I got really slack after Wednesday because I was so busy and tired. Let's see if I can remember anything good.
Thursday was the start of the Port Festival. Apparently there is a parade every day of the festival. Thursday's was a small parade in which they didn't block off the entire street and the citizens didn't much seem to care about the parade. There weren't many spectators and the usual obscene number of cars on the road. The parade had to stop at red lights. Anyway, in this one, people dressed up like Perry-era samurai and soldiers and about 5 Western countries were represented. Our students were the samurai, spear guard, and Commodore Perry. Had I actually known what was going on, I would have been in it. They did a really shitty job explaining this week to us and none of us had any idea what we were doing. It wasn't all bad that I didn't do it because it was really fun anyway. The parade went from a place called Jujigai to Hakodate station, which is a long way. Then they split up and some of them got on boats and some of them went to the boats' landing place. The costume people were paraded around the harbor on boats and then they reformed and walked the last few blocks to the stage, where they had a "Port Opening" reenactment.
I'd been running around taking pictures of everyone and had done a lot of misguided wandering in the afternoon, so after our part was over, I sat down on a bench a safe distance from the noise of the stage to rest. While I was there, a high school girl started talking to me in English. After a while, she said she had to go meet her friends and invited me to watch the fireworks with them so I did.
We went to the Seaport Plaza which is a large open area by the water for festivals and stuff and there was already a sea of people there with over an hour to go. The speakers were obscenely loud and were blasting non-stop advertisements. Shortly before it was time to start, 2 of the girls decided to go buy food and never came back. There were so many people that they couldn't find us to get back. They kept calling the one who stayed on their cell phones. I was supposed to meet Jakobina at the station at 8:30 so we could come home together, so I never saw the lost girls again. Jakobina wasn't even there. I'm really glad I came home when I did because the train was already crowded and I heard that by the time the fireworks finished, the train was worse than Tokyo rish hour. Incedentally, I saw the English-speaking girl on the front of Friday's paper.
When I got home after 9, host mom fixed me a little dinner of pork, broccoli and rice. It tasted really good because I was so hungry. I stayed up too late talking to her and fell asleep doing homework. She asked me if I wanted to wear my yukata to Friday's big parade so I said yes. We packed everything up and I carried it all to school Friday morning.
Friday morning, all the students were half asleep and no one wanted to be in class. I'd been debating whether to go home during the 3 hours between school and parade, and started speedwalking to the station after school. After a few blocks, I decided it wasn't worth it and went back to school. Unfortunately, in the meantime, everyone good had left so I was on my own. I went to the lounge, where there was a sulky, silent guy from Notre Dame and the former surgeon British-American guy named Roger. Roger's cool. He's a retired surgeon who teaches medical students part time and goes to school part time.
I asked the Notre Dame dork if he wanted to go to the parade together and he just said "I dunno". So I asked him again and he acted like it was the biggest hassle in the world but said ok. At around 4:30 he started packing so I asked if he was leaving and he said yes so I said "see you Monday". Good riddance. The whole time we'd sat in the lounge reading and hadn't said a single word.
All the senseis took off around 4:15. This was bad because I was planning to get them to help me put on the yukata. It didn't look like it was going to be a good day. I thought I'd carried all that shit for nothing. After the dork left, I asked the office ladies if any of them could help me and they got really excited. At first, only one came, but she needed the help of the other one because neither one was very good at it. They couldn't remember all the steps and had to redo a lot of stuff. They packed me in there pretty tight. By the time they were finished, I couldn't take deep breaths. And then they didn't know what to do with my pre-tied obi bow. They finally stuck it in the sash and hoped that it would stay. (It didn't. When I got to the meeting place, the office lady that wasn't there at the time fixed it for me.) They got me fixed and I got them to take my picture and packed my stuff up and started to leave. I was carrying my backpack (which I couldn't put on my back) and a heavy shopping back which had my clothes and boots in it. At first, I left my boots in the HIF building because they were so heavy I didn't want to carry them. I got down the first block of slope and decided that geta are best looked at, so I went back for the boots.
I started out again, carrying my backpack and shopping bag, hobbling towards the parade area, which normally doesn't take long to get to in proper shoes. I wasn't akafun-ing [the akafun is the traditional Japanese loincloth. All the guys wear them for the parade, while the girls wear happi, a traditional men's outfit which is basically loose shorts and a cut-off yukata], so I had planned to just watch the parade from the sidewalk. I hadn't been walking long when the 2 HIF ladies drove by and picked me up. I had no idea where I was going and neither did they. I told them I was just going as far as Jujigai, the starting point. They were actually looking for the Akafun group to drop me off. We found it after some searching and I and my stuff joined a large group of nearly naked and beer-drinking classmates. Everyone was wearing either a red cloth wrapped around their genetalia or a happi coat and a handful of students wore regular clothes. I was the only one in a yukata. It was really cool because lots of people wanted to take their pictures with me and I got pictures of my friends in their little thonglets. It was a lot of fun. All the guys were standing around awkwardly making fun of themselves. The senseis started loading people's backpacks on our truck and one carrying my backpack came over to where we were standing and asked whose it was. It looked like mine except that it had someone's underwear stuffed into the front pocket. We debated for a minute or two, then I ventured inside. It was mine! Someone had stuffed their nasty underwear into MY backpack! And there's still 2 weeks before I can disinfect it! After thinking about it, I'm pretty sure it was men's underwear, because, a) there wasn't any reason for the girls to take their underwear off, and b) it looked more like men's bikini briefs than women's. I didn't actually unfurl them to make sure.
The parade was supposed to start at 5:30, but we didn't know it was going to involve a lot of starting and stopping and waiting around so by the time our group got going, it was after 6:30 or so. I hadn't planned to be in the parade because I didn't think I could, but all of us who weren't akafun-ing ended up walking in the parade. And this parade was longer than Thursday's. It went from Jujigai to Matsukaze-cho, which is one trolley stop farther than Hakodate station down the line. The parades went down the streetcar tracks basically. By the time we got done, I'd managed to avoid nearly all the beer spraying and water throwing and had some very sore feet. Some of our people got really wasted and did the normal, unfunny drunk person stunts. There was this one chick who would constantly wander over to me and say "I'm drunk" in Japanese. It got REALLY old. She also smokes about a carton a day.
At the stopping place, there wasn't anywhere to change, so a couple of guys ran off into a dark vacant lot and then others started to follow. It seemed like we'd been standing around for a long time and me and some other people who ride the same train went to the station to catch the 8:30. The parade was still going and it was really hard to walk the few blocks to the station for all the people. I'd put my boots on as soon as we finished the parade, so I was walking around in a yukata and hiking boots. The train was already crowded with 5 minutes to spare. As it got closer to 8:30, people were still piling in. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to get off the train when we got to Kikyo, but it was ok. I'd taken off my obi bow so I could at least wear my backpack properly. After leaving the station, I noticed a tiny ramen shop next to it which was still open. It was staffed by two young-ish guys. The younger one looked at me for a long time with a horrified look on his face. I guess he's never seen a foreigner in a yukata and hiking boots carrying a backpack before. I was really hungry, but I figured host mom would be fixing me something again, so I only ate gyoza. It was tasty and quick. When I left, I looked at the operating hours on the door. They had been closed for 10 minutes.
There aren't even any dishwashers in Japanese restaurants. That's gross.
And I discovered what was driving my nose crazy a few minutes ago. A while back, I mentioned that my cooler leaked water. Host mom had a tray under it, but it must have filled up or got out of place because there was water and thick green mold under it. My nose had settled down after the initial burst, but now, after cleaning up the mold and stirring up the spres, it's threatening to go nuts again.
The walk home wasn't much fun. I was worried that my appearance would attract unwanted attention and I kept thinking I was being followed but nothing happened. When I got in, I said "I want to take it off!" Host mom said I should have called her and she would have picked me up. I didn't want to disturb them and I was afraid the telephone call might be unpleasant because they are slightly deaf. Actually, it seems that most Japanese are hard of hearing and I'm not surprised, considering the amount of noise pollution here. There are lawnmower-sounding cars everywhere, advertisements blasting from utility poles, machinery 6 days a week, advertisements blasting from cars patrolling neighborhoods, you name it.
She did, in fact, fix me a little dinner of rice and fried pork bits and I had a bath and went to bed.
Today, I straightened my room and watched the tv I taped earlier. I forgot to tape Hamutaro last night and I am pissed. Only 2 more Hamutaros and I can go home.