No sympathy for the vertically challenged

Now that classes have started, the number of blog-worthy adventures and photos have dwindled a bit, but I did find a great game this afternoon where I steal things from Thanh (like her pet hamster Hermes that she lied to me and said she got a real hamster and I was heartbroken when I tried to visit her room and it was a fake hamster. A hamster of lies and deceit) and use my tactical superiority to keep it away from her. Some would say that my strategy is nothing more than being significantly taller, but it works.


Anyway, homestay begins tomorrow. We'll see how that works out, with suddenly being not even remotely in control of my space, my sovereignty, or my curfew. I'm still nervous about how to handle the crippled child, but there's not much to do except go with the flow and be sensitive. I spent a long time trying and failing to find my host family's address on a map of Hakodate- turns out the reason I couldn't find them is because they're in a different city altogether. When I first started asking around, I was told their district of 久根別 (kunebetsu) in the neighboring city 北斗市 (Hokutoshi) was 3 hours away. I can't deal with that commute twice a day. But the most accurate estimate I've gotten from the program office is that the Japan Rail trainline from their city to mine is 20 minutes. Add 20 minutes from Hakodate Eki to the school building, plus however long it takes from their house to the Kunebetsu Eki, and this could be substantial. The whole thing is estimated at an hour by bike, which will probably be my best bet if their house is far from the station, too. Nothing to do but see tomorrow when I finally meet the family.

An (unrelated) nice pic from 函館市公演, which flanked the children's play place 子供の国 as we traveled to 谷地がしり温泉 over the weekend. The mountains and fog here are incredible.