Our first guest post ever!!

Kristin from mylifeasateacup
(kristin is one of the few people i know in real life who blogs, so this is super exciting to exchange posts for each other! read about how we met two summers ago, and our amazing adventure in hokkaido, japan!)




Erica and me!

Back in 2010, I had the opportunity to study abroad in a small port town in northern Japan called Hakodate. Being there was a literal dream come true, and what's more, I came back with more entertaining stories, great friends and memories than I ever hoped to find. Erica is one of those amazing friends that I met while studying at HIF, and even though we were in different classes, we saw each other quite often, from clubs and class trips and the like.
Every time I flip through pictures of my stay, I can't help but getting nostalgic for bottled green tea, nights out at karaoke, land happy squid everywhere. Some of my favorite memories?
 
1. Staying in Hakodate meant adorable squid everywhere. On signs, on posters, on manholes. The town even has a festival named after these guys (ika odori!). Understandable, since they are what the town is famous for, but it makes it pretty hard to eat squid jerky, make boiled squid, or eat squid sushi when there are a bunch of cute ika with faces staring down at you from the restaurant walls.
2. Everything is wrapped with such care and precision. Nevermind the fact that my roommate and I, upon checking in to our hotel, rushed around to find wrappings for our family's omiyage and had the wrapping paper that we bought wrapped. But it's really quite beautiful; things we would just throw in bags here got extra special care. One little shop down the street from the school hand stamped and decorated my own bag for the hairbands I purchased, completely different from my friend's. Worth the extra minute to have something special and a keepsake in itself.

3. The food. Ramen will never be the same after having Asahikawa's famous syoyuramen. And the little crab-shaped bread from the bakery down the street? Oh how I miss you! Smoked salmon onigiri, Hakodate's famous "Ghengis Khan", egg on top of (most) things, lavender ice cream, and even the canned Boss cafe au lait from the corner vending machine are all things I crave. Desperately. 
I should also mention my favorite breakfast of miso, fried egg & bacon, fish, and toast with apricot-mango jam. My host mom made this every morning almost, except for when Pa decided to make spaghetti.

Except the excessive use of mayo. I could do without that. (my host father once took perfectly good noodles and doused them in a mayonnaise "sauce" D,:)
4. The drive to Sapporo for our mid-term break is something I will always remember. Driving through the valleys of huge mountains, and on a strip of land past the ocean that you can see stretch out so far to either side of you was amazing.
5. Trains and buses that come on time, all the time. I don't know about you, but my hometown can't seem to get it's act together when it comes to public transportation. I have seen a bus be over an hour late on multiple occasions here, and never want to partake in that again. Especially since I know that Japan's got it all worked out. My bus was never late, not once in three months.

6. It's amazing how close knit we all were, and while there were definitely smaller "groups", they were purely based on which class we were in and who we saw most frequently. But the whole of us had plenty of time to see one another, and boy did we. From fitting practically the entirety of us into one karaoke box at the resort in Onuma, to going out to doubly celebrate a friend and America's birthday (and something to do with Dragon Ball Z fireworks on the way home...), we had a lot of good times. And not so good times (the losing of someone's passport in Sapporo among them). But mainly good times. I look back on each one of them fondly and love all of the guys and gals I met that summer.
7. No post about Japan would be complete about Engrish. After learning Japanese I can totally sympathize with how difficult of a language English is and how thankful I am that it is my native language and I didn't have to try and formally learn all of our crazy rules of grammar. But the school cafeteria in particular had a great menu. And boy, did we laugh. I'm pretty sure we laughed so much the staff rewrote the menu just to get us to stop. 

I now know perfectly what 'previously I hope accounting" means. But it's no fun now that they've corrected themselves ><;
8. Vending machines. I can't tell you how often I'm just out and about and thirsty. Or hungry. Or in need to something. And nothing beats having a vending machine on nearly every corner. Here in America, I think I've seen two, one of which I'm pretty sure was out for the trash. Hot coffee, cold coffee, peach juice, and beer - what a selection.
9. Onsen. My first night at the hotel, my roommate from Tokyo and I caught the bus to the local bath house after orientation, on a sort of spur-of-the-moment idea. I was hooked since, and had the chance to hit up the baths on a number of occasions, in Hakodate and on our trip to Onuma (though, not as much as I'd have liked!). Our friend Hillary put it best: I like baths, and I like friends, so why not put the two together?
The very Western-looking alley of ice cream shops behind the school. There's got to be about 4 or 5 on this short stretch!
10. One of my greatest fears about travelling is feeling like a tourist, or feeling out of place. But being in Japan for three months with incredible friends and host families just made me feel all the more at home. It's nice to have a routine, to be friends with the baker on the corner, to know where things are. Above all else, I love that a completely foreign country can make me feel completely at home.


i miss japan so much! the food, the shopping, the beautiful nature, and mostly all the amazing people i met there! we need a HIF reunion!  And thank you Kristin for such a great post! be sure to check out her mylifeasateacup where she blogs about yummy recipes (eg. nutella croissants anyone?!), useful tips on meal planning, and many more fun things happening in her life!

hope you all enjoyed this and there will be more guest posts coming! look forward to my friend who makes her own perfume (OMG isn't this every girl's dream?! chemist is the new cool!) and a friend who designs and paints her own tote bags (i have soooo many tote bags. aren't they everyone's good friend in college?)

happy thursday everyone!

e. xxx