before they had to take me up to the library to say our goodbyes. On the way upstairs, I literally had four kids hanging onto each of my arms, all trying to lead me there. It was SO MUCH FUN.

After that finished up I was intending to go sightseeing, but it was drizzling and I didn't feel like walking around in that, so I just went home.

FRIDAY

I pretty much just lazed around all day because it was raining again. I did go to Lucky Pierrot (a well-known [in Hokkaido] and exclusive to Hakodate fast food joint) for lunch with Yoh-chan and a friend of hers, which was fun, but other than that I just slept and did what I could to help Okaa-san out with Meito and Riko (they both had fevers and were feeling pretty crummy. :( Riko got better before I left, but Meito was still sick).

SATURDAY: GOODBYE HOKKAIDO

The rest of the HIF students came down to Hakodate for the farewell party, which involved speeches that I didn't understand (they were in Japanese), some by members of HIF, some by students from the program. Then there was food and some people singing/performing, and then another round of the Ika Odori, led by the Hakodate students (i.e. me and the other students I'd been hanging out with). It was pretty fun (even if some of the singers had REALLY bad pitch and James was stuffing me with meat and fish because we were pretty sure I was anemic from lack of meat in the Morita household. Whatever, I felt better afterwards).

After that Kim, James, Geoffrey and I went shopping for gifts for people back home/in Tokyo. Then it was off to the airport for the plane ride home. Okaa-san and Misaki and Rico all came to see us off which was totally sweet, if totally heartbreaking.

And that was the end of Anna's adventures in Hokkaido! Well, mostly. I'm gonna put up an entry on my adventures in food in Hokkaido, but I'm done blogging for the moment; I'm still kinda tired. Anyway, hope you enjoyed this installment! I'll be bringing you the Return to Tokyo adventures as soon as I'm feeling up to it. Take care, All!

(9/23 Edit: Photo albums associated with this entry can be found here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2039202&id=1186934580&l=216e51ee99

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2039213&id=1186934580&l=288611026e

Enjoy!)

~ Anna