Matsuri!

So, the Hakodate Minato Matsuri is so amazing that it gets a whole post all to itself! Seriously, the Japanese *really* know how to do a festival up right. In Hakodate, the matsuri goes for three whole days with parades and fireworks and food, and they basically shut down half the town to make room for it all.
The first day began with an 1850s costume parade, which the HIF students got to be in, as various samurai or townspeople--two of the guys even got to appear as Goronin (some Russian dude?) and Commodore Matthew Perry! I did what was called "futon danjiri," which means I got to help push this big shrine thing down the street, which was lots of fun but very unwieldy. Afterwards they had a party for all the parade participants, at this really neat restaurant near the harbor. Then, later that night, I grabbed some drinks and a blanket with some friends, and settled down to watch a truly amazing display of fireworks--it went on for a solid hour! And of course, afterwards I had the most difficult time getting home! (imagine hundreds of people all trying to get on the same streetcar all at once...really, I was having flashbacks of the buses after Yale-Harvard)

The next day was the first day of the "Ika Odori" (squid dance) parade. The parade route went from Juijigai all the way to Matsukaze-cho (about a 15 minute walk, when there's *not* a parade going on). I met up with a friend at Matsukaze-cho, where they had a whole bunch of different food and game stalls set up. Takoyaki, yakitori, corn on the cob, crepes; and those fun little Japanese fair games, like the one where you try to pick up the goldfish with the paper spatula-thingy (I don't know how else to describe it...). I had okonomiyaki (おいしい～). That day, I also wore the yukata that I had bought for the festival. Turns out none of my host family really knew how to tie the obi, but we had learned how in the kimono culture class and I sort of remembered how, so...it wasn't quite right, but I managed to do it well enough that nothing was going to fall out. ;-P
There were various groups who appeared doing different kinds of dances and things in the parade, but then at the end it pretty much devolved into everybody jumping into the parade and joining in one massive Ika Odori (which of course, I also took part). The ika odori is Hakodate's signature dance (they claim to have invented it) and is a really simple dance which basically involves everybody jumping around and wriggling in a (sort of) squid-like fashion. The sort of thing that's the most fun if you're either a little kid, or have been drinking.
The next day was pretty much the same thing, but the parade was around Goryokaku Park area--which, incidentally, meant that I had a surprisingly hard time getting home, as the streetcar only went as far as the station because of the parade route. I managed to find a bus, however, that took me reasonably close to my house. I met up with friends that night too, and we made it a fun-filled evening of parade food, ika odori-ing, and some karaoke.
All in all, really the best matsuri that I've ever been to!

Culture Classes

At HIF, they have various culture classes and community activities that you can take part in, which I think is one of the strengths of the program. I signed up for almost all of them, so here are a few pictures from the ones I've done so far.
First is pottery making, which was lots of fun but really hard. This picture isn't of me, but you get the gist I think. The class was held at a nearby pottery studio, and the teacher was really helpful (sometimes to the point of practically doing it for you, but that was kind of necessary at times). We all came away with some kind of bowl, though. I'm thinking of giving mine as a thank-you gift to my host family.



The next event was visiting Asahi Elementary School one afternoon. The kids put out a great welcome for us! We all played janken (Japanese rock-paper-scissors) and tug-of-war together, and then the kids taught us the traditional Hakodate "Squid Dance." After that, we broke up into small groups and each went with a class to play games and stuff. Here's a picture of my group with our 5th grade class.



Next, and so cool! was the kimono culture and etiquette class. In addition to getting to see some really beautiful kimonos, including an example of a wedding kimono, we all got to try on yukata, which are light, cotton kimonos usually worn in hot weather. Sort of like a robe, but putting them on correctly is a lot more complicated than you might think!