BEST DAY EVER

Today was my last day at Kurosaki Elementary School. I had a feeling that it would be good. The staff at this school has always been amazing. But I had no idea HOW incredible they were going to make my last day.

I arrive and all the teachers are in a meeting. So I sit down quietly. Then some guy knocks on the door and peeks in, and the principal and vice-principal immediately freak out and run to the door frantically closing it behind them. It's hilarious.

Next, Harima-sensei, who helps with English, gives me my schedule. EVERY PERIOD IS FULL. First-grade class, Tanabata party, 2 periods with 5th grade, lunch, 2 periods with 6th grade. So next thing I know, I'm running off to a class full of first graders, which is always adorable. Next, we have the Tanabata Party.

Tanabata is a Japanese festival, though I think it might be celebrated in China in some form as well. It occurs on the seventh day of the seventh month and is supposed to correspond with the yearly meeting of two particular stars in the sky. The story goes that there was once a princess who wove beautiful cloth, but then she fell in love with a cow-herder, they married, and after that neither of them worked any longer. The girl's father was very angry, so he separated them. She was so unhappy, she begged that they could meet again, so her father allowed them to meet on the seventh day of the seventh month. However, if it's cloudy they can't meet. People in Japan celebrate it by writing wishes on paper and hanging the paper from bamboo trees.



In our case, the trees were drawn on paper in the school gym :) It's my first time celebrating because I was clueless and missed it last year. After we hang our wishes, we play a card-exchange game with cut-out stars. Super fun. Then we sing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star with a fancy new verse that possibly only exists in Japan :P



So the party's winding down, and then they give me this enormous bouquet of flowers, and then my 5th graders make a bilingual speech! And then all the students line up in two rows and sing "Goodbye to you" to the tune of "Happy Birthday" as I walk along between them. *sigh* The tears come. But the truth is, I'm too happy to actually cry. It's too wonderful and perfect to cry.

Alright, I'm sick of using present tense to explain this. So, back to normal narrative... ;)

My incredible Interac JTE coordinated with Harima-sensei to do a cooking lesson on my last day. So I already knew I would be spending two periods with 5th grade making lemonade and 2 periods with 6th grade in the afternoon doing the same thing. We had worked out the recipe ahead of time and my JTE got all the ingredients together. And they told the students that today was English-only, so between hand motions and English, I explained to them what to do. You may ask, how is lemonade difficult? Super easy, right? Well, it is super easy, but we put the extra work into it to do it right. I had them boil some water and dissolve the sugar ahead of time, and then each one of them got to tackle the lemon juicing process.



Then I showed them how to cut the lemons into slices and stick them on the side of the cup. Such a great lesson! And so delicious! They loved it.

The most hilarious part of the day though? Watching my 6th grade students peer-pressure each other into giving me really, really awkward hugs and then cheering each other afterwards. It was incredible. I was laughing/smiling so hard that my skull started hurting! Japan! You're so crazy!!!!!

Ah. It was lovely and wonderful. Such a good day. They even had Hagen Dazs ice cream in the staff freezer. :) And last of all, I took a pretty funny photo with the staff. They insisted that I sit in a chair in front and hold my flowers. lol.



Lovely, lovely, lovely.

The beginning of the end

Changes are never easy. I always find them especially difficult. I hate the uncertainly. I am happy that change often acts as a catalyst for growth. This is why I embrace it, but I usually don't enjoy it. I love growth. I love seeing where I am now compared to where I was before. What is your life if you're not changing and growing for the better (hopefully!)?

I'm moving into my last five weeks in Japan. I plan on departing August 5. On August 5, I will leave Japan, possibly forever (who knows), and on August 5, I will step onto the continent of N. America for the first time in 19 months. I will move back in time 16 hours.

This last month has been a haze of activity. Last week, I had something going on 5 out of 7 nights. It was a bit much, and it just continues. I had friends over twice, I went to an Okinawan restaurant, I sang karaoke, I went to an enkai with a bunch of JETs and Japanese people. Last night was the Sayonara Party. Today, I went to church, then came home and watched, "Wit," the HBO adaptation of Margaret Edson's Pulitzer-Prize-winning play. It's fantastic. I barely have to say that. It makes me cry. So good. I challenge people who believe exclusively in science to watch it or read it.

I'm tired though. I really, really am. There is too much going on right now. But I don't think it will stop. Sometimes, don't you just want rest? From...life or something? From defending yourself? From being strong all the time? Sometimes I get really sick of being nice to everyone and not trying to inconvenience anyone. I hate bothering people. I hate causing problems, so I usually just walk away. I'm speaking in broad generalities now - probably because I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings. Sometimes I'm just too tired to smile and nod and retreat. That's my general rule. Aggression, I find, is almost always pointless. Usually I don't find it that hard to ward it all off, but when I'm tired, and emotionally compromised (you try living in a country for two years and then leaving), I do. I don't want to defend my actions to anyone. And I don't want to be unnecessarily criticized for my beliefs, my actions, or my personal decisions. At times like this, I feel like snapping, but I don't. Why? Because I know it's a passing feeling, and I know my snapping would mean more trouble than snapping is worth. As cool as it looks in the movies, it rarely works out so well in real life. Yes, this is a rant. Yes, it's somewhat veiled. Thank you for reading anyway.

I guess it's superfluous to say that I've been moody lately. I find myself drawn to extreme states of being. One day euphoric, the next utterly depressed. It's annoying. It's weird to go up and down like this. I can feel the weight of the buckets of tears that will be wrung from my body in the next five weeks. When I think about this, I don't want to go to school anymore, and I don't want to say goodbye to one more person. I've barely even started. I don't want to begin. "Parting is such sweet sorrow..." isn't really so true is it?