HI, I AM LISA🌻


Hello everyone, my name is Lisa Zhang, and I am 20 years old.  I am in my third-year studying Kinesiology, and I have a minor in Japanese. I have been living in Calgary for seven years, and I truly enjoy the summertime in Calgary! 

I have had a keen interest in the Japanese language and culture from an early age. To me, Japan’s rich culture is embedded into their lifestyle and applied to the modern society in the sense that technology and historical culture merge to form a cohesive unit. It has made Japan into a compelling country as this merge is extremely hard to maintain in the rapidly changing economy. Therefore, I want to prove my understanding by seeing Japan with my own eyes and experiencing it with my heart.

For my research paper, my goal is to develop an understanding of how the past historical and political issues including western culture have influenced Hakodate and the people who are raised in this city. I want to know how the western culture directly or indirectly changed the material and non-material culture in Hakodate and what traditions and belief system has remained unchanged despite the strong western influence in the past and the nowadays society.


Traveling to me is not just the beautiful sceneries, it is the heartfelt passion of the people along the journey that I want to cherish and remember the most. I wish when I'm back to the normal life and sometimes I feel exhausted, the passion of these people would undoubtedly become a driving force for me to move on.



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Goryokaku Park

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Goryokaku Fort is a special historical site in Hakodate City of Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido. It was Japan’s first and largest Western-style fort. It was built in 1866 to house government offices for the administration in Hakodate and to deal with commerce and foreign affairs related to the port of Hakodate that was opened to international trade in 1859. It has five V-shaped projections from the central core and was named Goryokaku (Pentagram Fort) in reference to its star shape. It was designed in the shape of a star so that an assault from any direction could be met with concentrated firepower. At the entrance to the park there is an observation tower that is 50 meters high. You can get a good view of the layout of the fort from there. Inside the tower, there were 16 dioramas and explanations that went with them to illustrate the history of the Goryokaku Fort. There is another post on this blog site you can read if you are interested. They also had a diorama of the s...
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History of Goryokaku Fort

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This all started in 1853 when Matthew Perry arrived and demanded that Japan open it's doors to trade with the rest of the world. A year later, in 1854, the Tokugawa shogunate concluded the Treaty of Peace and Amity between the United States of America and Empire of Japan and Hakodate and Ezo were designated as open ports. When the ports were opened, they created the magistrate's office to govern Ezo and the Hakodate port. Once the port was opened, sailors and men from overseas came to Hakodate almost every day to buy and sell goods. The Hakodate Magistrate promoted industrial development while trying to increase the defensive capabilities of the area. A man named Takeda Ayasaburo, a researcher of Dutch studies, expanded the plan for the new fort, which he modeled after European citadel towns. Goryokaku fort is shaped like a five-pointed star. This allowed for a greater numbers of gun emplacements on its walls than a traditional Japanese fo...
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