It already feels so far away

This has been the fastest and the longest two months I've ever lived. The end of the program came surprisingly fast, and the last test was a satisfying experience. Probably most satisfying was the oral interview portion that helped me see how much I had learned over the past two months and just how much my Japanese had improved. At least the oral interview felt very comfortable as if I was just having a conversation with a friend.

Saying goodbye to the host family was harder than I expected, but I think they were ready for me to leave. I know I was ready to leave. But the hardest person to say goodbye to was Sam. We had become really close friends throughout the two months, spending nearly everyday together riding the trains to and from school, walking through the city, asking each other questions about our homework, eating almost every meal together, etc...I feel fortunate to have made a friend like Sam and experience this time with him.

I'm going to provide a description of some of my experiences now, and post pictures and stories from the experience while I'm in the US. I leave again for Japan August 30. I'll be going to Nagoya city's Nanzan University for a year language program. As Nagoya is Japan's fourth largest city, and is fairly close to Osaka, Kyoto, Nara and a number of historic old villages, I'm hoping to get to explore as much as I can of central Honshu. The intensity of the program should be slightly easier than the summer program. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a slightly less demanding daily work load to have more free time to do things like blog, and hang out with the host family more.

Well, every year Hakodate has a number of large festivals, and there is a string of four days in which every night is a different festival in a different part of Hakodate. The city feels absolutely lovely as tourists, locals and businesses all combine to put on spectacular street shows, fireworks, parades and dances. Unfortunately this year's festival week happened to fall during the same time we had to present our research projects, so I only saw one night. While I'm happy the project presentation went well, I can say I'm a bit sad for missing the other days of the festival.

There was an interesting experience that happened while Sam and I were waiting for the fireworks. Everyone had gathered around the bay, alongside the boat docks just behind the morning market. People were sitting together on the ground, and in most areas the people were scrunched together so that trying to walk through was impossible. Still, some people tried, including a young boy who tried running through the area Sam and I were sitting in. As he passed us, his foot happened to catch Sam's cup of beer sitting next to him, causing it to spill and splash an old woman's leg next to us. The boy first looked surprised, then saw Sam and I were foreigners, and looked even more uncomfortable. The old woman just stared at Sam, as if Sam was to blame for her having what she said now was "stinky pants." The reason I include this story is to highlight that there are some people in Japan that tend to blame foreigners for problems in Japan. Having read English translations of Japanese newspapers consistently for the past year and a half, I have come across a handful of news stories, not editorials, in which the reporter presents the opinion that various ills befalling Japan are largely due to foreigners. There have been some tragic murder cases in the past year involving foreigners, but less than the number of similar cases involving Japanese nationals. This phenomenon is no different than attitudes in the US and racism or prejudice some groups of people here have towards Muslims. I'll leave the conclusion up to you.

That night, the sky had a thick fog. The larger fireworks that were shot high into the air were almost impossible to see, except for the end trails of the sparks. It was rather beautiful in its own way, as if watching the ghosts of fireworks. We would see a ball shoot up, into the fog, hear the bang, and wait until the sparks fell low enough to see the light through the fog.

The remaining pictures are individual shots of my classmates and teacher.