For future Light fellows

For future Light fellows who may be checking out this blog, choose HIF if you want to:

• experience Japanese family life
• practice your Japanese every day over delicious home cooked Japanese meals
• travel around Hokkaido during the mid-semester break (when else are you going to make time to go all the way up north?)
• study in a small city and live in the countryside (it's beautiful)
• participate in a Japanese festival and parade - dressed as a samurai, no less
  
• watch fireworks done the Japanese way (the right way)
  
• be part of a well run program with a long history of international exchange
• meet students from other American colleges who all share an interest in Japanese and Japan
• befriend Japanese college students!
• enjoy 2 months of good weather while your friends melt in the Tokyo sauna - expect mostly blue skies, warm but dry afternoons, and cool evenings

HIF is extremely well organized, and the staff members are truly helpful and on top of things. They had a particular fondness for surveys and evaluations. The culture classes were varied and ensured that we had plenty to do in the afternoons. Workload differed depending on which class, but was for the most part reasonable. As cliche as this sounds, most of the learning took place outside the classroom - a lot of words and phrases I thought I had "learned" in Japanese 115 were reinforced and consolidated into my long term memory through daily use. The people of Hakodate were incredibly friendly and welcoming, and though small, the city itself was charming and beautiful (especially the area around HIF). Because you'll spend most of your summer away in the inaka, definitely travel after the program - if you're short on time, at least take a week to marvel at the efficiency of the train system, check out the temples in Kyoto, and experience Tokyo city life. Thanks to the Light Foundation this has been one amazing summer. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns!

帰った。Home.

I am back in Hong Kong! The past few days I've been unpacking and resting, and enjoying watching Chinese domination of the Olympics on TV. And feasting on affordable apples.

Japan was some kind of adventure. After traveling around for a week, it's become clear that spending the bulk of my summer hiding away in quiet, peaceful, occasionally boring Hakodate was a good choice. Tokyo may have been more exciting, but people seemed less tolerant of foreigners speaking Japanese, and often it helped to resort to English - this was rarely the case in Hakodate. I also enjoyed the slower pace of life and leisure time, a rare commodity these days.

I picked up a copy of the Japan Times on my last day, and was surprised to read angry letters to the editor about discrimination against foreigners in Japan, and about how Japan's infatuation with the West seems limited to brand name goods, non-Asian facial features, and the occasional Japanese-speaking foreign talent on TV. Interestingly my brief time in Japan has made me more appreciative of Hong Kong's cosmopolitanism and relative diversity.

It'd be impossible to neatly summarize all my impressions into a concise and coherent blog post. Everything from convenient store culture to Japanese bathing rituals are topics worthy of reflection. As are the Japanese school system (flawed as it is), Japanese cell phones (years ahead of America), and of course, Japanese TV (with at least a paragraph each for game shows, dramas, and the news). I still don't have any clear plans for my future (who does?), but I now have more options. Hopefully I'll be back next year! This summer wouldn't have been possible without the Richard U. Light Foundation. Thank you.

Tokyo

Unlike Kyoto, which has a set of must-see tourist attractions, sightseeing in Tokyo is more about experiencing the different districts that form the city. Yesterday I started out at Shibuya - a little underwhelmed by the famous crossing, but was impressed by speedy service at the busiest Starbucks in the world - hopped one station over to the Meiji shrine, and then hung out with a group of HIFers (who all somehow managed to find each other) in Shibuya. Fun times - I'll miss them!

Got an early start to today by visiting Tsukiji fish market at around 5:30 - having read part of Theodore Bestor's book on Tsukiji last semester, I'm now impressed by how he managed to do research, let alone figure out the intricacies of the whole system, in such a hectic environment. There were many times when I thought I'd get run over. After a delicious sushi breakfast I went back to sleep and woke up at 12 to start my day all over again. I started at Asakusa (site of the Senso temple), before making my way to Roppongi (site of the obnoxious Roppongi Hills complex which screams 'modernity'), Harajuku (absolute insanity), Shinjuku, and then finally meeting up with Thommi, who was in the 1st year Japanese with me last year and did an internship in Tokyo this summer, for my last dinner in Japan. Plans for tomorrow - Akihabara, Ginza (the old Mitsukushi, flagship Uniqlo, Muji, Apple and Sony stores), Narita Airport, Hong Kong, home. And so it all comes to end.

I'm sad to leave, but am looking forward to vegging out in front of the TV (and watching an Olympic sport that is NOT judo), and to watching The Dark Knight. I really should pack.

Osaka

Clockwise from top left: view from Tokyo tower, people waiting for the fireworks, hanabi!, kiyomizudera, from kiyomizudera, kinkakuji (golden pavilion), street near dotonbori, takoyaki!, dotonbori at night, "amerika mura"

Yesterday started out pretty normal - we took a bus to Kinkakuji (the Golden Pavilion), and then browsed Daimaru department store, mostly taking food samples in the basement. And then on a whim we decided to go to Osaka! Best choice ever. Osaka was overwhelming and exciting; everything seemed like it was 10 times brighter and bigger and more colorful than the rest of Japan. There would be pockets of absolute craziness separated by normal looking main streets. We hung out by dotonbori and amerikamura (wiki links in the photo captions), had okonomiyaki and takoyaki for dinner, and then headed back to Kyoto, ~40 minutes away. All this was possible thanks to the JR pass... the trains here are incredibly efficient but there are so many different lines and trains. Somehow by going with our gut instincts and riding whatever train showed up next we managed to get to and from Osaka without any problems. Success. Today I head back up to Tokyo. More later!

I can't feel my feet

Thomas just retraced our route on gmaps pedometer - we walked approximately 10 miles today! In the Kyoto humidity and heat (it was 36 C/97 F). Now you too can relive our epic journey: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2157514