Well I decided to put my New Years report in January's report but it just seems funny to write about it now. I changed host families recently but I'll write about that in the next report (probably next week or so).  

But anywayz, my new years was pretty good. Me and everyone in my host family went to our uncle7s house in Saroma. which has i think the third largest lake in Japan. We watched a TV show where men and women sung against each other for who's year it'd be. Women=red team, Men=white team. I'll just say the red team won. Then all the temples rung their bells to drive out demons of the last year. Not much happened after new years.

I had off until the 19th and was just bumming the whole time. My host brother at that time had come back from England. He studied in a University in England for maybe 4 years and spoke good English. His girlfriend came in for about a week and they went touring Hokkaidou. Souned like fun. 

In Japan Hokkaidou seems like really different than any other place. For one thing it was part of Russia for a while during the world war. For another thing when Japan came into develop it, they found that people had been living there all ready. Their called the AINU. So Japan had to fight against the ainu, kind of how we fought the Native Americans. When they were fighting, the ainu used a cliff called GANBOUIWA as a kind of hide out. On the side of the cliff in the middle the rock bulges out a little and it looks like a face. When it would rain it looked like the face was crying. So many people would commit suicide there in the rain. They would throw themselves off of it into a river that goes by it. It's in a town sbout an hour away from me called ENGARU. I went to see it, it really does look like a face. So anyways, when the Japanese won and built up Hokkaido they sort of had it on their own. The people that built up Hokkaido got little help from the mainland. Hokaido was really cold (still is) and many people didn't want to go so it developed a little different from the rest of Japan. Well I'll write probably next week or the next next week. I'll try and format it or something. Goodbye.

Patrick Daniel Sharas, - of the island/province Hokkaido, and of the city Monbetsu in Japan.

PS - I almost got bit by a stupid little dog on the way home from school today.