北海道で一生懸命に勉強中

Sorry for the lack of update!
As expected, there is limited internet access here. I am sitting at the window of the HIF student lounge and my laptop is connected to one of the few numbers of cables they have here.
I talked to my mom and aunt online. After not seeing me for half a month they both asked immediately "how was the food?". Since this is probably going to be a universal concern and topic of interest, here is my yet to be continued journey of exploring amazingly delicious Japanese cuisine :)

There is a nationally famous morning seafood market 2 minute walk away from hakodate station--函館朝市. The last day before we moved into our host family, a couple of friends and I decide to get up early and visit there. Otherwise, we will have to travel by train in the morning to catch the 5:30 market from our host family.
I am glad we did.
Walking passing by rows and rows of street vendors, we saw water tanks with gigantic crabs that waved their claws at us;
we saw perfect-looking melons of all the same size and color put in boxes and sold as around $35 each. While we were wondering if the melon with heavenly high price really has heavenly delicious taste, we ran into this street vendor that sold slices of melon for a taste. There was 100 en pieces and 200 en pieces and I had the 200 one. All I can say is that was the best melon I've had in my life--it tasted like melon flavored icecream melting in your mouth, except infinitely better. Apparently melon is a local specialty here, and they also do national deliver service, just as the picture below shows.

I was too distracted by the morning market the whole morning after our visit at 6 am. So at lunch time, we came back to one of the many small restaurants at the area (probably as authentic as you can get for Japanese food) and ordered a meal for ourselves. This is what I got:


Ika (squid) is seen everywhere here. If the city has a mascot this is it. Isn't this the custest sign ever?
Even their manholes:
Later that day I bought a box of the most perfect strawberries. They are all of the same size, color and facing the same direction. I wonder what the Japanese people did with the ones that are not of the right size...


Japan has been amazing so far. Food is just one of the reasons that made it so, but I will stop here for this time since the center is closing down.
Thank you for reading!
until next time :)

first impression

I am sitting in the soft bed of my room in Hokkaido Kokusai Hotel, finally beginning my first blog entry. Writing blog hasn’t been anything new to me—I kept a blog in Chinese for my American life since four years ago. Now I am writing in the language I have acquired since then and documenting my life in yet another foreign country. I hope one day my Japanese would get fluent enough so I could actually blog in it :)

People say once you have mastered a new language you pick up another personality. Looking back to my experience of learning English, I have to agree. While learning a language from a different culture, part of you will adapt to the culture and that part will come out when you speak the language. However, it is really hard to imagine having a Japanese side as well as an American side in your personality, since there are so many things in the two cultures that essentially oppose each other.

In China there is an idiom “礼多人不怪”, roughly translated as “you can never go wrong with being too polite”. Japanese people are definitely the walking embodiment of this idiom. In subway, on street, at hotel…wherever I went, I am treated with the most courteous manners that involve nodding, bowing, lady-first hand gestures and of course, smiling. Sarai and I went exploring the town a little and we talked to fisherman, second-hand clothing store managers, restaurant owners, junior high school students, and I was struck by the degree of politeness they carry in their manners. I was a little embarrassed at the beginning and quickly learned to react.

Also another thing that struck me was how “majime” Japanese people are. Our orientation ran perfectly according to the schedule, not one minute off; a Japanese girl stood at the street corner and waited until the light finally turned green even though there had been no car passing by for a minute; there are five recycle cans for five different kinds of trashes in our school building, each with a carefully made sticker on it explaining its usage; when you dispose a water bottle, you need to take off the plastic wrapper and dispose it separately from the bottle…a society famous for being highly organized and civilized indeed.

Everything has been good so far. Class starts on Monday and we will know the result of our placement exam (which I don’t think I did too hot in). Before that is a free weekend and we will sure go for more adventures around the town! Being quarantined in a hotel is actually kind of fun, because this way we get to know better our fellow HIF classmates during the many exploring adventures.

Pictures will come with the next post :)