Hello world!

初めまして！This is the first post of my blog. My name is Chris Zheng, a rising junior in Davenport College at Yale University, and I'm going to study Japanese at the Hokkaido International Foundation (HIF) in Hakodate, Hokkaido, from June 6th to August 10th. I'll be using this blog to record my life in Japan in the next two months.

First off, a brief explanation of the title of this blog: 「函館山からの眺め」means (or I hope it means) "view from Hakodate Mountain." Hakodate Mountain is a scenic hill overlooking the city of Hakodate, where the night view is supposed to be one of the best in the world (how do they even rank this stuff?). Of course I'm looking forward to enjoying the view from 函館山, but I'm also using the phrase figuratively to mean my experience in Hakodate this summer. On a side note, I'm not ashamed to admit that I had to utilize Google Translate to come up with this phrase... Really shows how limited my Japanese is at this point. I hope that will all change in two months. In the meantime, feel free to correct all the (inevitable) mistakes I make with my Japanese in this blog!

Although I've been to Japan once before for a brief visit, this will be my first time actually living there, and certainly my first time with any substantive language skills (実はね、my Japanese skills are anything but "substantive" at the moment >.<). I'm unbelievably excited, and I want to thank first and foremost the Light Fellowship at Yale University for providing me with the means necessary to attend HIF. Without their generous financial and logistical support, this trip would not be possible at all.

I think I'll be very serious about managing this blog this summer as a means of structuring my study abroad experience. I've always had some trouble in the past with motivation and self-discipline, which led to a rather unsatisfying summer last year at Cambridge University, UK. I hope that this blog will help keep me motivated and upbeat - I need it to!

I'll be leaving first thing in the morning on the 6th, which is in 4 days, and I haven't packed at all yet (always rely on me to leave things to the last minute). What's more, I hardly remember any Japanese from last year, and there are even more grammar points to learn for the placement exam! 本当に困りましたねえ... >.< Looks like I've some frantic catching up to do.

Thankfully, I recently picked up ヤスコとケンジ, a popular Japanese drama again, and rekindled my obsession for 多部未華子さん, one of the actresses in that drama. The burning desire to understand has been keeping me really motivated, and I think I'll be able to prepare myself in time for the placement exam.

多部未華子ちゃん。She is too cute!

I'll be updating this blog again before I leave to give more details about my plans and list all my goals for the trip, but I'll leave it as is for now. じゃあ、また！

P.S. Reminder to self: take more pictures! Post more pictures! >.<