Ika ika ika ika odori odori

So this is the end. In 5+ hours I'll be on a train to Tokyo, and in a week, home! My last post might imply that things ended on a sour note (perhaps a little) but that small incident aside, it has been an amazing summer...

Ika odori!

Because it rained all weekend, the ika odori (squid dance) parade was postponed to Monday. For those who don't know the squid is Hakodate's mascot and can be found in all forms - raw, dried, fried, in burgers, in ice cream, in song and in dance, etc. So on Monday we hung out by the Hakodate train station watching the different groups (usually companies and universities) go by, when we spotted some familiar Japanese faces out on the streets! It was the university students that observe our classes on Fridays. We were pulled into the parade and had to learn a dance to this song on the spot - an energy draining but happiness inducing endeavor. When the sun finally set, the official ika odori began. Groups and groups passed by doing the same ika dance to the ika odori song, which was being blast at full volume such that after a while I ceased to hear it. We ran out and joined some random group and did the dance, and when we reached the end of the parade route, came back and did it again with the "free participation group" for non-affiliated people like us. It was quite a cathartic experience - the highlight was when everyone crouched down on the streets and successfully did the wave twice, going both forwards AND backwards!

People I take the train with every morning; on the way to HIF

I'm amazed by how the Japanese festivals I've been to have been crowded but never overwhelming. People are always careful not to push and shove. Perhaps it's because I'm in Hakodate, a medium sized city where people don't have to compete as aggressively for prime seaside spots to watch the fireworks. I guess we'll see how things are different in Osaka! Apparently Osaka is full of interesting people - my okaasan insists that if I go up to any random person in Osaka and pretend to slash him with an imaginary sword, he will play along and pretend to get hurt.

Okaasan (host mom), Tai (sister)

I realize that most of my posts have been descriptive rather than reflective, so if I have time during my travels or when I get home I'll try to write something to better summarize my thoughts on life in Japan. But first, TOKYO and KYOTO and OSAKA!!