花見

This has been a great week! I started off at Ishimine for the closing ceremony to end the school year. I had a lot of problems at Ishimine at the beginning of the year, but I couldn't have been happier there by the time I left! On Tuesday the chorus club surprised me by calling me outside after the ceremony and sang a song to me in English before presenting me with a message card they'd all made. I told them about how much they'd helped me adjust to the school and be happy there. I don't think many of them understood, but some tears were shed by many of us.

Wednesday, even though school was technically over, I went back to Ishimine for a farewell party with the chorus club. We brought hot plates into the chorus room and made yakisoba (fried noddles) and pancakes. We had all different kinds of fruit, sweet red beans, chocolates, and even whipped cream the students had whipped by hand. We all had a great time and listening to the students sing together for the last time before the graduating students move on to high school was pretty emotional. I was so happy to end this school year on such a high note.

Thursday and Friday I visited my two new base schools to meet the teachers and school staff. Although one of the principals will retire before next year, I really liked all the teachers and staff and am excited to get to work with them!

Friday night the cherry blossoms finally started to bloom! I met Patrick and Juha at Kokura castle to enjoy the flowers. Patrick had to leave, so I ended up meeting Dave across the river to have dinner outside and enjoying the warm weather and flowers. I hadn't seen Dave in a while, so it was really nice catching up. We spent a few hours just walking around before we both headed home.

Caol's birthday was on Tuesday, but we celebrated on Saturday with an all day flower party. We met at the castle for lunch and stayed there all afternoon. It was a lot of fun seeing everyone and just relax in the sun. I went back to the castle on Sunday. Juha and Kyoko brought badminton rackets and we played a little bit. We also saw the group next to us had a big jump rope and they invited us to jump with them. It was kind of silly, but a lot of fun! We went out for dinner after staying at the castle again all afternoon. Dinner ran a bit late, so I went home right after.

This week I'll be working at the Board of Education. It's not as much fun as being at school, but I'll be next to the park and can sit under the sakura trees during lunch and many of my coworkers are there and it's always nice to see them. On Thursday, Leah and I will fly up to Tokyo where I'll meet my parents and Mike and travel all around Japan with them! I'm not sure when my next post will be as we'll be very busy traveling, but whenever it come the next post will be very action packed!

No 花 to 見

The weather is getting nicer as we move towards summer and school is winding down. Last week was mostly games in class or finishing the last page or two of the textbook. On Wednesday I met the English teachers from Shinozaki for a farewell party for one of the teachers. Either this week or next week she is moving up north of Tokyo to be with her husband. She hasn't gotten her plane ticket yet, but work officially ends this Wednesday and she'll be leaving soon. We had a small party for the English teachers to say goodbye to her. We went to a small restaurant that the teacher had always wanted to try. It was really good, but had some strange food like chicken sashimi. It was only my second time eating it and although I'd never eat raw chicken back home, it was delicious! It was really to see all the teacher again, especially since I won't be going to Shinozaki anymore.

I saw Caol and Leah for yakiniku on Thursday and saw Lisa on Friday for dinner at the Spanish restaurant. After dinner on Friday we headed over to Orange Door. I promised Kikumi I would tend bar for her that night and it was great fun! Juha also came out to join us and we played games and sang karaoke until pretty late.

I cleaned on Saturday morning and Megan came over around noon. We worked together to cook some food and headed out to Kokura Castle for a picnic with some other JETs. We met Leah on the way over and there were probably ten people already there to meet us. It was supposed to be a flower-viewing party, but the flowers were still only buds. I'll go again next week and hopefully the flowers will be blooming then! After our picnic, many of us went to karaoke and then out for a late dinner. Some people continued to go out after dinner, but I was pretty tired from the night before, so I just headed home.

On Sunday, Megan and I met Caol for lunch before doing some shopping. I didn't need anything, but I helped Caol and Megan find things they needed. We ran into our friends Kazuki and Leah throughout the day and walked back and forth between Riverwalk, Uomachi, and Cha Cha Town. They finished shopping around 5 PM, so we all went our separate ways. I went home and made dinner before heading back out and meeting Patrick. I hadn't seen Patrick since we went to Okinawa together, but the weather was so nice this weekend we decided to go out and take a walk. It was really nice to see him and talk to him and it was a great end to the week.

This week I'll finish school and start going to work at the Board of Education. Closing ceremony is on Tuesday, although I'll still come to Ishimine on Wednesday for a goodbye party with the chorus club. Thursday I'll also be traveling to both Tsukida and Matsugae, my new base schools for the next school year. Work will be a bit busier, but the weather is supposed to be beautiful all week and with the busier schedule means more time outside, so I'm excited!

Graduation

Hello! Sorry this post is a day late! I had a pretty busy week. Between being at three different schools since my last update, graduation was also last week! I went back to Shinozaki for the ceremony and it was so nice seeing all the students graduate. Graduation was on Thursday and we had an enkai on Friday to celebrate. We went to the same place we'd gone for our New Year party and it was just as good as last time! The party was a litter bittersweet not only because of graduation, but because or principal is retiring and the English teacher I'm closest with is moving north of Tokyo in a few weeks. We all went to karaoke after dinner before going home and I had a blast, but I'll really miss all of them now that the school year is almost over and I won't be going back.

On Saturday I went over to Leah's new apartment. On Friday she moved to 金田 (Kaneda), which is much closer to Kokura than she'd previously been. This also means she's much closer to me! We got lunch together to celebrate and went shopping for the last few things she needed for the new place. We carried them to her apartment on my bike and I helped her put everything together while she unpacked. We took a break in the afternoon to meet Juha and Kyoko at the park for a little picnic since the weather is getting really nice here. They come over to Leah's new place for dinner afterwards and Leah and I went out to meet some other friends after dinner. Unfortunately, Leah lost her phone during the night and ended up staying with me.

The next morning I made breakfast for the two of us while we tried to find her phone. Leah doesn't have internet at her new apartment yet, so we used my computer to track her phone and put a message on it saying that if anyone finds the phone to please call my number. We had set out to look for it when a call came! Someone nearby had found the phone and were able to meet us in the park to return it. We found them quickly and were very thankful to have the phone back! We also found that there was a flee market going on in the park, so we stayed and walked around for a bit. Leah bought a few things, but I didn't find much I liked. I did find a nice bento box for picnics that I can use now that the weather is nicer and decided to get it! We spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the weather before going back to her place. I helped her finish her unpacking and finding a place for everything and by the time we finished it was dinner. We went to the store for groceries and made dinner. I went home soon after and headed to bed.

This is the last full week of school in Japan, our closing ceremony is next Tuesday. I'm at Midorigaoka and Ishimine this week and will finish next week at Ishimine. I'm also going out tomorrow night for a special English teacher enkai with the English teacher moving away and meeting Caol for our now weekly dinner on Thursday. I also finalized another trip and will be heading to Korea in May. I'm getting really excited for spring break, the weather is becoming beautiful and the cherry trees are almost budding!

Owl Cafe

This week was a quiet one. I saw many of my friends for dinner throughout the week to talk about upcoming trips and other things. Friday one of Megan's friends was visiting from Portland, Sam, so we went to dinner at 笑笑 (Wara Wara, and izakaya) to welcome him to Kitakyushu. We had a great dinner and afterwards went to Karaoke-Kan for Sam's first ever karaoke experience. Some people stayed out later, but I decided to head home after karaoke.

On Saturday I slept in before meeting Megan at Kokura station. We took the train into Fukuoka to meet up with Sam again and show him around. We found Sam at Hakata station and showed him around. We went to canal city for some sight seeing and shopping. Afterwards we went to Fukuoka's owl cafe. It was my first time going, although I've wanted to go for a while. It was so much fun! You have an hour to spend in the cafe. You start upstairs where you have your drink and are told the rules for the cafe. Then, you head downstairs to hold and pet the owls. The staff was incredibly nice and was very happy we could speak Japanese. We all held five different owls and had a great time! Another patron asked if she could take pictures of us with the owls and the cafe took pictures of us with the owls to put on their website. It was a ton of fun and I'm so happy we got to go! After leaving the owl cafe we stopped for some bubble tea and walked around one of the many temples in Fukuoka. We caught a bus outside the temple once we'd finished our tea and headed to Tenjin to check out a gaming store. We had conveyor belt sushi for dinner and headed back to Hakata, where we said goodbye to Sam and headed back to Kokura.

Sunday I woke up early to clean and play some games before meeting Marc and Tanya for lunch. I ran some errands in the afternoon before meeting back up with Marc, Tanya, and many others to celebrate Tanya's birthday. We went to a Korean restaurant and the food was fantastic. Everyone split up after dinner and Megan and I grabbed a coffee before each heading home.

This week should be another quiet one, although a bit more eventful. Graduation is on Thursday and I'm going out with the Shinozaki staff on Friday celebrate. Also on Friday Leah will be moving closer into Kokura. Although I won't be able to help her on Friday because of school, I will most likely go over Saturday to help her unpack and get settled in. It'll be nice having her closer!

柳川

I had a great week last week! I saw Caol again on Thursday for more 焼肉 (yakiniku, BBQ) and karaoke. To celebrate the Pitch Perfect 2 trailer coming out we only sang songs from Pitch Perfect or the new trailer. It was a lot of fun! I also got together with Lisa again. We're both from Kitakyushu, but didn't hang out much until we both met for the after-JET conference in Tokyo. We had a great dinner together at the Turkish restaurant in Kokura and then went to karaoke. It was another great karaoke night and I really look forward to seeing her more before we both head home in August.

Saturday I went to 柳川 (Yanagawa) on a school trip! The teachers, principal, and vice principal. They rented a huge bus and we all arrived around 8:30. The teachers in charge had loaded the bus with drinks and snacks and we started our two hour trip south. Yanagawa is famous for it's wide canals running through the city and is a popular tourist destination because of its riverboats. They boats were long, probably room for about 10 - 15 people. We were there on the last day of February, which was also the last day the boats had 炬燵 (kotatsu, heated tables) on them. The boats run all year long, so for winter (December - February) they put kotatsu on the boat to keep people warm. The kotatsu spans the length of the boat and, like all kotatsu, has a large blanket to put around your feet and keep the heat under the table. It was so much fun seeing everything from the boat and our guide was great at pointing stuff out. The boat dropped us off at a restaurant for lunch were we had boiled eel, Yanagawa's specialty food. Some people bought snacks for before the meal, deep fried eel spines! I tried one and it was not too bad surprisingly, although I'm not sure I'd eat another. The eel for lunch, however, was incredibly good!

We had some free time after lunch and I did a bit of souvenir shopping for a small さげもん (sagemon). I also saw a beautiful hina doll and sagemon exhibit for 雛祭り (Hina Matsuri, Girl's festival) on March 3rd. Sagemon are hanging decorations typically used during 雛祭り and Yanagawa is one of the most famous places in Japan for these types of decorations. We saw hundreds of them and they were all incredibly beautiful and detailed.

We eventually found our way back to the bus. We started traveling back towards Kitakyushu, but stopped once more about 40 minutes into the drive. We stopped to tour Kitaya brewery in Yame. We did a quick tour of the brewery and were given free samples of their award wining sake. In 2013, the brewery won the International Wine Championship in the sake category and we got to try that winning sake along with others. Everything was really good and I can see why it won! We headed back to the bus and back home after our visit and arrived back at school by dinner time. We all went our separate ways for dinner and I was glad to be home after a long, fun day.

Sunday was uneventful, I just cleaned and ran some errands. This week should be quiet again and mostly preparation for next weeks graduation. My last school day at Shinozaki is tomorrow before I start visiting many different schools. I will be back at Shinozaki next week for graduation on Thursday, but that will be my last day at Shinozaki. I'm really sad to be leaving, but I know I'll still be able to see many of the teachers outside of school and I couldn't have asked for a better place to work!