Tuesday, March 8, 2011

26 days in Setana, Hokkaido…

Hi everyone!!! After the huge shock from the earthquake I wanted to thank everybody who made contact or was worried about the situation. Everything is calm here and I really appreciate the communication…

It’s been almost a month since I arrived at Setana. Before I was in Hakodate and switching to this new town was a bit difficult at the beginning because I don’t know many people here and the only persons with whom I have contact are my family so I have no friends of my age, this was hard at the beginning but little by little I have become used to the situation.

I’m here because of my voluntary program from ICYE-ACI and my project consists of taking care of cows. Work is hard, but the periods are short. What is really tiresome is that I work everyday, but I feel better day by day :) Here are some photos of my work place with the cows and nekos…

I think this one is called Gabriel!



Setana is a remote place, the nearest town is about 10 minutes away by car and in this area there are just like 5 families. This are some shots and a video of my “neighborhood” so you can get an idea of the place…

The Neighborhood...



My host family is soooo nice :D !!! sometimes my little brothers are a bit noisy but they are kids so it’s ok!! Setana is very calm and I have plenty of time to study Japanese and walk around the farm (even though it’s a bit scary because of bears… No joke!), the landscape here is great and the afternoons are cold, but perfect to think about many things…



The very first time I saw my my host father’s father he gave me a snowboard (I actually don’t know if it was a present!) and all the necessary stuff to practice! A few days later my father and brothers took me to a ski park and I was super surprised when I saw my host grandfather there… He taught me how to do snowboarding and he learned to snowboard when he was 50!! Now he is 63 and is he very very pro!!! A very nice example!! At the beginning it was very scary, but after the lessons I could ride the tracks all the way down (eventually falling). Everyone here is very very nice!! This is my teacher and the ski park...




Here also a video I took the second day I was learning to snowboard!!! I’m really in love with this sport!!!



I have 1 month left in Setana and on April 14th I will return to Tokyo (I hope that by the time the situation gets better because of the quake and the Fukushima crisis). My return date to Costa Rica is on may 8th, but I have some plans to stay more in this great place… Japan!!!

Finally a video on my way to the top of the Ski/Snowboard park…


In Tokyo I will post more often because my connection in Setana is not so good and now I’m posting from Sapporo (I will write about my experience here later!)…

I hope you are doing well everywhere!!! :)

No comments:

Post a Comment