Goodbye... again

So I've just finished up my last classes and my last day of work. I can't believe it's all over. The last few weeks really flew by. I was dreading going through my last visits to each school knowing I'd have to bring a gift and make goodbye speeches, but it all went smoothly and I got a lot of unexpected gifts and treats from the kids and school staff.





Lots of kids asked me for last minute autographs and photo ops. They also wrote me letters and made origami for me. The farewell ceremonies were all so different, yet all very sweet. At one of my schools, I got to do my farewell speech over the school broadcast at lunch time. The teachers said the kids all quieted down when they heard my voice and listened intently to my speech that I prepared in what I hope was comprehensible Japanese.

At another school, all the kids gathered in the gym and sang the school song for me which I wish I could've recorded. It was so sweet! Then some of the students presented me with speeches about how they enjoyed my classes and had fun with me and would miss me. Some of them even said them in English! Yeah, maybe they did learn something.




One school sang me a song in Japanese about friendship. I gotta admit that one got me a little teary. Another school switched stuff up and at the end of the ceremony, I got to walk through the archway of all my students. Aww!

I gave all my schools cool books from home (thanks to my lovely girls Lisa and Rosemary who lugged them all the way from America to Japan) and cakes for the teachers. It all went over quite well though I don't know if they'll be able to read all the books. At least they can look at the cool drawings and read some words and get a feel for it.


At my junior high school, the last of the goodbyes, I decided to finally put use to my guitar and all the music lessons my parents paid for. After my usual speech I sang two songs on my guitar for the entire school! 300 plus, standing room only, my biggest audience to date. I sang a song I wrote about a kid who hates school called "School" which everyone clapped along with and thankfully the principal didn't catch what I was saying though one of my English teachers got it and thought it was hilarious. Then I sang the first song I ever played on the guitar, this mellow song about breakups by Mazzy Star. I think some people got teary on that one and I almost did too.


After hours, we had an enkai where all the teachers got wasted and it was the most fun, laidback enkai I'd been to. It was great. They even gave me and Scott yukatas (summer kimonos) as a gift. So sweet to get one for both of us. And by the time I had to make my speech everyone was surly and didn't care that I decided to do it in English. In fact, when I slipped in some Japanese, the principal yelled out, "hey, that's Japanese!"

This one super sweet teacher told me I was very unique and a treasure to the school. Wow! She said they could relate to me because I'm Japanese and yet the way I carry myself is more free and American which she said was very attractive. And I found out that she loves musicals and can't wait to come to "New York, New York" when she retires! A lot of teachers came out and talked to me, some even in English. In a way, I'm sad I won't get to know them better, but on the other hand, they probably wouldn't have felt so free to talk to me if I wasn't leaving.


My most rewarding experience happened this morning when I said my final final goodbye to my junior high school's staff. I went into the principal's office to say thank you and goodbye and he, who has never in this whole entire year spoken English to me said with a smile, "See you again!" Folks, my work here is done.

Back to my rice roots

Sorry for the delay again and thanks for all the birthday wishes! We are bogged down with packing and goodbye parties so I'll probably post more fun stuff when I get back even though it will be after the fact a bit. I took literally a thousand pictures in the last month from all my schools and fun events. I swear I'll get them up eventually. I'll have plenty of time when I'm unemployed!


In the meantime, I feel I must write about one thing I was looking forward to attempting while in rural Japan... rice planting! It was a close call though. I happened to be at one of my elementary schools the day that they were turning over the fields with local farmers so I dug in and hoed away with my students. The teachers were all impressed with my farming action and asked if I'd done it before. I told them it must be my genes. My grandmother and great grandparents were farmers so I guess some of it is in me somewhere.



They invited me to actually plant the rice stalks later on in the month, but they had to reschedule due to rain and forgot that I was coming so I missed out. I was so bummed. I had my farming clothes and hat all ready. Luckily another school found out that I'd missed out and invited me to their farming day. Yeh!

So I joined my students for a couple hours of rice planting. The soil is super soft and muddy. It kind of feels like a mud bath and I swear my skin felt a little softer afterwards. Some parts of the soil felt warm and others cold. Go figure. I went in barefoot, but I noticed some of the kids kept their socks on. I didn't ask why, but maybe some of them were saying how it felt icky on their feet so maybe that's why. I found it a little bizarre.


The farmers were all very sweet and encouraging even though they must be a little annoyed with the kids throwing mud and not aligning the plants properly. I suppose they're used to it, as its an annual event. Maybe they go over the whole field again with machines once the kids are gone! We did a pretty good job though, I'd say. They gave us a handful of plants and then pulled a line across the field with tiny red dots on it. So it was pretty easy to just stick the plant in where the dots were. But the real technique was keeping the little stalks as a unit and decided how deep was good for growing. Naturally I got the technique after a few stalks, ahem, nothing to it.


Afterwards we washed our feet in the running river water along the banks that fill up the fields. It was cool to be a part of nature and a very cultural experience. The school said they would look after my patch for me and when the crops are ready, they'll make rice cakes (mochi) and all will come full circle.

America, **** yeah!

Happy 4th of July my fellow Americans! I hope you're all enjoying the holiday weekend with BBQs and fireworks. We may try to light some off tonight just to be in the spirit. I can't take credit for this really cool pic of a sparkler we lit at a party. I let a 10 year old take control of my camera and somehow he got this amazing shot. I don't know how he did it! That's kids for ya.



It's definitely summer here and I think we've survived most of the rainy season. There are so many crazy bugs roaming and flying around during the rainy season. They're everywhere! We've also had a couple of really humid, sticky days so I guess this is just the beginning of the summer weather. This crazy American flag portrait Scott found in a stairway in Shimabara. There were a bunch of crazy drawings, I'll have to put them up on my flickr soon. Wild stuff.



We'll be home in about a month, being all American again. Can't wait to see everyone! If we have strange accents and can't speak English very well, please have patience with us. Help us through our reverse culture shock that will undoubtedly happen. Can't wait to have a hot slice of pizza though!