I'm obviously not eating weird enough food since it was guessed on the first try! It was vanilla and squid ink, but I really enjoyed hearing the other guesses (salt and pepper, crab, porridge and dump! Ha!) . This means that I'm going to have to kick it up a notch in terms of weird foods, so that I can satisfy all of your wonderful imaginations.
I got my bags in today! So now I won't have to keep wearing the HIF shirts they gave me (they gave me two identical yellow shirts like the one in the above picture). Although I am going to miss the endless entertainment that people in the streets got out of my shirt, because in Japanese it says "I am studying Japanese." Thus I was stopped at least 10 times and drawn into conversations that began with them reading my shirt and laughing. It was great practice talking to all the store owners and struggling to say what I want to say- I've got a long way left to go!
Today after breakfast I headed out exploring in the opposite direction and went through the Hakodate fish market. It was bustling and full of crazy foods! As I walked, the vendors (in addition to laughing and talking to me about my shirt) would hand me things like samples of fried squid on a stick. Delicious! The market is also where I found the squid ink ice cream, that didn't taste too different than vanilla, but added a layer to the taste.
It was also really entertaining to watch the squids zoom around the tanks right outside the stores!
For lunch, me and some friends went to the famous "Lucky Pierrot" burger joint. Although I wasn't madly impressed by the cheeseburger, I'll be back for some more unique specialties like the cuttlefish burger and the Mt. Hakodate burger (a massive burger with tons of stuff on it).
After lunch, back to seeing the town! I went to a small island that is connected by a road called the Green Island. On the way back, I got todays drink-of-the-day, which was another shake shake shaker, but this one was Melon Soda flavored, which is a drink that many Japanese people love. I joined the bandwagon; it's delicious!
One final cool site that was new for me today was going to a shrine. At the shrines, one first washes their hands in the water of the fountain, then heads to the front of the shrine where they can deposit a small donation, ring the bell, and pray.
Finally, I had dinner and hung out talking with my friends. When I got back to my hotel room, I started working on the blog...and next thing I know I wake up and it's nearly two in the morning. Oops! Guess I didn't realize how tired I was.
The reason HIF has us in a hotel room right now is because several host families expressed concern about swine flu, and to appease them HIF is putting us all in a hotel for a week, quarantined from our families. Although I really want to meet my host family, the hotel has actually been a really nice transition, because it gives me a lot of freedom that I won't have once the homestay starts.
High: Squid Ink Ice Cream!
Low: One man in the market stopped and talked to me and a small group of people in really fast Japanese, and I hardly understood him at all. He realized this and asked someone why I wasn't talking if I was the one studying Japanese. Which I again didn't understand. Other interactions with vendors went much smoother though!
Hero: Everyone who offered to lend me clothes or a hug until my bags came!
Alright, time to run to breakfast! And if the weather is good today: Mt. Hakodate, here I come!
Those Fantas are amazing.
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