Gladuation day

March marks the end of the school year here in Japan so I had to say some goodbyes. I didn't realize how many goodbyes I would end up saying though. Most of the 6th graders I teach will be moving on to the junior high school I also work at, but at two of my schools, I had to say farewell to them.

Then at my junior high, all the 3rd year students graduated. They have been stressed out with entrance exams and some of them had to take the exams multiple times. They all have to take the exams and then choose a high school to go to. They also have an interview to go through with for their prospective high schools. It all sounds pretty nerve wracking. I saw some students crying and being consoled by teachers throughout the month.


The graduation ceremony was another new experience. I went to the rehearsal so I had a little bit of an idea of what it would be like, but I didn't expect to see so much crying! The ceremony was very militaristic and stoic, but also solemn and emotional. Not the party ours are like at home. All the students are involved and they practice standing up and sitting down and bowing in unison, like soldiers. They also had some speeches from the principal and PTA. They also sang the national anthem, the school song, and a couple of other songs that were sad and about saying goodbye and friendships and such.



Some of the girls graduating were already crying and sniffing, but when students made their speeches, everyone was crying. Four students spoke, each representing their homeroom class. One girl was already crying before starting her speech, but the boys also cried during their speeches. When they talked about how special the school and teachers are here and thanked their families for their support, it got to everyone. Even our stoic principal was crying. I looked around the room and noticed the male teachers and students had started crying too. The speeches were very heartfelt, not a written valedictorian speech like back home. One girl talked about how her mom wished her a good day every morning and when she got home from school, there was always a warm meal waiting for her. Aww!



Some of the students move far away from home for high school so they may be away from their families for the first time next year. For kids here too, school is their life. They are here for hours after school doing sports or club activities and on weekends and during spring break as well. They become very close to their teachers and the staff here. So it makes sense why graduation is so emotional for them where as it’s a celebration back home.



The school staff also has to deal with transition. Before every school year begins, they are told by the Board of Education whether they will stay at their school another year or be transferred somewhere else. Usually 3 years is the max they stay at one school, sometimes a little more than that. They don’t know where they will be transferred or what grade or subject they’ll be teaching until a week or two before the new school year starts. Some have to move their whole family or move to one of the smaller islands here in Nagasaki.

Needless to say, the last couple weeks of school have been tense. My main school had 8 teachers leaving which is a lot for one school. The staff here is very much like a family so it is really sad to see them leave. It’s definitely going to be a different vibe here, especially since our fun, kooky vice principal is leaving too.


We had a big enkai party which was fun and nice to say goodbye to people, but some people were a mess! Definitely drinking more than previous parties and lots of crying. It was rough, but nothing that some karaoke and more drinking couldn’t solve.
(The man in the photo is a real sweetheart and requested a duet with me, Elvis Presley's "Can't Help Falling in Love". Awww!)

So. a lot is going down and classes start next week… wish me luck!

Attack of the lobster feet!

These funky socks are called "tabi" socks and as you can probably figure out, they are either made to make your feet look like lobster claws or they are made for wearing slippers. We've noticed though that the farmer men here wear rubber boots shaped this way also and some industrial workers also. If we do some gardening maybe we'll get some too. It will be very rewarding to see the socks and boots fit perfectly together.

Hangin on the stoop

We had such lovely spring weather last week. The sun was shining and we just spent one Saturday afternoon just hanging out outside in our backyard. Our adorable 8 month old neighbor has just learned to sit up on her own and she decided to chill with Scottie on our stoop. It was too adorable, I had to share!

Since then there's been a lot going on that I want to eventually blog on and catch up on including... my junior high school's graduation and teachers having to transfer to other schools for next year at a moment's notice, drama with the car again(!), and at present, Scott's two sisters are visiting us for the week. Stay posted!

Bridge and tunnel

After discerning a message from Scott's work, we found out that he was being invited to a Saturday visit to the big Mitsubishi Factory in Nagasaki City. Those that wanted to go were all going together in a bus, but somehow Scott's buddy at work talked us into driving separately. It worked out since I got invited as well, but it was kind of awkward. I guess his buddy didn't want to get stuck in the bus with everyone and didn't want to hang out as a group so he told the boss that he would be showing us around Nagasaki so then we had to lie that it was our first time there in case we were asked. Oy!

Anyway, his buddy is a little crazy, but a sweet man and it all worked out in the end. We drove to the factory, just a bit southwest of the city by all the shipyards. The ships out there are huge, the biggest I've ever seen. We got there early so Scott decided to take some pics of the factory. Then he got surrounded by three dudes in hard hats asking him what he was doing. I'm sure it must've seemed pretty suspicious to them, a foreign guy randomly taking pics of their factory. Luckily his buddy was able to explain we were there for a visit.




Turns out Scott's boss's son works at the factory and gave us the tour. It was cool to see how huge the factory was and how huge all the equipment they use there was. Scott and his coworkers got to see all the pieces they make and how they fit into the end products.




So no pictures of the inside of the factory, but we also drove around the area for a bit and went to this new bridge, the Megami Bridge. I think it's only a few years old. It was a pretty bridge, very clean design, and popular for walks and bike rides.

After walking halfway across the bridge and taking pics, we had lunch in Chinatown. Some champon noodles, one of Nagasaki's specialties that is a delightful mix of seafood, vegetables, broth and thick noodles.



It seemed like Scott's buddy wanted to show us around more so we walked over to the famous Meganebashi Bridge (glasses bridge) and took some pics. There were a lot of students visiting from all over Japan walking around and we talked to some from Tokyo. They were excited to speak a little bit of English with authentic foreigners. Glad to be of service!

Springing up

Well, spring is finally springing here. It has felt like the longest winter ever! It still gets a little chilly indoors, but it's warm during the day when the sun is out. Some buds are coming out and some of the cherry blossoms around town are blooming. I want to explore for some more pretty flowers around town.

We also experienced a weird storm which apparently is common in the spring time. First, it gets cloudy and then the sun and sand from China's deserts turn the sky a strange orange and everything is kind of dark and murky. It's called "kosa". It also leaves your car really dirty after the rain with residue from the sand. It was all over the local news and everyone was talking about the sand from China and the rain, but from my understanding, it happens every spring and it might happen some more. Curious.

Sorry, I didn't take a photo of it, but I'll try next time. Instead, here is a short video of this really cool musician dude we went to see a couple weeks ago. He was a one-man show and really amazing. It's hard to explain his style, kind of blues, but also Bob Dylan-like folk. He blew us away though. He played for 2 hours straight and totally rocked! I fail to remember his name, but I hope to see him again. The video doesn't do him justice, but hopefully you can get a feel for it.

Red Lantern District

Last month in Nagasaki City, there was a big Lantern Festival for the Chinese New Year. Nagasaki was one of the first porting towns in Japan to let foreigners in for trade and such so they celebrate diverse cultural events. The Lantern Festival here is famous and I believe, it is the biggest in Japan.



We checked it out on one of the nights and it was crazy! There were crowds of people at the events and walking around town. We tried to watch a dragon dance, but we only got small peeks because of the crowd. It was kind of overwhelming! But very cool.



The dragon dancers were very good, but the craziest part was the announcer and the music. Everything was just so loud and festive and repetitive. It's hard to explain, but it just felt really surreal. The announcer would yell out to the crowd, "Who wants more?! Do you want to see the dance again? Cheer if you want to see it again!" And then crazy chimes and gongs would follow. Madness!

I wanted to see more of the lanterns, but we did bump into the adorable Totoro lantern in the outdoor mall. Isn't he cute?



We also met up with some friends for dinner and coincidentally, the tables next to us were having a wedding after party. It was all these rowdy friends of the couple playing party games and drinking. Scott decided to take some pictures of them. The couple was kind enough to pose for him!

Blast off

A couple weeks ago, we made the big leap and went to Tokyo. I have family there we’ve been wanting to visit and Scott hadn’t seen Tokyo yet except for the airport so it was time to leave our island for the big city. If you look at a map of Japan, you’ll see that we are just about as far south as possible and Tokyo is about in the middle of Japan so we traveled quite a ways to get there.



We took the famed bullet train (Shinkansen) to get there, which was freakishly fast and a fun ride. From Fukuoka, it only took 6 hours. We reserved seats so we had a very comfortable ride and got to pass through all the major cities like Hiroshima, Osaka, and Kyoto. In Kyoto, it was snowing hard so we got to see the town covered in pretty snow.

The view from the train was great, but it took a while to get used to how fast we were going. Especially if another bullet train passed us, all you could see was a blur of white that dashed by in less than a second. This is a 6-8 car train, people! Scott kept saying that if anything happened, at least we wouldn’t feel it since we were in the front car it’d all be over before we knew it. Comforting! Luckily, we had a safe ride both ways.



When we got into town, we managed to figure out the local trains (which are a lot more varied and complicated than NYC!) and checked out Harajuku and Shinjuku. It was so crowded everywhere, probably in part because it was a holiday weekend, but it was a little overwhelming after months of living in inaka (our small rural town). It is a very crowded city with tons of people everywhere and bikes and vehicles and tourists. Much more concentrated than NYC.



The next day, we navigated our way to Asakusa, the “old” part of Tokyo. There’s a famous shrine there and some buildings that have been around since the Edo period. Scott even participated in the ritual of scooping incense smoke onto parts of your body that need healing.




The best part of our trip though was hanging out with my family. My mom’s cousin, who she grew up with, lives in Tokyo with her husband and daughter. They warmly welcomed us into their home and we shared food, drinks, and cigarettes together. They are all accomplished musicians, in fact, her husband is a pretty famous composer in Japan. So naturally after dinner, we had an impromptu jam session. It involved 2 pianos, a keyboard, a guitar, and a ukulele. We played some Simon & Garfunkel and Elvis Presley. It was glorious. Scott and I tried our best to keep up.



Alas, we could only stay for the weekend, but we hope to visit again. We made it home safely, but we had to literally run to transfer trains a couple of times because we kept waiting at the wrong platforms! Turns out it’s easier to get somewhere than to figure out how to get back. Oh, and we were super lucky to get an excellent view of Mt. Fuji from the train. Mt. Fuji is often overcast and hides behind the clouds, but we were treated with clear skies.

Need for speed

Sorry to keep you all in suspense! It's been a busy few weeks, apologies for the gap in blogs. So, this is our new car, well new in that we just started leasing it, but it's still a used car. Though our beloved adorable white K car was deemed fine by the mechanic, we decided to upgrade slightly to a bigger K car with four doors. Four doors! It's still pretty small for normal standards, but it's got back seats, a bit of trunk space, automatic locks and windows and a CD player. Quite an upgrade from two windows and an AM radio. We're happy it will fit any forthcoming visitors and being a K car still is affordable and has great gas mileage. Whoo!