So I went with a bunch of friends (including the Light's own Garrett Wong and Jonah Rosenthal) to Sapporo for the HIF semester break. We spent four wonderful days in Japan's 5th largest (I think) city, basically doing the touristy thing during the day and going out at night.
Some highlights included the botanical gardens, and this ちょうクール park called Moerenuma
, that had a geyser (photo), some huge grass mountain things, and a whole bunch of different little playgrounds (which of course we made total fools of ourselves at).
Now for photos!
Our hotel, the "Guest House Nonaka" (below left)
Japanese petting zoos have owls! They also apparently include hawks, turtles, bunnies, ducks, and skunks....(go figure)
(Below) Sapporo has streetcars too!
Of course, they also have subways...
We tried to go to Sapporo's famous "Ramen Alley" for lunch, but for some reason it was closed. 
:-(
We also went to near
by Otaru town (called the Venice of Japan because it has a "canal"), where they have a famous ice cream shop that serves tons of *weird* flavors of ice cream. (Thanks to Jonah and his Lonely Planet).
who, me?
- ☆sarita☆
- From a former North Carolinian and recovering Yalie: Currently living and working in the big city of Tokyo, while furthering an ever-growing obsession with Japanese pop-culture.
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!
In Japan, July 7 is a holiday called Tanabata, which in Hakodate at least is sort of like Christmas and Halloween all rolled into one. First (and this is common all over Japan) you take these strips of colored paper and write out an お願い、or a wish, and then hang them from a bamboo stalk which is placed in the entryway. That's the Christmas part. The picture to the left is my Tanabata wish. For those of you who can't read Japanese, it says "I want to become good at kanji." ;-P
Next (the Halloween part), on the evening of Tanabata the little kids all dress up in yukata and go around from house to house singing a Tanabata song, and they get candy (sounds familiar, right?). Apparently, though, this tradition is really only in Hakodate (too bad for the other kids, huh?)
Here are some pictures of the kids all dressed up (kawaii!), and onw of my host mom handing out おかしい (sweets).
Below is a short video I took of the kids singing the Tanabata song!
This weekend we went on the HIF overnight to Onuma Quasi-National Park (no, I'm not really sure what that means). It was a really short trip (only about 3 hours at the park) but I was able to walk around and take some pictures. A bit heavy on the mosquitoes, though.
The best part of the trip by far, though, was the Greenpia Hotel that HIF put us up at, which was actually really nice. We slept four to a room, which was much better than it might sound, because they were real, tatami-style rooms, with futons instead of beds (see pic below). 
There were some hiking trails around the hotel (the sign read "Closed for Bears") and something called the sports slider, but inside the hotel was bowling, karaoke, and...an onsen! It was my first real Japanese hot springs experience, and I will definitely go again. The only complaint is that the water was *really* hot, to the point where I could only stay all the way in for a few minutes at a time. 
The hotel also gave us yukatas for after, which everybody had a lot of fun wearing around.
Next, some more pictures:
There was this excercise/obstacle course outside the hotel, with lots of funny instruction signs (whether you can read Japanese or not). I'm not sure how i feel about this one...
We saw a bunch of tourists at Onuma riding around on these weird, connected bicycles. They seemed to be having a lot of fun, though.
...And finally (below) hanging out on Friday night with some Japanese students from the ロシア大学, as well as a few fellow Yalies and HIF-ers.
I`ll post pictures later, but for now here`s a little bit about my host family, the Oowadas (大和田).
The dad, Minoru, is a doctor(my host mom calls him "sensei" sometimes). He`s not around very much (par for the course in Japan) but he`s really nice and easy to get along with (also a bit of a joker I think). The mom, Chizuru, is a nurse, which is a little bit out of the ordinary. I think most of my friends` moms don`t work outside the house anymore. I was pretty intimidated when I first met her--she seemed very elegant and put-together (if that makes sense). I felt like I was very grubby and clumsy next to her. But that just goes to show you that first impressions aren`t the end-all, because things have relaxed a lot since I first moved in, and now we`re very friendly and relaxed. There are also 2 kids in the family: Sae (16, daughter) and Satoshi (10, son). They seem to have your typical sibling relationship, with Satoshi being the screwball little brother while Sae yells "うるさい！" I see them pretty often in the evenings, since we all eat dinner together, and then sit at the table doing our homework. Sae and I also recently bonded over our MP3 players (she was impressed by the music videos on my IPod, especially Christina Aguilera`s "Candyman" video) and a mutual fondness for Orange Range.
In school news, we had the first brainstorming session for the HIF group project today. I`ve heard that the project was pretty much the bane of everyone`s existence last year, so here`s hoping this one will be slightly more fun and useful!
So Alvarez-san from my third year class at Yale is also here at HIF, but he got placed in a higher class than me (sadness!). I`m in Advanced (second highest class) and he`s in High Advanced. When I told my host family about this, my host mom`s reaction was funny, and very Japanese:
"Well, you know, in Japan we say that the second highest class is the best. Because, you know, in the second class you can still がんばって and move up, but in the highest class there`s nowhere to go but down!"
^_^
These are a bit out of order but...here we go! Some scenes from my life!
My room!!
People were sticking their feet in the water. My host mom explained why, but I forget.
A famous Hakodate squid.
The ropeway up to the top of Hakodate-yama.
Hakodate harbor. Pretty!
The view from my balcony at home.
My balcony again.
Hakodate-yama, wreathed in smoke (I thought it was a cool picture).
I get to ride the streetcar to school everyday!
This is the view of Hakodate harbor from my class room. (I have to climb up that hill every day. I`ll post another pic of it later--it looks much steeper from the bottom!)