I have been in Japan for almost two weeks and I finally feel as if I am getting settled in. When I first arrived the Wednesday before last in the Haneda (Tokyo) airport, I had started to get very nervous, as there was this transition in landing there from seeing mostly English to mostly Japanese. Then, once I arrived in the significantly smaller Hakodate airport the amount of English dropped down to pretty much zero, as did the number of people speaking English. Those first few days were a bit nerve-racking what with not having spoken Japanese all that much for almost a month and it definitely gave my confidence a shake, but since then I can say that it has been all uphill.
The group from HIF met at the airport and then spent the first few hours getting carted around from the train station to the tram station and then finally to the youth hostel where we stayed for the first two nights of our stay here in Hakodate. I was able to get acquainted with some of the other students and we 
were all given passes to the nearby traditional onset for baths for the night. It was a really interesting experience and definitely very different from anything back in the US, but I can say that I would gladly go again because it was also extremely relaxing. In the onset there was also even a restaurant, where we were able to get our first meal in Hakodate outside of the hostel!
I met my host family consisting of two sisters that weekend and got to unpack and relax, and on Monday classes began. They have been pretty great so far, even with having class three hours a day. We get to do an Independent Study project where we can explore things we are interested about Japanese culture, and so I am going to look into different sports and ways to exercise around Hakodate, such as martial arts, hiking, or swimming.
Along those lines, I tried kendo and kyudo last week! Kyudo was really hard because the arrows just kind of went into the grass. I only hit one target (and it was the wrong one three targets over) but it was awesome to watch the high school kids do it really well. Kendo was super fun because I got to wear a cool outfit (pictured!), yell, and swing a wooden sword around. It was kinda scary at first because we were just hitting the sensei in the head repeatedly, which was mildly worrisome, but after we all adjusted it was pretty great.
This last weekend I went hiking (for the first time!) with friends up the most well known mountain in the area, Hakodate mountain (函館山). It was insanely beautiful and I plan to hike it again to explore more of the trails. Later this week I get to try judo and take a kimono etiquette class, both of which I am super excited about! I am trying to take advantage of all of the culture classes available as I know that I will most likely never get an opportunity quite like this one.
