さよなら

This last week has gone by so fast. I worked at the Board of Education for a few days after getting back from Naoshima. I helped plan for English camp next week, although I obviously won't be there. In the evenings I mostly packed and cleaned my apartment. Wednesday was my last game day and that night Marc, Tanya, Juha, and Megan came over to play a new game, Dead of Winter. I lost, but it was a really fun game. We played another 3 vs. 1 game after DoW and it was really fun. I was the one person trying to complete secret missions and escape and although I barely made it out, it was a ton of fun and a great last game.

Thursday was my last day at work. Afterward, I went over to Kikumi's to watch some movies. Shinki and I went to a local fish market to get some sashimi for dinner before starting the movies and Megan came over as well to watch with us. Friday I slept in before finishing the majority of my packing and starting to really get stuff ready for the new ALT taking over the apartment. I stayed home most of the day, but went out in the evening to Riverwalk where I met up with Megan to go see the new Pokémon. We ended up getting dinner after the movie and Megan doing some last minute shopping before the stores closed.

Saturday I met up with Leah for lunch before heading home to put on my yukata and head into Tobata. The weekend before I'd missed the summer fesitval in Kokura while in Noashima, but Tobata's summer festival was this weekend and so many people came out! I saw my friend Teppei who I hadn't seen in a long time and a bunch of ALTs in Kitakyushu were there. It was a great last weekend in Japan!

Sunday I finished up my packing and cleaning and had some friends over to help out. Megan, Leah, Bec, and Chris all come over to help me finish up the cleaning. We played some games after we finished and it was really a nice day. We all parted way for dinner and I went into Konyamachi to see Kikumi and Shinki who were playing with their band. I always enjoy seeing them play and it was nice to see everyone from the band one last time.

Monday I met up with Kikumi and Shinki again to take a beach trip! All the bartenders from Konyamachi went out and there were about fifteen of us all together. We set up BBQs in the sand and had a great day! We went swimming in the ocean, ate a ton of good food, and I even played soccer (and our team won!). We stayed at the beach for hours, but I went home a bit early to be back in Kokura by dinner time. Dan, another leaving ALT, was having a party at a beer garden and I went to say goodbye. Almost all the ALTs came out and even someone from the BoE joined us. It was nice to go to the beer garden one last time. After dinner some people went home, but some of us stayed out and went to karaoke. We sang our hearts out for two hours before saying goodbye to Dan and all parting ways.

Yesterday (Tuesday, July 28th) was pretty quiet for me. I went out for lunch with some of the ALTs and Bec came over afterwords with her car to help me move my bags to Leah's where I'm staying until I leave. Leah was tired from the night before, so I went out for dinner with Megan to an okonomiya/monja restaurant. The food was delicious and after dinner we decided to find the cat cafe in Kokura that we'd both heard about, but not visited. The cafe was really cute and I'm so glad I went before leaving! I was back at Leah's pretty early and we hung out just talking and watching TV until we decided it was bed time.

Today (Wednesday, July 29th) I'm hanging at Leah's until I got meet the new ALTs in the afternoon. There are two new ALTs moving into my apartment complex and I'll help show them around the area. Juha will show the new ALTs around the other area and we'll meet up for dinner at Tetsunabe where we'll join all the Kitakyushu ALTs for a welcome dinner. Because it's also my last night, we'll go out after dinner and have some fun and there will be a lot of goodbyes.

My flight tomorrow leaves at 2:10 PM from Fukuoka airport. Leah and I have breakfast plans before she leaves for work and Kikumi and Shinki will pick me up around lunch time to drive to the aiport. My last meal in Japan will of course be a sushi lunch with them before I head back home!

Living in Japan has been one of the best experiences of my life and although I know it's time for me to move on, it's certainly bittersweet. I'm leaving behind a lot of amazing people who I will never forget. I hope to see everyone again in the future and as sad as I am to leave, I'm so excited for my next adventure in Denver!

Goodbye Parties Abound

I figured I'd post now since I'm worried I'll forget some things after my trip to Naoshima. I had my last week at school and the Board of Education goodbye party. I'll be flying home in less than two weeks and it feels real now that I'll be leaving.

On Monday I met up with Caol, Shinki, and Kikumi for dinner. We went to a yakiniku place we often go. The owner was sad to hear I was leaving, but gave us some extra food as a goodbye present. After dinner we sang two hours or karaoke before saying goodbye to Caol. I went with Kikumi and Shinki to one more place before calling it a night. Tuesday I met Megan for an after dinner coffee so we could gossip about all the new things revealed at SDCC. Wednesday was the goodbye party for the BoE. We went to a nice restaurant in Kokura and I sat with Leah and some of the higher-ups. We all had to make speeches that mostly turned tearful, but it was a great night. I got a few gifts from the BoE, but the one from the other JETs was my favorite. They just bought a message card and everyone wrote a message around all these pictures of us from over the last two years. It was really touching and I couldn't have been happier. My favorite moment, though, was talking to one of the BoE employees about my new math teaching position and he told me he remembered my math lesson from English camp and he thought I'd make a great math teacher. A few of us went out to karaoke afters, five ALTs and three BoE higher-ups. It was the perfect end.

Yesterday (Thursday, 7/16) was my last day of school. There was a typhoon scheduled to hit us today (Friday), so the school canceled the last day. I hadn't been at Tsukida long, but I became really close with one of the teachers and it was hard to say goodbye. I made an English speech during closing ceremony that I'm pretty sure everyone understood and a student came up to give me a bouquet of flowers. I know coming home is for the best, but I will really miss the students and teachers I've worked with these past two years.

Thursday night Leah came over to celebrate school ending. The typhoon hadn't hit yet, but the air was cool enough to sit outside enjoyably, so we sat on my balcony for a few hours just talking and hanging out.

Today is Friday. I used my day off to clean everything and get some more packing done. I'm going to meet Leah for lunch in an hour and we'll grab our shinkansen tickets for our trip tomorrow. Tonight I'll see Caol for one last dinner and karaoke since he's going to Ireland for a visit tomorrow and I'll be gone by the time he gets back to Japan. Tomorrow I head out with Leah to Naoshima and Teshima for our last Japan trip and from then on I'll pretty much be packing and seeing everyone I can while I can. It's really bittersweet leaving, but I'm going to make the most of these next two weeks!

Counting Down

There's only two and a half weeks before I head home and I've been really busy packing and getting ready to leave. I went to Kikumi's on Monday night to watch a movie and have dinner. Another friend, Taka, came as well and we had a great night. I had my last Board of Education meeting on Wednesday and went out to dinner with Leah and Lisa afterwards. Friday I met up with Megan to go to Aru Aru City. We stayed until it closed looking for gifts for Megan's friends. We walked back to my apartment afterwards and ordered pizza for dinner. I stayed up late that night to get Welcome to Nightvale tickets that went on sale at 3 AM Japan time, so Megan stayed late to keep me company while I waited for the tickets to go on sale. She left for last bus, but I'm glad she could stay with me at least for a bit!

On Saturday I packed a few boxes and sent them off to America in the morning. In the afternoon, I met up with two of my former Shinozaki students. They heard I was leaving and wanted a chance to say goodbye. After introducing myself to their parents, we headed off to the most popular teenage girl spot in any culture, the mall. They showed me all their favorite stores I helped them pick out English books and cute bags. We went to the arcade for プリクラ (purikura, specialized photo booths) and played taiko drum rhythm games featuring new songs. We ended the afternoon at the food court where we had chocolate, banana, and strawberry crepes. After saying goodbye I headed back to Kokura to meet up with Caol for the Kitakyushu JET Sayonara Party. Eighteen of the JETs living in Kitakyushu came out for dinner and we had a fantastic time! Everything went their separate ways after the party and Leah, Caol, and I headed for karaoke. We only stayed for two hours before heading home, but we had an amazing night!

Sunday I met up with Juha and Dan and we all caught the bus to Fukuoka. For Jake, Dan, and I it was our last game day in Japan. We made sure to get there early so we'd have all 12 hours full of games. We played a ton of different stuff. I played a few new games I love and want to pick up when I get back to the States and some of my old favorites. By the end of the night there were only seven of us. Jay had a few bottles of wine for us to share to celebrate and we ended on a murder mystery game. It was so much fun and it was great to see all the board game people again before going home.

Today I'm starting my last week at Tsukida. So far I've had some great last classes. It's so bitter sweet, I love all the teachers and students here, but I'm really excited to come back and start working in Colorado. I have my Board of Education goodbye party in a few days, Kokura's Gion (a summer festival) starts on Friday, and Leah and I will take our last Japan trip to Naoshima over the weekend. It is a long weekend, so next weeks update will probably be a day late, but I'm so excited to get my last few adventures in before I start packing up for good!

さよなら二島！

Happy daylight savings time! I have to say that not having the time change in Japan is kind of nice. Also, I'm sorry for no update last week! I started a new schedule and I was incredibly busy! The schedule for JET ALTs (Assistant Language Teachers) in Kitakyushu gets very hectic during Spring! I have already visited one new school (Minami Kokura) and will visit three more different schools by next Monday. This craziness happens because the private company ALTs stop working during this time. Normally, there are many ALTs working around the city from many private companies as well as JET. A big difference between JET ALTs and private companies ALTs is that private company ALTs can only work 8 months out of the year so that the private companies don't have to offer health insurance. Now is the time of year the private company ALTs stop working, and the JET ALTs have to visit all the schools in the city to fill in the gaps. This means I will spend only a few days at all these different schools and travel all around the city. It's a lot of work!

Last week was also a very sad week for me. Wednesday was my last day in Futajima Junior High School. I had an amazing time with the teachers and students there and I really wish I could stay for next year, but unfortunately it's not my decision. I taught every class between Monday and Wednesday last week to say goodbye to all the students. I had a meeting at the board of education in the afternoon on Wednesday, so I had to leave school early. Before I left, I walked around to all the classes again to say goodbye. I gave a speech in English and Japanese in the teachers room for all the staff. I will really miss that school! One of the English teachers gave me a really nice scarf, the office staff gave me some cookies, and the principal gave me a cake. The most touching thing was given to me by my students. Every class made and decorated a little book. In the book was message cards written by every student in the class. Some are in English and some in Japanese, one book even has the school song written in it! It was really amazing! I also got to go around school and take pictures with students and teachers. I wish I could share those pictures with you, but it is not allowed to post any pictures with students. Even when I left the school for the last time, one of the women who works in the office gave me a ride all the way to Orio (a train station about 20 minutes away). I will see the teachers again for one last enkai this week, but I will not go back to the school again.

The reason Futajima is having an enkai this week is because of 卒業式 (sotsugyoushiki, graduation ceremony). Middle school graduation in Kitakyushu is on Thursday! I will be going to Shinozaki (my other base school) for the ceremony, but I opted to go to Futajima's enkai to be able to see all the teachers one last time. I'm very excited to see a graduation ceremony for the first time in Japan!

Also this week I went to Japanese Costco for the first time! Just like in college, it pays to have a friend with a car! Japanese Costco looks exactly like American Costco. Even the layout is the same. They also have a little restaurant just like the ones back home with those huge hot dogs. They have people giving out samples. I was able to get some imported food (real cheese!) even thought it was a bit expensive. Not super exciting, but kind of interesting!

Even with my hectic schedule, I have a lot I'm looking forward to! Tomorrow I'm having a dinner party with some of my friends to celebrate my new chairs. (An old chair that was broken before I got here had nails sticking up out of it and I was always worried someone would hurt themselves.) Like I said earlier, graduation is coming up this week. Spring vacation starts on the 25th and 花見 (hanami, flower watching - all the sakura trees start to bloom) is also at the end of the month along with another visit from Mike! Although March started off with a sad goodbye, it seems like the rest of the month will be very exciting!