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!