Friday, May 25, 2012

Quality family time :) Road trip to 函館市 Hakoadate on May 13!

An amazing amazing weekend with my host family. I mean who would have guessed what I would do? I didn't even know we would go on a fun road trip to Hakodate until late Friday night. I mean they already fulfilled my wish to go to 花見 (hanami; flower viewing for the cherry blossom season) by taking me to a park where I met the vutest scottie baby puppster and got a "bloddy kiss" from him haha. We got to see all these beautiful blooming cherry blossom tree and had some delicious miso ramen!

The moment we got back into the house, they asked me if I wanted to go to Hakodate. To be honest, I was quite hesitant beacuse that would mean missing the weekend yosakoi ractice and I can't afford that while everyone else in the team practices so hard. But thanks to Jennifer and my host family who both strongly encourage me to ask the team for days off and thanks to my Japanese friend, Wakana, for her honest opinion - so off I go to Hakodate :)

But why is this trip so special that it has to be in May? First of all, my papa is in preparation to reopen his sushi restaurant in a new location instead of the busy city center - Susukino. Therefore, once June hits, he will be all busy with making sushi and will have no time to take me onto any trips. Secondly, my papa really wants me to meet his 102-year-old grandpa and his 96year-old grandma. Yup you are reading this - 102 and 96! What a life! My papa told me that you never know when they will stil be around, so let's go meet them, so we did!

We left the house early in the morning to start our adventure. The car ride to Hakodate is about 5 hours and to get to where papa's grandparents are will take another 3 hours. Our adventure started off speechlessly because my papa put down all the seats in the back to turn it into a huge bed where my little sister and I can just nap or do whatever like a baby playroom. So I took advantage o that and took caught up on plenty of sleep!



Something off topic, for a bathroom break, we passed by a pachinko store (a gambling device, kind of like a slot machine) to use the bathroom and I am amazed in a negative way. I walked in to just use the bathroom and walked back out with a shower of cigarettes smoke. I smelled like a stinky smoker :/ ewww

Anyway, our first stop into Hakodate was 森町 (Mori Machi) where my family took me to another park full with blooming cherry blossom trees and where we accidentally found a 桜祭り(cherry blossom festival) It was my first festival in Japan ever, so it was full of interesting discovery! I saw a lot of food stands and toy stands there which didn't surprise me that much because everyone loves eating at festival or fair! The most interesting thing is probably seeing Japanese rocking their picnic time. It was so legit since they all had a grill out with them grilling meat under the cherry blossom tree ... seriously awesome!




We moved on to a harbor area of Hakodate as the night was getting dark. It was a cute little area with shops, restaurants, and needless to say a Starbucks (oh America) I guess it is good that at least it's not a McDonald's? Hahahaha we had some icecream at a local famous burger restaurant then bought 4 焼き鳥便当 (grilled chicken on a stick rice box; a famous dish at Hakodate) with us to drive up to the mountain to see the famous Hakodate night view. To be known as the one of the top three night view places (among with Hong Kong and Naples [Napoli in Italian]), Hakodate didn't disappoint any of us of course. It was unspeakably pretty even though it was windy and cold up there. The wind didn't stop me from looking at the beautiful view. Nothing that I have seen can ever be compared to Hakodate's night view. In fact, all the night views that I have seen is uniquely beautiful in their way and attracts me differently. I just wish Pat was there to share it with me, but I can't complain much since my lovely host family was there with me.



By midnight, we finally reached papa's grandparent's house. They don't live there anymore though since they both moved into the nursery home nearby by, so we spent a night there. We got up quite early at around 7 to go into the mountain where papa's relatives owned some farm lands and plants plenty of fresh vegetables. We picked flowers, mushrooms and onions there and it was just the cutest thing ever. One day when I have my own house, I want to have my little garden too to grow my own tomatoes and flowers :)



Another cool cultural experience in this trip to visiting the Japanese graveyard. In Japan people brings flowers, small white candles with them to pay the visit. During the visit, they will clean the graveyard pouring fresh water over the graveyard and leave the flowers there.

We finally got to meet grandpa and grandma at their nursery home before their lunch time. They live in a nice artsy nursery home where a lot of activities go on with art and music. Also, they had a area of tatami (traditional Japanese floor) on their floor where their rooms are located. It was amazing to finally meet them. Grandpa is really healthy and energetic even though he is already 102. We had a little chat with him, and he was just like no other elderly - cute and funny - and super responsive. Then visited grandma who is, in comparison, not as healthy-looking and as responsive. She couldn't really open her eyes and was mourning or singing all the time. Grandpa told us that she doesn't remember a lot of things already and begins to act like a baby. Meeting the two of them makes me think a lot about life again. I think it will be the happiest thing to just grow old together with everyone that I love around me. Simple happiness.



To make a perfect ending to our road trip, we went to a mountain where the trappist is to see the famous Santa Maria, but it also turned into a fun hike! I never notice how much I love hiking, and I am thankful for my pair of Timberland haha being at that mountain is just like being in heaven. I have never been to a place like that - full with tall, healthy, green trees (unlike mountain in Texas haha so dry) and you are just part of the nature.






I am thankful to have such a great host family and I really am a lucky girl to have all these experience :)


Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Life as a Busy Bee!

Ciao tutti! Come stai? Sorry that I haven't been updating you all recently about what is going on. Like really sorry that I disappear for like almost forever lol

I was expecting myself to have quite a bit of free time to update my blog before since it was Golden Week  two weeks before. So what is the "Golden Week"! April 29 is Showa Day, the birthday of a former Emperor Showa; May 3 is Constitutional Day; May 4 is Greenery Day which is dedicated to environment and nature; May 5 is Children's Day (well if you have a boy in the house, then you will celebrate it!) Well basically yosakoi takes over my life now! So when people do a play or in the musical, they have a week called the "hell week" before the shows start, and here I have a "hell month" before the Yosakoi festival (Yosakoi ソーラン祭り) at the beginning of June! Thanks to everyone in the yosakoi team, even though practice is hard, but the fun part definitely overcomes the hard stuff!



http://www.yosakoi-soran.jp/

I haven't been getting much rest indeed since who knows when because my life is basically yosakoi now :) The very last weekend of April, the yosakoi team had practice in the morning on campus first then we went to our sponsor's (a seafood provider) factory to practice our dance outdoor. However, Saturday was not the most intense practice out of the practices that we had that weekend. Dancing for almost 8 hours is already not a big deal since it is quite common for Yosakoi. Of course we will get some 2-minute water break in between but all these dance practices compare to what I have ever done is just so different. I think dancing outdoor, despite how the weather is, is probably the most intense part of dance practice. No matter how cold it is or if it is raining or super windy, we will still practice our dance outdoor. However, it totally makes sense since the festival is going to take place outdoor at the Odori Park in the city center. It is one of the biggest festival in Sapporo and the whole Odori Park area will be closed down for the event for about 5 days. No matter how the weather is, the festival will still go on, so us dancers will dance in all conditions and perform our best for our audience.

In fact, I went to a dance camp with the team to a place called "Kiroro." Nonetheless, I didn't notice that Kiroro is actually a mountain, so I was definitely not dressed very appropriately - it was a bit cold to dance outdoor! There was even snow up on the mountain. I need to say - definitely an experience and knock on wood for not getting sick! It was a fun trip over all because it was definitely bonding time with everyone in the team and we even went to osen (hot spring) together!!



During the Golden Week vacation, I got to go to 苫小牧 (Tomakomai) with my host family to visit papa's sister on Thursday. The city is famous for factories lol and lakes with swans! However, the weather was horrible over Golden Week, so we didn't spend much time outdoor at all. The car ride from Sapporo to Tomakomai is about 2 hours, so I got to catch up on some sleep on my way there. However, I didn't sleep much over the weekend because I got tricked to go out on Thursday night to Susukinow with a group of liars (still love you guys though, but if you are reading this, you know I am talking about you! lol) It was a fun night since we just chilled and played pool at a bar called B Bar; however, I was so tired that I just fell asleep in the bar for a good while before I could catch the first train home at 6. Then I got up after a couple hours of sleep and went hang out with my yosakoi team since we had our bowling day (it was supposed to be 花見(hanami, flower watching), but it was raining, so we called it off and turn it into a bowling competition)! Bowling was definitely fun, but I was just exhausted lol I guess I tried my best to function with a couple hours of sleep? haha Saturday and Sunday was mainly practice with yosakoi.

Okay - here is my little make-up update for you all! I promise more to come about my insane weekend this past weekend soon ;) Sorry again and good night!!