(WARNING: Big update is big) You Know You've Done a Lot...

...When you fall asleep as soon as you lie down on the rock hard futon with beads in the pillows. Seriously. I think I've gotten the best sleep that I've ever had this past week. Partly because I actually am being serious about my studies here, making sure that I do my homework before getting home and know my 漢字 (kanji - Chinese characters) the NIGHT before. Really, I feel really productive every night, even if my 作文 (writing practice) sucks badly. The other reason  that goddamn hill  is because I practically tire myself out every day going to and from school. But I think I'm finally getting used to it now. I'm still hot and sweaty by the time I get to class (did I mention that once we finish the climb up our classes are still on the 5th floor and this building is old enough to not have an elevator?) Course, my everyday mantra up the hill is "Sexy legs, sexy legs, sexy legs by August".

To give you an idea of what I keep complaining about:

That is Hakodate Yama (Mountain) as seen from the harbor across the bay.

A close up of the first picture, and that nice little 45 degree hill is my precious love. /sarcasm You can even make out the "hif" letters on the top left corner of my building. Isn't colorful?

I'll try to stop complaining about the hill and how much I hate it. Really, I don't mind walking everywhere I need to go, or taking the JR (Japan Railway) to and from Hakodate city. It's good exercise and I'm used to this concept from Yale. When I come home every night feeling like I need to soak for an hour in the tub, it's a good, refreshing feeling. I can get used to it, no problem.

So yeah, I've been getting some awesome sleep lately. And the hard futon doesn't really bother me anymore. The only thing about sleeping now is that I still wake up almost every morning around 3:45, when the sun rises. Yes. The sun rises around 4am. I was so confused my first night here and nearly panicked that I overslept and missed my train when I saw the sun shining brightly at 4am through my window. (Speaking of which, I need to take pictures of my room and host family...)

***

This weekend, I did something I don't usually do - ask people what they're doing so I can get out of the house. Course, I kinda had to since no one was going to be home all Saturday until the evening. And apparently I'm not allowed to stay home by myself - which I understand. It gave me a reason to not sit around the house like a bum as I am prone to do. So I went with one of the girls that I ride the train with to school everyday, and we (plus her host mother) went to see a little bit of this Music Festival that Hakodate was hosting.

We got there in time to see the opening ceremony and see some grade school kids play the traditional Japanese drums. So adorable, I swear.

We walked around and looked at all the pretty flowers (there was a surprising amount of florists selling flowers and decorations for really cheap) and then sat to watch the Hakodate Firefighter Band play a few songs. Yes, the firefighters have their own band, in which they played a Totoro song. XD And yes, they played underneath a rainbow.

I had my first taste of Takoyaki (fried balls of octopus).

This is them preparing it.

Tastes like shrimp to me.

And I saw this adorable little kid with a giant banana. All the little kids I see, I want steal for my own. They're just so...adorable!!! XD

Afterwards, her mom had to leave to go back to work, so we rode one train station back to Goryoukaku, a rather spiffy and more lively place than Hakodate. Our plan was to head towards the park that the place is famous for. It's called the star park for an obvious reason. But we made  a few stops along the way. First and foremost, we both wanted to buy a 電子辞書 (electronic Japanese Dictionary), and we managed to find one that was super useful and super cheap compared to the rest of the ones that most people get. Last night (Monday night) I finally figured out how to work most of the important functions on it. So happy.

BTW, this was an electronics store, so imagine how torn I was at looking at all the things in it and not buying any of it. Especially in the video game section. -_-;;

We walked a little more before we found a ダイソー, the typical Japanese 100￥ shop, the equivalent of a $1 store in America. Only better. MUCH better. You can get good quality things without it looking like someone dug it up from the garbage. Also, the selection is way better, with a variety of things to be bought.

After a little bit of walking, we finally got to 五稜郭公園 (the star park) and enjoyed some Tiramisu-flavored gelatto. It's like ice cream, only more expensive and a lot more flavors.

Panaramic view of the stream that is shaped like a star. Such a beautiful day. But everything was so greeeeeeen! I wanna come back during the other seasons of the year.

語調各公園 Tower. It's so huge, you can see it from the JR station which is at least a 30 minute walk away. Was the only way I knew how to get there. :P

So there's this really interesting fellow who fought for his beliefs before the Meiji era and died in Goryoukaku. Therefore, he's super popular in Hakodate. Don't remember his actual name, but all the cute merchandise calls him Toshi-kun.

And this was just plain scary. It's the mascot version of the tower. Only, cute in the scary way. O_O

***

Now to be backwards and tell what I did BEFORE the weekend. :P

Friday was Ivona's birthday, so 10 of us went out for karaoke after she got out of her kimono culture class. There was a little bit of a fuss with the clerk, who for some reason did not think to speak in simple terms and slower to a group of 外人 (foreigners) who obviously don't know special, complicated terms. But we got a room for 2 rooms. Needless to say, I sang a lot. Mind you I suck at singing, but I find it fun nonetheless. Although I was totally blown away the first time Emilie sang. Was not expecting a clear opera voice from that heavy accent of hers.

Thursday, 40 of us got to go visit one of the archaelogical sites of the Jomon period, one of the earliest periods of Japan from 14,000 BC.

The stick structure is to give an idea of how some types of houses were built, and the one in the back is what they believe the houses looked like. We actually got to enter the replica, something that they don't usually let tourists do.

So the houses were built partially underground, that way they would stay warmer during the winter than if the houses were above ground. The deepest they were ever constructed was about 2 meters.

These plots show where there has been evidence of the Jomon people building houses upon older abandoned houses.

This was considered a kind of dumping grounds for the Jomon people, but they didn't "throw away" things here. This was where they returned the stone tools that they used back to the earth, giving thanks to the earth for allowing them to use its resources. The guide said that this is coming full circle in a kind of way. Japan is very conscientious of recycling and keeping everything clean, including the streets and the cities and whatnot. In fact, they have this phrase もったいない (mottainai) which means "wasteful" in a sense.

This is the most famous artifact found from the Jomon period, mostly because it was somehow found completely intact. Researches believe that this is a model of a god, and the reasons why the arms are not there is that whenever someone in the family was sick, they would break an arm off the clay stature in wishing the person health again.

When we visited the Jomon site, we went with some college students from Hakodate University. 日本の大学生はやっぱり格好いいよねぇ。 On the way there, we sat with this one guy named Yuuki, who was pretty cool. He tried speaking English to us several times. Apparently all the students that went with us were English majors. XD On the way back, a guy named Kazuki sat with us, and I even had a nice little chat with him about anime/manga. He was a rather hilarious guy. He asked me who my favorite character from Naruto was and kept suggesting all the cool characters: Shikamaru, Naruto, Kakashi, etc. I had a good laugh with him. He was cute too... >///<;;

 Like I said, I laughed. A lot. (More like girlish giggle, really.)

I wonder how many times I've said "adorable" in the past 2 weeks. I mean, it's Japan. My only complaint so far is that they need another word for cute besides かわいい　(kawaii).