Coming to an end...

My year on the JET Program has quickly come to an end. I'll try and recap what all I've been up to since the last time I posted...

Last Friday, July 10th, I went to Kenchou (the prefectural building in Yamaguchi City which is home to the Prefectural Board of Education). All of the Prefectural JETs who are leaving this year had to go there for a farewell ceremony and to collect our money for our return trips home. The JET Program is the only English Teaching gig in Japan that I know of that pays for all of your travel expenses (and then some). It's really nice! Anyway, here's a picture of all the prefectural JETs who are leaving along with 2 pictures of Seiki Sensei - our boss.

After the farewell ceremony at kenchou, I hurried back to Ube just in time for my farewell enkai (party) for my base school. It was just with the English teachers at my base school along with my art teacher friend and Japanese history teacher friend. Also, Fujii Sensei (an English teacher who got moved to another school back in March) came along with Nishioka Sensei (an English teacher who retired in March). It was a good time. One part of the meal included really nice sushi which was laid out nicely on this GIANT wooden ship. It was so cool!

The next day, July 11th, I made my way up to Hagi for the AJET Leaver's Party. It was a good time. We cooked out on the beach and then later that night we all went to a bar and they presented some awards (such as: biggest gossip, the person turning most Japanese, etc.... I didn't win any awards). Here are some pictures from Leaver's Party. I don't have too many... but once people start posting their pictures online then I can take them and add them here.

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Last Wednesday, July 15th, my base school - Ube Nishi - had their Sports Day. I love Sports Day because it's fun to see what the students wear. This is one of the only times all year where students are allowed to decorate their clothes and wear props at school. They really go all out expressing themselves! The weather started out really great - actually, it was incredibly hot... but it was sunny. About an hour and a half into it, though, it started to rain... and then it started to pour. It was kind of a mess. Everyone was soaking wet. The rain only lasted about 15 minutes, but by the time everyone made it into the gym - they were soaked. They sent everyone back to their homerooms and had a meeting in the teacher's room. They decided to go ahead and send students home for the rest of the day since they didn't have a change of clothes. It was 11:30am! It was fun to watch while it lasted. Here are some pictures:

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This past Friday, July 17th, was the closing ceremony (for the start of summer break) at my base school. There was also a special farewell ceremony for me. The principal got up on stage and talked about how I had first met a Japanese person in 6th grade when this girl was in my class (her family had moved to the US that year). He then went on to talk about how I studied Japanese in high school and how I spent a summer in Saga Prefecture and then another summer in Osaka. I was trying really hard not to listen to what he was saying because I didn't want to get all emotional before I had to give my farewell speech. I was really surprised that I was actually understanding everything he had to say... but I'd be a little disappointed if I couldn't understand him... considering all of the studying I did over the years plus this year spent living in Japan. Anyway, after he was done talking, I got up and gave my speech - first in English and then again in Japanese. My supervisor wanted me to do it in English first... so that's why I did. During my English version I got a little choked up, but then reminded myself that almost everyone in the gym had no idea what I was saying and so I probably looked really funny getting choked up because they didn't know why... But then I started the Japanese version. I was almost to the end when I started crying : ( haha... yeah. Once I started crying, the entire gym started crying. But then I pulled myself together and finished it. I think it was a nice speech. After my speech, a student came up to the stage with this HUGE bouquet of flowers and told me (in Japanese) how much students enjoyed my classes, that my classes were interesting, that she looked forward to my classes, and that they would miss me, etc. This also happened to be my favorite student :) It made me happy. As I left the gym to go back to the staff room, everyone was clapping and crying. That was when I finally felt that my time here was done. It's been a really great year. I don't have any pictures from the closing ceremony at school, but I asked my art teach friend (who takes all the school event pictures) for a copy of the pictures she took and she said she'd put them on a cd for me... so whenever I get them, I'll post them.

Friday night, I went out to dinner with Meng and our Japanese friend Mayuko. We went to my favorite yakiniku place and I ordered a beer that is just about as big as my face, haha... I didn't realized it was that big. Afterwards, Mayuko came over because I wanted to give her my bouquet of flowers since I'm moving out of my apartment and don't want to just throw them away. Here are pictures from dinner and a picture of me with my bouquet of flowers!

Saturday night I went to a Yukata Party at a brewery in Moji-ko. It was really fun and I finally got a chance to wear my yukata! Earlier that day I was shopping in Kokura, so I made my way to Shimonoseki to get ready with some people. We took the ferry from Shimonoseki to Moji... which took all of 5 minutes. Shimonoseki is on the very western tip of Honshu (Japan's main island) and Moji is on the very northern tip of Kyushu (Japan's southern island). You can easily see Moji across the water from Shimonoseki. After dinner, almost everyone went back to Shimonoseki for karaoke and it was a lot of fun! At one point I took the bow off of my yukata so I could lean against the back of the seat at karaoke. When I went to the bathroom just before leaving karaoke, there was this older woman in there (maybe in her 40s?... can't really tell with Japanese people to be honest... they usually look much younger than they really are). Anyway, she saw that my bow wasn't on, so she takes it and is all like "oh, this is how you put the bow on" as she drunkenly fixed it, haha. It was probably around 3am, my yukata was probably a mess anyway, and this woman was still happily chatting away with me as she put the bow back on. It was a fun night. Here are some pictures!:

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So that pretty much sums up what I've been up to for my last couple of weeks as a JET. These past few weeks have been really busy, but a lot of fun! I'm going to end this post with 2 pictures of these young people that I FINALLY met in Ube. I met the guy on the right through my friend Jimmy about a month ago. His name is Taka and he used to be one of Jimmy's students before he left to study in Canada for 2 months. When he came back, I met him and he's been really great! He's going to be a junior high English teacher sometime in the near future. He has his degree, he just needs to pass some test which he'll take next week. The guy on the left side of the picture is his friend. The girl in the picture ... one night a few weeks ago, Taka invited me to dinner and took me to this really good place out near Ube Airport. When we went to pay, she was the person behind the cash register. Taka told me that she had been glancing at me throughout dinner... like she wanted to talk to me, but maybe she was too shy to. When we went to pay, the 3 of us got to talking and it turns out she went to Australia for 2 months about a year or so ago and she really likes foreigners. We left the restaurant and I was telling Taka how I would've gotten her contact info if I wasn't leaving in a few weeks. Turns out, sometime after that, Taka went back to that restaurant and got her contact info because he thought she was really nice. We all had dinner sometime last week and she was telling me that she goes to Baiko University - this small school in Shimonoseki... and I know her English instructor! Small world. It would've been nice to have met her and Taka earlier, but I'm really glad I met them because they're great!

Today I'm going to finish packing and cleaning my apartment. Tomorrow I'm flying up to Tokyo! Wednesday I'm meeting my friend Ian in Tokyo and we're going to take a bus down to Mt. Fuji..... and we're going to climb to the top! I've wanted to climb Mt. Fuji for years! I really hope the weather is nice and it doesn't rain. I think it's going to be a pretty tough climb... but I won't leave Japan until I've climbed that mountain! Friday, I'm going to take local trains all the way from Tokyo to Shiga and stay with a friend there. I'll have some fun in Osaka next weekend before heading back to Ube. I have to stop by my base school next Tuesday so I can take care of some final bills. I also need to close my bank account and cancel my cell phone before I leave... so I'll do all of that around the 29th of July. I'm keeping my suitcases with Meng while I travel. Saturday, August 1st, I'll be on a flight out of Fukuoka on my way back to the US (via Seoul). I probably won't have a chance to update this until I get back to the US... but I plan on at least adding pics of my climb to the top of Mt. Fuji! Look for an update in about 3 weeks!

Fun Times!

I've really been enjoying my last couple of weeks here. Last Friday, a few co-workers from my base school came over to my apartment for a little get together. I told my friend Maiko, the art teacher, that I wanted to have some people over and she rounded them up! These are some of my favorite co-workers! All of them came to Ube Nishi (my base school) in April... so I've only had a few months getting to know them and they're really great! Actually, the calligraphy teacher isn't new, but I didn't really know her before the new school year started up again in April... I knew who she was, I'd just never spoken to her before. Anyway, we made a lot of food, drank a lot of drinks, and had a really nice night!

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For the 4th of July, I went to a rooftop party in Shimonoseki. It was really fun! There was a bbq, lots of food, fireworks, and this Japanese guy juggled fire! The night ended Japanese style with Karaoke and a ride home on the back of a bicycle.

As of tomorrow, I'll only have 1 week of work left. I cannot believe it. It's really sad to say goodbye. It's been a fantastic year overall and it's hard to believe that it's coming to an end so soon. Today, I taught my last class with a group of students who I've taught quite a bit throughout this entire year. Most of the students in the class were in the very first class that I ever taught. They are 2nd years now, but they were 1st years when I met them. My lesson plan was about the 4th of July and then we played a category game the rest of the time. At the end of class, they all surprised me and stood up to read a letter they had written to me thanking me for teaching them. After they read the letter out loud together, they sat down and 5 students held up cards that had the hiragana letters ありがとう written out (one hiragana on each card). That's "thank you" in Japanese. Wow. I'm really going to miss Japan... especially my students.