MY SUMMER

Sapporo

A lot of foreigner teachers here in Japan take trips to other countries over the summer break. Whether it be back home or to another country in Asia for island fun, shopping, temples or partying. This year I opted not to. One reason was that I wanted to save my holiday days for a big Christmas trip and for my folks visiting next spring (Hi Mum, Hi Dad!), and the other reason was that I felt my Japanese was miserably bad despite my (best) efforts to study by myself. So I went to school in Sapporo.

Sapporo is an awesome city up north on the island of Hokkaido. This place was my first choice of location when I came to Japan, and also where I went for the snow festival and snowboarding last February. I received study leave from school and my BOE and enrolled for a 2 week intensive course at the SIL Sapporo Nihongo Gakko. The plan was:
Week 1- stay with a host family and study, study, study.
Week 2- stay in a boarding house and party, party, party.
Of course these plans always go wrong and some important reason comes along forcing the partying to start prematurely.

My host family was amazing. A granny, a mother and two daughters in their 20's. The Mum was great and very patient as I stuttered along and kindergarten style Japanese. Despite my heavy load of homework every night, she somehow always convinced me into having a beer or two with her. 'Homework schmomework!" she'd mock me, and, of course, as an Embassador for Ireland I couldn't exactly be beaten by a middle aged Japanese mother. So every morning started with a sore head and homework being scribbled on the subway. Some evenings we played table tennis, went out for rotating sushi (my favorite), watched dvds or went to a festival. During the first week, my supposed "study study study" week, there was a beer festival. They turn all of Odori Park into a huge beer garden, with each brand having it's own area. This is done over the best two weeks of summer. In winter Hokkaido has a Siberian climate, so obviously the people come out en masse to drink while it's pleasant. Unfortunately the timing of my study course meant that the festival was only on for the first 4 days of my trip, FORCING me to rethink my silly 'study study study' idea.As you may guess, I didn't get a lot of work done outside of school. But in school was great. A small class of only 6 and great teachers meant we did learn a lot. The teachers only taught us in Japanese and if we had a question we had to try asking in Japanese. So it certainly was intensive. I don't know how much I learned, but I certainly practiced a lot and it got my confidence up a wee bit.The second week in the boarding house, I actually done some work believe it or not. Without the host family distractions at night it was easy to do my homework. I even caught up on the last weeks and got started on my projects. We had to carry out a questionnaire on locals and also do a speech (in Japanese of course). I'd hit a cafe after school for homework, and after dinner at the boarding house there were always other lads from school studying so I could copy them / I mean ask them for help.

The weekends were a lot of fun. An Irish girl I know teaches up in Sapporo. So we met up a couple of times and I went drinking with the Sapporo English teachers. I also met some great Japanese folks who took me to some cool places. My main man Kentaro took me to some great bars and Ramen restaurants. Through him I got to meet some cool Japanese people and go to the places they go, rather than just hanging with the tourist crowd.
I came back after two weeks exhausted. But it was a great study leave/hoilday combination. I made some friends for life and now have a second family with a Mum that drinks more than me. I love Sapporo and definitely want to get back again soon.
Oh yeah, and I learnt a little Japanese.