Day 14: Special Lecture #2 and Kyudo

Today I wore the other bow I got from Daiso.

Breakfast:

That is raw tuna with green onions and sauce.

Side note: I keep seeing pictures of baby Dorey online and they're adorable. It's killing me that I'm not going to get to see that movie for months. I don't even care whether or not the plot turns out to be good, I just want to see more baby Dorey.

Onigiri #10 during our long break:

Lunch from 7-11:

The bread was "Cream Bread" so I expected a tiny dollop of something in the middle. I was surprised and not at all unhappy to find out it was almost completely filled with custard. As in, the bread was a shell about half an inch thick, and everything else was essentially cream pudding. Also, Onigiri #11.

I also got an aloe and white grape juice from the vending machine. It was really sweet, but also very light and refreshing, and kind of reminded me of the elderflower juice from IKEA. Also, there were small chunks of aloe at the bottom which startled me because I didn't get any until halfway through.

After lunch we had our second Special Lecture. Our guest speaker was Michael Molasky who is from the U.S. and teaches at Waseda University in Tokyo.

He talked Izakaya (sort of like Japanese pubs) and what they are like as spaces, the uniqueness of the small communities that form between regulars, and about how a lot of them are losing that culture by either being replaced by chain restaurants or becoming popular online and flooded with non-regulars to the extent that sometimes long-time customers have difficulty getting a seat.

Some of the unique things he talked about were that in these spaces: social status outside the Izakaya doesn't really matter (which is huge in a country where even a years difference in age may change the level of formality you speak with), you aren't strangers with the other regulars but keep a comfortable distance, you are welcomed but not expected to show up, any conversation held at the bar seating is considered public information which strangers may listen to or comment on.

He also talked about how you can kind of tell what kind of place it will be from the outside. For example: if there are many bikes outside, a lot of locals probably go there; if there are settled plants outside, it has probably been there for a long time; if the menu is hand written, the food probably changes based on what is fresh that day/season; and if there are flowers outside, it is probably owned by a woman or a husband and wife.

Four more interesting things:

First, Japan has a lot of highly specialized and subcategorized types of food-serving places. For example, ramen, udon, or soba restaurants may only serve ramen, udon, or soba respectively even though they are all noodles. This likely came from when people would sell their food from carts or mats and could only sell one thing. Many of these businesses eventually moves into buildings, but continued to only sell that one type of food.

Second, スナック・バー (snack bars) are bars that also serve small portions of food. The food isn't always the best, but it doesn't have to be. These spaces became popular when there was a law that bars had to close at midnight. By also serving food, these places could stay open later.

Third, Jazz Cafes are kind of the opposite of the Izakaya in that talking is usually discouraged. Some even have no chatting policies and you can only talk to order etc., though this is less common now. The reason for this was that in the 60's and 70's jazz was huge and you went to these places to listen to the live music more than anything else, and most people were pretty serious about it.

Finally, he gave us some advice about talking about Japan (or other countries, cities, cultures, etc. but Japan is the relevant example so I'm sticking with that). When you get back to wherever you're from and people ask you "How was Japan?" it can be difficult to not make the country sound completely homogenous while still giving a concise answer. He suggested trying to focus on, or at least mention, differences within the country itself. For example, differences in customs between two cities. This way it's easy to give an impression of how dynamic the country is without giving way too long of an answer.

After this, I went to a Kyudo trial at a nearby high school (the same one that had the tea ceremony). Kyudo is basically Japanese archery.
Seven or eight of us were all on the same city tram and when we got to our stop we took too long to get moving towards the front and the tram started going again with us still on it. We ended up having to get off at the next stop and walk a few blocks back to the school.

Here is the range:

Here is the glove we wore:

You could move the middle and pointer fingers, but the casing around the thumb was rigid.

We got to learn how to shoot arrows on the bow (which are crazy tall), and then each got to shoot once with the help of the instructor (who is actually one of my friend's host dad). I'm really glad he was there helping us and covering some peoples ears when they shot because apparently if you hold the bow wrong you can slice your ear off.
Some people's arrows got really close to the targets, most people's didn't make it to the targets. I was quite solidly in that latter group of people.

Here is the instructor demonstrating:

It's embarrassing how much I jumped when the sound of the bow broke several minutes of silence.

While waiting for the bus my friend pointed out these squid which have either been sitting outside for days and are still alive, or are replaced every day or two. I'm guessing they are replaced, but could be wrong.

I had about an hour before my bus got there, so I walked around a convenience store for a while and got some melon chewy candies and some ice cream hard candies. Here are the melon candies:

They were pretty good, but not as good at the matcha caramels and were kind of like a hi-chew but with a little less flavor and a lot more chewiness.

Dinner and dessert:

The stuff in the light blue bowl is called 心太（ところてん）（tokoroten） and are jelly strips made from agar. They were flavorless, but had a fun texture and were served in some kind of good-tasting, thin, brown, sauce. I couldn't figure out what it was at the supermarket because the way it was packaged and because the strips are transparent it just looked like a container of water. My host mom saw me looking at them and got some.

For dessert we had ice cream with dango. Dango is made of rice flower dumplings and are often served with various sauces. We had dango with red bean paste (not pictured) and the ones in my ice cream had some sort of caramely sweet topping. They are delicious on their own, and the ice cream just brings them up to a whole new level of amazing. 

Here are the ice cream hard candies:

The flavors were: Rum Raisin, Chocolate Mint, Caramel Ribbon, and Very Very Strawberry.
I didn't think I was going to like the raisin one, but I think it's my favorite because it tastes kind of like a cinnamon roll. I'm not crazy about the mind one -- it's a little too close to toothpaste flavored -- but the caramel and strawberry ones are both nice.

Day 13: Shouwa Park and Kyaraben Class

Today's breakfast and dessert:

I wore the bow that I got at Daiso yesterday:

And helped my host mom put faces on the キャラ弁 she made for the picnic we planned to have this afternoon.

The character's name is ミッフィー (Miffy) and is from a Dutch children's book.

After that, we stopped at the super market.

More huge fruit:

(Yes, those apples and grapefruit are almost the same size.)

Then went to what I think was a food/meals themed children's activity fair at the Tsutaya Bookstore. The bookstore is huge and is kind of like a small mall in and of itself (the same bookstore where I got my map).

I liked this tea display because it has all the main kinds of tea with both their English and Japanese names:

I liked comparing the names. For example, according to this sign Pu'er Tea is called 黒茶（くろちゃ）（kurocha） in Japanese, which directly translates to "Black Tea" in English while black tea is called 紅茶（こうちゃ）（koucha） which directly translates to "Deep red/Crimson Tea" in English.
I feel like the Japanese names are a little more accurate here.

After that, we went to 昭和公園（しょうわこえん）（shouwakoen）= Shouwa Park and had our picnic.

My host mom got us all drinks from a vending machine. I got a banana flavored warm milk drink. It was pretty fantastic:

And we had the melon cup things my host mom got at the Yabusame event for dessert:

I found some four-leaf clovers:

Thirteen of them.

Then actually took a quick nap because I was pretty tired.

After that, my host mom and I went to the キャラ弁 class. I think it must have been a mommy-and-me type class, because it was a bunch of moms and small children. It was a lot of fun though!

We were given all the supplies, and just had to shape, cut, and place the various parts:

The class was held in sort of a shopping center area. On the hour, the face of this clock above us lifted up, and a little metal band played music inside.

Here are some キャラ弁 the teacher of the class made and brought to show us:

Later, we went to my host dad's parents' again for dinner. We ended up having the same kind of fish, and it was a lot easier for me to eat this time which was kind of a cool benchmark. It really doesn't feel like I'm getting any better at chopsticks, but I'm using them at almost every meal so I know I probably am.

Dinner:

Note: I'm not counting Miffy, Charlie Brown, or Snoopy as onigiri.

Day 12: Hakodate Park

Because it is the weekend, I got to sleep in an extra half hour before breakfast. It's become a lot harder to get up at 6:00 every morning now that I am less jetlagged, more busy, and have blinds that block the sunrise at 4am.

Breakfast:

For dessert we had Annin tofu:

It is a Chinese dessert that tastes a little like almond extract and is made from apricot kernel, agar, and sugar.

Then we went to the library for a bit and I finished my homework while we were there.

I was able to read the library stickers and was pretty happy about that:

It says "Municipal Hakodate Library."

After that, we went to a restaurant and had cold soba, then went to 函館公園(Hakodate Kouen = Hakodate Park).

Soba:

The park has a tiny zoo, and a tiny amusement park. The amusement park was small enough that there were only a few people working there who would just walk over to whatever attraction someone wanted to do and run it for them.

Park map:

Zoo:

There were two peacocks, and I think this one was albino, but I'm not sure.

There was also an enclosure with just a bunch of bonsai trees in it that I thought was kind of cool:

I rode with the boys on a spaceship ride that went around in a circle. It was run by an older man dressed as Mario, and たっくん asked him "本当にマリオだ？” = "Are you really Mario?" which was pretty adorable.

There was also an area with a grassy lawn, a fountain, an impressively large rose bush, and a bunch of pigeons:

There was a bee in one of the flowers:

Then we walked around the park for a little while:

I little while after we got back to the house, I went with my host mom and the boys to the supermarket and to Daiso. She was mostly looking for キャラ弁(kyaraben) shaped-hole-punch things that you can use to punch shapes out of seaweed, but we didn't find any.

I'm not sure why, but carrots here are super fat:

Actually, most of the fruit and vegetables here are pretty swollen looking.

Daiso is basically a Japanese dollar store, but also way better because the item quality is at least decent. Other than a handful of clearly labeled exceptions, everything costs 108円 (it would be 100 even without tax).
For about $6.50 I got:

Another pack of those rose-candy things,
Some cute hair bows:

An air plant and a dish to set it in:

And some moisturizing face-stuff which is supposed to be pretty good. I've seen sold for around $13 in the U.S.
It looks a lot smaller in the picture, but it's probably about 7" tall.

I've been using it every few days and like it so far. If I still like it in a month I might have to get a few more while I can still get it for so cheap.

Later, I helped put cute faces on onigiri that we had during dinner.

Because the weather was so nice, we ate dinner outside:

The thing in the middle is heated and cooks the food (it is cone-shaped in the middle, so the meat is being cooked even though it looks like it's on top of a pile of veggies).

You crack an egg in the little bowl, stir it up, and dip your food in the egg before eating it. According to one of my friends, the eggs here are super fresh and untreated, so there is almost no risk in eating them raw.

Note: Onigiri #9