This Monday went to the soba and mochi making, which was delicious and also a lot of fun. Today I went to the calligraphy lesson, which was also quite interesting. Looking forward to the ika fishing on Saturday.

Sunday with the host family

This Sunday I made some pasta with my family, when I found that soy sauce does make a good combination with garlic. Then, since me and my host dad are going squid finishing next week, he and my host mom took me to buy a hat, which they bought for me as a gift. Then, host dad taught me how to do hotate (muscle) and ika (squid) sashimi, which by the way is not the walk in the park.
However, the best part of today has to be the fireworks. Since my host dad's company contributed money to the fireworks, we got front row seats, which were so close to the fireworks, it felt like we would get hit any moment.

Exploring Hakodate

This Saturday, my friends and I have went exploring the Hakodate region. Our stops were mostly of the touristy type: the jinjas and the temples. Afterwards got some Italian food, although the Ditallini that I made today with my host mom was much better than the garlic chicken creation in the restaurant.


P.S.Мама, папа, долго от вас ничего не слышала. Как вы поживаете? Чего хотите в гостинцы?

The weekend

This Saturday I went to the cooking class, which was a lot of fun and we learned how to make two types of Japanese sweets: Manju and some other whose name I forgot. Both of them were very sweet, but quite delicious.
The master chef also made some similar sweets, but in much more challenging shapes, like mushroom and a lotus.
In the evening, my host family took me to kaiten sushi for dinner, which was amazing. The favorites of the evening were hotake (muscle) sushi and the salmon. But I have to say that the uni (sea urchin) was also quite good and reminded me of custard. Although it was about 10 times more expensive than any other one there.
Afterwards we went to the onsen (hot spring), which was quite relaxing.

the week after the break

Not much has happened. There were tests and lots of homework assignments. But over the weekend I am going to the Japanese sweets making class, which should be a lot of fun.

test and the break

On Thursday, I had my test. It went pretty well. For the break, which was four days, my friends and I went to Sapporo. It was definitely a nice break from the small Hakodate. There we went to karaoke, the old "historical" village (where I got to carry old fashioned fish barrels), some gardens, chocolate factory and the beer museum. Although I have to say my favorite was getting some Starbucks' chai latte and exploring the city.