This is our most recent group activity, Kado - a traditional Japanese flower arranging art.

The whole PSU crew with our arrangements.






My work in progress.












Last night we attended an international student exchange barbeque. We played huge games of tug-o-war and tag -- very fun and cross-cultural! Aaron bought a 6-pack of Sapporo tallboys to share with our new friends, Ken-san, Naoya-san and Dai-san.








Last week we visited Okura Yama, site of the 1972 winter Olympics 90-meter ski jump. This is the view of Sapporo from the chair lift.



The past week has been heavy with Japanese language classes, every morning I think.. with one day 2 in a row. So that has been a little intense, but also good. I (Aaron) somehow tested into the hardest of 3 levels, (I was aiming for level 2) so I'm in a little over my head sometimes, but my host family is super helpful - I'm sure I learn more Japanese at home than at school, but it's different stuff.

The BBQ thing was pretty fun, but it involved a lot of physical activity. An epic 4 team game of tug o' war (tsunahiki) that my team was destined to lose, and then a crazy form of tag (O Nagokko, i think) that lasted about an hour nearly killed me, I think. Luckily, I had that 6 pack of beer waiting for me, so I was able to persevere and make friends.

We're still having a hard time finding a good place to hang out and drink and relax (local dive bar, for example).. perhaps they're not the same here, every place we've been to has been a little stiff, or something. Tomorrow night we go to Susukino, an entertainment district of town.. I mentioned it to Shige-san, one of my host brothers, and I think he used the word erotic to describe it. Not sure though..

Also, this morning I found out Yoshiyasu-san, my other host brother, has the same birthday as me. That's pretty cool.

This morning we had a lecture on robotics, which was awesome. Hokudai has some fairly neat robotic stuff, although it seems real-world oriented, like controlling vibrations in machinery and buildings. At first I was a little disappointed, but then he started showing amazing videos of autonomous robots navigating hallways and playing soccer and such, and it kinda blew my mind. He also had a little robot dog-like thing, which was pre-programmed (not autonomous) but still pretty cute.

Tomorrow is Friday, no Japanese class.. probably won't have much to post until Monday, but we'll see.

Aaron