IrishOboe

Time is flying by and I only have two more weeks in Japan. I’m finding it so hard to believe I’m not living like it’s true. I haven’t written about my trip to Kyoto with APAB but I don’t have time for both, so it will have to wait. It was a lovely time, though!

This was the last week of school and though I only had three classes planned I was kept quite busy. I did manage to clean up my desk area to a state that satisfied me, though there is still more junk that is necessary. At least it’s somewhat organized and the desk space is clear. I cleaned out drawers of coins fused together by melted rubber bands and other such disgusting items I never got around to doing while I was here. If only I’d cleaned my desk and apartment before I stayed a year it would have been much more pleasant!

This was the last week of school and though I only had three classes planned I was kept quite busy. I did manage to clean up my desk area to a state that satisfied me, though there is still more junk that is necessary. At least it’s somewhat organized and the desk space is clear. I cleaned out drawers of coins fused together by melted rubber bands and other such disgusting items I never got around to doing while I was here. If only I’d cleaned my desk and apartment before I stayed a year it would have been much more pleasant!

When I got home from the Hippo homestay Naito sensei called me to let me know that Shun-kun, a ninensei in kyudo club, had died in a motorbike accident on Saturday. I taught him for seven months and he helped me some when I visited kyudo club. Of course I remember him since I spent a lot of time with students individually in class. He’s the third person Shirane has lost while I’ve been here. That’s far too much for a 680 student school! Since I had no class I went to the funeral on Tuesday. It’s horrible.

This week students have been finishing up posters that I had them make in class last week. They had plenty of time to do them in class, but some classes were lazy so the JTE’s assigned it as homework. Most kids did a really great job and I’ve posted them all in the hallway (a bit of a royal pain). Each class had a theme, so there is, for the most part, an interesting variety of information. Even though I only had three OC I classes for the week (classes 1-4 were having only grammar classes this week) I had to visit the other classes to award the best poster their promised chocolate (chocolate kisses!). Plus clean up and other odds and ends I stayed late nearly every day this week. I had one and a half days of nenkyu (vacation days) left. Oh well!

After school on Tuesday I tried to clean out my kitchen by using the tempura batter I had left. It probably would have been better to use the spaghetti, the tempura was delicious and was good for a few days of lunch. Since I had the oil out, I somehow had the urge to make doughnuts. So, I found a recipe online and didn’t follow it. I used what I had left, so I put buckwheat pancake mix, wheat germ, and while flour in and used shortening instead of butter. I dipped them in cinnamon sugar and they were delicious! I shared them with the JETs next door who were having a mass video game night. I know who had the most fun that night . . . I also had a wonderful hour chat with my daddy. That was great!

At some point I realized I only had two weeks left in Japan and I freaked out! How could I spend the time making doughnuts! That’s crazy! Wednesday, I worked hard cleaning up the apartment and organizing. Yikes!

Thursday I was to have my last two classes (in addition to visits to other classes), and 2^nd period I did have class 6 and they finished their posters and had a great time playing a yes/no question game where people sad in a circle and one person stood in the middle and asked a yes or no question and those for whom the answer was ‘yes’ had to stand up and find anther seat and the person remaining had to ask another question. They hate being singled out so there was enthusiasm in finding a chair, which makes the game work. Their English is good enough to be able to produce such questions, so it worked well. I wish I had been able to think of more ways to have them produce English that they know immediately like that rather than trying to teach something or ask for something specific or take a long time to write it out first. But here I am analyzing my situation when it’s all over! I prepped for the next and last class in my office when I got a call saying I wouldn’t have it. That was tough because mentally I wasn’t ready. I wanted to see that class! I didn’t know the other was my last class. Couldn’t they have told me in the morning? But there was some closure. My first class was in the big meeting room, and my last class was in the big meeting room (I’d reserved it so we could have space to play the game). I had to then ask the kids in the class to finish their posters after school since we’d plan to do it in the class that was canceled. This didn’t seem to bother them and a few groups came in the LL room next to my office and worked on them after cleaning. Worked is a loose word, some boys came, but spent most of their time hanging out in my office sometimes talking to me and sometimes to themselves. Finally one boy got to work and they sat around talking while he worked. Their time is sold to the school so I guess trying to get them to be efficient with their time is like trying to get someone under communism to be efficient with his work. What’s the point? I didn’t mind staying late with them because I had to hang up all the other posters from the other classes. The wall looks great!

After staying late I went to Gusto in Kofu near Courtnay’s place so I could have dinner with her and Miwako. I’d been lucky enough to get in lunch last Saturday with Courtnay and her twin sister Candace (she did three years on JET in Nagano and is now back doing work in Canada) who was visiting. It was great to see Courtnay’s other half! Poor Courtnay was so stressed out on Thursday because the next day was to be her last day of school and she had a flight to Okinawa at 9pm that night! That meant leaving Kofu at 4pm – right after work! So, she had to have everything tied up before then. How crazy!

Dinner was nice, though, and Bonnie and another Japanese friend ended up coming as well. Miwako helped Courtnay and I with our farewell speeches (in Japanese). Oh yeah, that’s the other thing that took my time this week. I’ve been writing a speech and I just couldn’t get in what I wanted to say. Thursday I managed to finish and do a bit of translation into Japanese. I was thrilled that when Naito sensei helped me translate, she didn’t change some sentences at all! I thought back to my first speech. I made it in Japanese, but it was written in romaji (roman characters), I didn’t understand it, and nobody could understand me. This time I wrote it in hiragana and some kanji, and I understood most of what I was saying (of course I knew what I was saying, but knowing the words and how they are put together is different from just knowing the translation).

Friday was my very last day at school. I said thanks to the teachers at the morning meeting and left them with the remaining chocolate kisses. We had a big cleaning in the morning and I’m SOOOOOOOO happy that I never have to do cleaning time again!!!!! While the students had a lecture on traffic safety from a police officer I practiced my speech in my office. They I went to the closing ceremony. Of course, during the award ceremony and other parts I was reflective, thinking of my first assembly at school and thinking over the year here. When the time came for my farewell part, there was a mummer of surprise among the ninensei. They clearly weren’t aware that I was leaving! How sad! The principle said a few word about me that I couldn’t understand, then I gave my speech, which went pretty well even though I tripped up on some parts. It seems from comments afterwards that everyone could understand me. I delivered it line by line in English then Japanese. I started with a joke that I had to leave because of a serious cultural conflict: I can’t sing karaoke. If people got it, they didn’t react much (as I expected – they’re so serious at assemblies) but I said it was a joke and some dear sannensei started the laughing and clapping and broke up the mood. In some other places they reacted or clapped as well, so that made me feel loved. I really didn’t say what I wanted to say. I’m not sure how I could have. I couldn’t even express it in English. After my speech the president of student council gave me flowers and said a few words in English to me. I’ve taught most of the people in the school, but not him, so I thought that was a little odd, but he was sweet anyway.

After the ceremony visited the ninensei homerooms to say goodbye and give them my contact cards if I wanted. Some classes were dead as usual, but others really made me feel loved. I’ll miss them!

Some students visited my office to say goodbye, but most ninensei didn’t get a chance to think about it because they didn’t have warning. I did get a chance to say goodbye to Ruka (we’d talked a lot last year) but not to Ray (who did the English speech last year). Yoshiyuki brought me beautiful gerbera daisies and roses, Megumi got me a bracelet, and a few others brought me notes. I did feel loved.

I finished up last minute things and at the 4pm closing meeting I said goodbye to individual teachers and the principle and vice-principle and office staff. Then I brought my bike to the front and many teachers and students gathered around to wave me off. As I started to roll my bike away the vice-principle held the bike tire as if to keep me from going. Some Japanese enjoy a good joke! The baseball team lined up and saluted, Naito sensei gave me a hug, as I pulled out I saw even more students. I should have stopped and said something, but I went on slowly saying “I love you” and waving and looking at everyone. They call waved and cheered then I was around the corner and alone. It was over. I felt awful. I gave myself most of the ride home to be sad and planned to start celebrating my freedom once I crossed the river. I didn’t. I came home, walking into my apartment and started crying. It’s impossible to show or feel emotion when you’re trying to give a speech in a foreign language, but afterwards, it all came crashing down. I feel like I know these kids and those teachers and I’m going to miss them! I’ve been so happy to get some emails, many of which have included invitations to karaoke and encouragement that I can do it! How sweet! Goodbye Shirane. You have a piece of my heart.