Welcome to my Hakodate 2009 Homestay Blog !
I couldn't take the fact that this blog had no posts that matched my query, so I'm breaking the metaphorical ice and putting words here.
I am Andrew Tae, an incoming Sophmore from UC Merced (yeah, the one in the middle of nowhere), and I will be studying Japanese in Hakodate, Hokkaido from June 9th - August 10th. I'll be staying with a homestay family, and I can hear your cries of jealousy now. : ) I will be chronicling as much of my journey as I can when I feel like it so that everyone can see the rest of Japan that isn't Tokyo or on the TV (including anime, goddamn it).
The mission of this blog is to break all illusions as to what the Japanese lifestyle is. As great a country as Japan is, I know people who are treating Japan as a mecca of sorts (not Gundams). I'm not trying to tarnish Japan's reputation or anything, but I want to prove my hypothesis that Japan is just as normal a country as any other country (i.e. America because we're at the center lol :B ) I'm mostly doing it for me, but the rest of the effort points go to you, the reader, so I'm going to do my best to not sound like some school essay or vacation pamphlet, cause we all know how exciting those are.
This is also another way for me to practice my creative writing and blog entry-ing for someone that isn't a professor or for a grade. So to whoever stumbles on this page, have fun reading, I'm pretty hilarious.
Warning: Andrew likes to cuss a lot. He'll try his best not to cuss, but that's probably not going to happen. Hopefully it won't happen for a while, but it's only a matter of time before he starts cussing. Enjoy!
What the fuck is a Hakodate, you say? I'm not too sure myself, but according to Google, it's a city located in Hokkaido, the northernmost island of Japan, right on the boot of the land (That's right Italy, you ain't THAT special). No one I know has ever heard of this place (except my Japanese teacher, I hope), and the last picture I saw of it had cows, so as far as I know, Hakodate = Merced of Japan. Which means I'll feel right at home. : ) It's famous for its nightview, which is supposed to be amongst the top 3 in some arbitrary list of nightviews, but with my 'expert' camera skills, I'll do my best to post up pictures that make it look like someone shot the christmas tree with a flame thrower.
Hokkaido or Merced (Or even Davis)? Welcome to The Twilight Zone...
Why the hell am I going to such a great place, you say? In a manner similar to the horrible process known as UC Applications, I applied for this program here (http://hif.or.jp/en/program/index.html), which I will refer to as "The Program" from now on, and, after much toil and waiting, I gotted in hurrrr. I don't even remember where the heck I heard of this program, but I've been keeping my eye on it since the end of my senior year.
Thanks to two of my great professors, Miki Ishikida and Bryon Webb (who I STILL haven't thanked properly and feel bad about. I will bring them gifts!), I was able to force them to produce recommendation letters for someone they knew for less than a semester. Anyways, after all this, I got waitlisted until the end of April, when I was told that I would, in fact, be receiving money promised by some Nigerian prince if I gave him my bank account. Also, my acceptance letter came in. Yay!
Who are the poor souls who have to take in this cocky but sexy son of a bitch? Why, my homestay family of course! Along with one other person in the program (and quite possible a parole officer in the next few weeks), the Date family of Hakodate will be taking care of me! YES, DATE IS A JAPANESE LAST NAME STFU. No, it is not pronounced the same way as what I had with your mother last night. Dah-teh, not DAYT HUR. It's the same Date as in Hakodate, which is pretty cool. I'm not going to list their names yet because that would just make me (and the Date family maybe) an easy target, but I may put up pictures of them in the future.
I WILL mention though, that on my homestay family sheet, under hobbies, every single family member put "Onsen", or hot springs, as their hobby. How hot springs can count as a hobby is something that I'll just never figure out, but whether they turn out to be a family of mermaids (cough瀬戸の花嫁cough) or I get to sleep in hot water every night, I will report back my findings soon enough.
My biggest worry is how I'm going to introduce myself to everyone, which is silly because, in both the times that I took Japanese 1, it's the first thing we learn to do. I think that as long as I don't start off with "Wazzup biatches, I'm Andrizzle", we'll get a long just fine.
That's all for this installment, folks! Right now, I should be packing and all, but I'm just here typing this blog post. This is my second to last night in San Jose for the next two months, and hopefully it won't be the last post, because that would be lame with a capital Z. Thanks for reading this far! This should be the longest entry in the blog, and, if the internet gods allow it, I will post again sometime this week. Watch for it!
