150 years after Perry arrived...

Before I proceed to tell more of my trip after HIF, I would like to make up for something I have missed but was extremely memorable--The 150th Anniversary of the Opening of Hakodate Harbor. 150 years ago when Commodore Perry first arrived Hakodate in the ships with American flags, the people in Hakodate were scared and confused at the sudden appearance of these alien-looking human beings with powerful weapons and speaking in strange tones. However, as 150 years lapsed, Hakodate residents, just as Japanese people always do, accepted their foreign ways and integrated it into their daily life. The tranquil town is scattered by western style churches and consulates with pointed roof and round windows. After passing by an Italian Gelati store, a mongolia barbecue restaurant is just around the corner...Hakodate people enjoy their way of living and are proud of the diversity of its culture and the autenticity of its historical sense.

The biggest event of the month-long celebration is composed of a parade followed by a firework show on a Saturday. Luckily enough, we as HIF students got the chance of participating in the parade by dressing up as various roles involved in that era of history. Sarai and I became the ice venders at Japanese matsuri.

No, but that's not it. On the biggest parade cart, there was a small booth, where people sit in and hit the drum according to the beat of the crowd's chanting. And the booth ROTATES! It looked like the coolest thing in the world, so when a local asked who wanted to volunteer to be on the booth, Sarai and I jumped for it. So our state throughout the whole parade is demostrated by the picture below.Trust me. It definitely did not feel as cool as it appears to be. They did a couple of test runs before the parade--rotating us for three times while we kept drumming. Seeing the world spinning around us while staring at Sarai's excited face across the drum from me was a once-a-life-time experience, had to say. They also assured us that they would blow a whistle before they started spinning us, to draw the crowd's attention as well alert us. When the real parade began, with the first blow of whistle the booth started to rotate...once...twice...three times...four times?? Why doesn't it stop? I started to feel nauseous. After six rotations when it finally came to a stop, I could vaguely hear the crowd cheering at both sides and see faces floating around me. I was so glad it was over. Little did I know at the time...I wonder if six has some special meaning associated with the festival, because the process was repeated for six times, each time six rotations. When I finally got onto my feet...well, you imagine.

Before the parade, we were luck to have a picture with three Miss. Hakodate. "sonna ni kawaikunai..." Somebody commented.

My classmates from HIF who signed up for their roles in the festival earlier were excused from the dread of sitting on a rotating booth. Standing majestically on the stage, dressed up in the 19th century European fashioned outfits were the "ambassadors" from all over the world that once left their footprint on the beach of Hakodate. However, these prints were washed away by the tides. They were absorbed by the earth and became part of the unique identity of the city inseparable from its native culture.
They hosted a thank-you dinner for all the participants of the parade. I met this really nice local college student who seemed to be constantly amazed at everything I said about the US...or just everything I said. Japanese courtesy teaches people to respond enthusiatically in a conversation to the other person's words. That is why you can always hear exclamations such as "Soo desu nee!" and "hee~~~" from Japanese people out of their habit. This friend of mine, nonetheless, definitely carried this principle to its extreme. We had a great conversation about Japanese language, the festival, arashi, and his future job--a kindergarden teacher. He would be a good one, for sure.

Second Stop: Sendai!

Sendai matsuri is also one of the three famous matsuris in north-east Japan. We expected it to be quite similar to aomori matsuri but it turned out to be something quite different. We arrived Sendai on August 8th at around noon after a two hour ride of sinkansen (bullet train). Here you will have to admire the speed and efficiency by which the Japanese people travel. No wonder the airline companies in Japan never make profit--when a commute between two cities far apart on the map could be as easy as stepping onto the train and leaning back, maybe taking a nap, who would take the trouble to drag suitcases across the gigantic hall of an airport?

The theme for the Sendai matsuri is "tanabata"--Festival of the Weaver. The legend of the Weaver could be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanabata. The Chinese version was slightly different. It is interesting to see how Japanese molded their social value of "一生懸命" (work hard as if all your life is tied onto one string) into the story when the Tentei punished the two lovers by separating them because they derelicted their duty and squandered their time.

Just as the pictures show, huge cylindrical decorations hung down a from an arched roof all the way to one meter above the ground alone four or five sections of corridors. The colorful designs and intricate origamis on the decorations were an overwhelming feast to the eyes, and the feeling of the paper strands caressing your face whe I moved through them pushed by the crowd was also a memorable experience. During the normal times the long corridors must have been a central shopping area, because along the walkway shops and restaurants lined up in a glittering array, all giving out huge discounts. Some local food speicalty shops were putting out little bites of free food for people to try in order to draw them in, so we took little bites of food every here and there as we ambled along aimlessly. There was a kind of green bean sweet rice cake that was supposed to be one of their local special treats, but it didn't taste so different from a Chinese 元宵 (Chinese sticky rice ball with red bean paste inside).

Also, another kind of their exciting offer was roasted cow tongue. Tender indeed. We sat in a restaurant for roasted cow tongue at around 11 am when our stomach was ready for a real feast after random snacking tasting, and each one of us ordered a set with miso soup, rice, salad, and three slices of cow tongue. It was a weird feeling when you ate and think about what you were chewing....ewwww. But the juicy and tender meat slightly salted--otherwise kept its original flavor--was definitely worth the 20 bucks we spent.



Another attraction in Sendai is the Northeastern University of Japan, where the very famous Chinese writer, revolutionist and cultural critic Lu Xun once studied. As he mentioned in his article Professor Fujino, his teacher during his years at the university won his great respect through his conscientious teaching and his non-discrimination against Chinese oversea students. The teacher was made famous by the article later then, and Chinese universities invited him to become a visiting professor, but he politely turned it down for unknown reasons.

The statue behind me is Lu Xun. A concerned and ambitious look on his face.