Settling In: Week 1

Well, we’re here now! The previous night, after unfurling our futons and getting the essentials figured out, we hit the hay. I’d like to say that the adjustment period was swift, both for us and for Einstein. He needed some time to figure out his new space, though, and woke us up a few times during the night by pacing around the room. I woke up at 5am to take him out, and decided to stay awake at that point. This would be a common refrain for the first week and a half. Keen observers of our lives will recall we do not have children, but it sure felt like some sliver of that experience as Einstein continued to get curious about the bedroom at 2, 4, 5am, as the days wore on.

Seri’s mom lives on a hill in Hakodate, close to Mt. Hakodate. The view includes the mountain’s observatory and part of the ropeway that delivers tourists up the mountain. The evening view is pretty spectacular.

Most of the first week here was spent with countless trips to local department, electronics, and furniture stores to fill in some of the gaps between our US and Japanese lives. I also familiarized myself with Amazon’s Japanese arm, as well as Japan’s other online behemoth, Rakuten. Through all of our trips around town, Uncle Toshi was ever patient, from dropping us off at various points to accompanying us on some longer runs. I can’t understate how helpful he and Seri’s other family members have been in our transition. Had we settled in say, Tokyo, there might have been more options for stores and other services–Tokyo is just bigger–but having people here who can guide us through the minutiae of living in Japan has been invaluable.

Interspersed with the shopping, we also managed to do a bit of sightseeing the first week. It began with Uncle Toshi driving us to a nearby park and dam (its name is literally “Dam Park"). There were some really loud tourists at the park doing touristy things, but we were able to wander around the park mostly avoiding them. Apparently the top of the dam is walkable at some point, but it was closed the day we went there. Uncle Toshi told us that during the Spring, since a lot of the trees surrounding the park are cherry blossoms, it’s a nice place to visit. The park also has miniature representations of various dams throughout Hokkaido. Kinda like a hobby train set, but for dams. And larger.

We also managed to take Einstein to another vet visit (fun!) as a follow-up to his visit in Nikko. We had to wait a little over an hour, since we didn’t have an appointment and there was only one doctor on-call at the time. The end result re-confirmed a kidney cyst, they gave us some food that should help some unbalanced test levels, and we were on our way ($50 USD for the visit, in case you’re curious–even cheaper than Nikko!).

We capped off the work week at a local shabu shabu restaurant with Uncle Toshi and Seri’s cousin, Tsuyoshi. Tsuyoshi knew the owner of the restaurant so we were treated well. The poor waitress spilled beer on my bag and, after apologizing profusely (it wasn’t a big deal!), told us she would upgrade our beer package. We couldn’t complain. I also managed to verbally commit to joining Tsuyoshi’s baseball team in the Spring. I’m not sure if I’m excited or terrified by that prospect, but I have a few months to figure out my feelings on it. Note to self: go to the batting cages.

Sunday was a busy day. We went with another uncle, Kunihiro (Tsuyoshi’s father), to a park about 45 minutes outside of Hakodate called Onuma. There’s a drive up a mountain with a viewpoint of an even larger mountain (Komagatake), as well as the Onuma and Konuma lakes. There’s also a view of the Hokkaido Country Club, a fancy golf course I’m eyeballing.

After the viewpoint, we drove down to the nearby Onuma Forest Park. Had we been there 2 weeks prior, we’d’ve seen some amazing fall colors, apparently. Maybe next year. There’s also a very good hamburg restaurant nearby called Kerun, but being a weekend, it was sure to be mobbed by people. We opted for another nearby restaurant and weren’t disappointed.

When we’d finished lunch, I thought our outing was over, but we had two stops Uncle Kuni wanted to take us to. The first was to a lookout point that gave us nice new vantage point of Hakodate, from the Northern side.

The final stop was to a new rest area in Nanae. It had a bunch of food stalls, and we got soft serve to round out the day. We also bought some local apple juice to bring to a dinner we’d be going to later in the evening (I told you it was a busy day).

I was having trouble keeping my eyes open in the car, but eventually we made our way back home and had a couple of hours to relax before dinner. Seri’s second cousin, Minami, was in town with her boyfriend Emory. They were here to pack up their van and move to Ibaraki on Honshu. The family wanted to have a dinner to see them off, but to also celebrate Seri’s and my arrival. Conveniently enough, the dinner was just two doors down from our house, so it was an easy enough commute.

We ate sushi and oden, and had a nice time catching up (well, Seri did, I mainly observed and waited for translations). It was a nice end to the long day, and even longer week. I felt like we were sorta getting the hang of this place.