Time is like an arrow

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光陰矢のごとし(Kouin ya no gotoshi) - a Japanese proverb that I recently learnt and can, without a doubt, apply to my last month in Hakodate. It literally translates to 'time is like an arrow', which as you can guess means time flies, and my time here has definitely been very arrow-like recently.

In honour of this realisation I chose this proverb to write on a scroll for my calligraphy class. Naturally, I had a few attempts at it before it looked somewhat decent but I don't think it's too bad. I'm not sure my calligraphy teacher agrees though, as he has offered to write this phrase on a nice new scroll for me to take home. So, either he's being extremely nice (his work is quite famous and can therefore be expensive) or extremely polite and doesn't want to tell me just how bad mine really is. I'm opting for the former.

Apart from learning that my Japanese calligraphy skills are still not quite up to scratch I have also had another very important learning experience this month. This is that friendships can be dangerous. Now that doesn't mean that I'm going to start dismissing all my friends because of the obvious threat they pose, but they can, nevertheless, be dangerous. I say this because of how painful it can be to say goodbye to good friends. I'm sure a lot of people out there would agree with me. For me, the pain was caused by the retreating of the Canadians.

Two months had come and gone much too fast and on Friday I found myself at Hokodate station waving goodbye to the rear end of a train full of my new found friends. I know in the scheme of things it doesn't really seem like such a painful event, I mean it wasn't their funeral, we will still keep in contact and there may even be a chance (however slim) that I will see them again. But it was definitely more painful than saying goodbye to all my friends back in Australia, who I know I will see again in 7 or so months time.

It's really quite amazing how fast you can make friends, I mean good friends. I've been wondering why that is, and I think it's because at home you depend upon a range of different people for different things. You have these friends for this, those friends for that, your family for something else, a partner for other things, you share yourself around, so to speak. When you live in a foreign country you don't have that luxury and tend to have a smaller group of people who you satisfy your every need, not to mention they completely understand what it feels like to be an "outsider" in a foreign land. Hence you become very close in a short period of time. They become your family away from home.

Since this new "family" have been here my eyes have really opened up to the world of karaoke. I think I've mentioned before how it's grown on me, but if it's even possible, it's grown on me even more in the last month and a half. I might even consider becoming a professional. Well if I were any good at it I might. Luckily for me you don't need to be good at it to enjoy it, you just need to lose all inhibitions (and having a few alcoholic beverages doesn't hurt either). I've learnt quite a few Japanese songs now, which I try to sing. We do try to think of different things to do and we'll go out to a pub or restaurant sometimes, but usually we end up finding ourselves drawn to karaoke afterward, like some kind of invisible magnet. It's just such good value for money. Anyway I argue it's just another form of study: singing in Japanese has done wonders for my reading skills.

Now that the weather has started to warm up we found that there are in fact a lot of other things to do in Hakodate. In Japan anyone can walk into a convenience store and buy some fireworks, go to the beach or a park and let them off. I guess there aren't the strict fire bans we have back home, which is a great thing since this very act is so much fun. Although I advise against letting them off in between two houses, in case a rogue one decides to fly into one of those said houses' gardens, subsequently angering its residents. This could lead to a scrabble through some bad-smelling sewage pipes in order to escape the police who were called by the angry residents. Just saying.

Aside from sewage pipes I've done a lot of exploring in and around Hakodate in the last few weeks, and I still get surprised at how beautiful this place is. We were lucky enough to be invited camping by one of the Canadian's host families a couple of weekends ago. It was just a little campsite about an hour outside of Hakodate, and the family had generously hired a few cabins for us all to stay in. It was also my first Japanese BBQ experience and apart from being extremely surprised that Japanese people put rice balls on a BBQ (which believe it or not are delicious) it was a great weekend away.

The lack of snow on the ground and buildings has revealed some nice little surprises in the city itself. There are some traditional old streets, a beautiful port, beaches, mountains, and a downtown area full of small bars, restaurants and shops. We've been trying to get out and find some undiscovered places (or we tell ourselves they're undiscovered anyway) since it can be difficult at times to find an area where nobody is, even in a town as small as Hakodate. On one such escapade we went up Hakodate mountain, which is located at the very southern tip of the city and found that the opposite side was a sheer cliff offering beautiful views of the rocks and ocean below. We adventurously decided to climb down to the bottom so we could walk around the base, which seemed very doable from the top. At one point we found a rope that somebody had secured in order to scramble down a significantly steep part, but apart from that short spike of adrenaline (or fear, however you want to read it) it wasn't that difficult. And we were rewarded with absolutely gorgeous scenery at the bottom, complete with caves, tiny beaches, deep blue water and even some small rock pools full of sea creatures. The climb back up wasn't quite as fun though.

Believe it or not I have managed to attend all my university classes as well as explore the city, I suppose that's one of the reasons why my time has flown. I can slowly feel my Japanese improving, I still make loads of mistakes, but at least my head doesn't hurt at the end of each day anymore. In fact our teachers seemed to have the same idea as us and we've had a few different classes outside of the school. We had a couple of interesting excursions for our Regional Studies class, namely to a Buddhist Zen temple and a green tea factory. Both were actually very interesting, we got to see how green tea is produced and then taste some of it ourselves and we also go to practice Zen with some monks in a beautiful temple just outside the city. Zen is one type of Buddhism that revolves around meditation in order to reach enlightenment. A monk from the temple explained a little of the history to us but the best part of the experience was participating in some actual meditation with some training monks. It was quite difficult as we were shown the correct position to sit in and then had to hold it for as long as possible while we meditated. I only managed 15 minutes and considering my legs went dead after about 2 minutes I think I did alright.

Since we were in a temple that trained monks the head guy told us that he would show us what happened when monks fell asleep or had bad posture. Interestingly we agreed, and found out that he has a special wooden stick to hit them on the back with. Don't be alarmed, although it makes a horrifying sound it actually doesn't hurt. I know this because we all got to experience being "hit". A truly unique experience, one I'm sure I will always remember.

One more month before my summer holidays, which I'm really looking forward to since I've decided to travel around Japan. I'm sure it won't take too long to get here though if that speedy arrow has anything to do with it.

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Photos

Time flies
My attempt at calligraphy

Friends
At one of the many farewell parties

Karaoke
Laura and I losing our inhibitions

Hakodate mountain
Scrambling down with a rope

Ujien visit
Green tea factory and tasting

Zazen
Practicing zen with some monks

Group shot
Our final International Understanding class with the Canadians

Canadian friends
Another farewell party

Tanabata
Our final Cultural class: visiting a Tanabata museum and making wishes

Esan (Mt E)
Outside of Hakodate

Preschool visit
Greeting the shy preschool children

Preschool visit
Teaching "incy wincy spider"