Since Japan…..

I remember writing a blog a few months ago about what to do with this blog once I got home.  Leave it as a memento from Japan?  Keep writing once I return?  HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!  I was such a dreamer!  Since being back, our lives have DRASTICALLY changed.  I used to say that it was a “busy” day at school if I didn’t have time to write a blog.  Now I’m damn lucky if I get a five minute break to check Facebook. 

Since being back, Ian and I hit the ground running.  We arrived back in Paducah on a Friday, went around surprising everyone that Saturday, took Sunday to laze around and rest, and began running on Monday.  I had exactly one week to meet with my supervisors, learn new policies, draft syllabi, and organize everything for classes that started on the following Monday.  I was so completely dumb to think that one week was long enough.  Ian started working full time at Purple Toad Winery.  Meanwhile….we were adjusting to life back in the States, visiting friends and family, and setting up our new apartment.  There was zero time to rest.  It was a whirlwind!

Little has changed since.  I’m currently working three jobs (two teaching and one serving jobs) and make about half of what I made in Japan with zero benefits.  I work about 60-70 hours a week, and Ian works about 50.  Needless to say, the days of lounging around by the TV or taking a day trip adventure somewhere are quite over for the Reeds for the mean time. 

Adjusting to this lifestyle and having reverse-culture shock having been something else!  It took us a few weeks to 100% grow accustomed to driving on the right side of the road.  Weeks after being back, I’d reach for the gear shift on my left only for my hand to smack into the door, or Ian would pull out onto the left side of the road only to correct himself onto the right, or I’d reach to turn the blinker on only to accidentally turn on the windshield wipers.  The first few times driving on Lone Oak Road stressed me out.  I felt more comfortable driving on downtown Kumamoto City (a little bigger than Nashville) streets than I did in my own hometown!  Ian agreed, and we came to the conclusion the reason of this was because there are terrible drivers in both countries, but there are different things to watch out for.  For example, road rage and tail gating are big issues here but not really a big deal in Japan.  However, in Japan one must be on constant lookout for someone cutting you off, or the randomly parked car around the blind curve on a mountain road…..definitely not something to worry about in mountain-less western Kentucky!!

In addition to driving, pumping gas is also a bit of a change.  Instead of pulling up to the pump, rolling down the window, saying “reg-goo-lar mantan onegaishimasu” and watching the gas station attendants flair to life as they wash the windshield, check tire pressure, fill the tank, etc, I had to do it all by myself.  My first time at the pump I sat in my car for a second before it dawned on me that I had to pump the gas MYSELF.  Then I stared at the pump for another second trying to remember how to work it.  Don’t laugh!  I hadn’t pumped gas in two years! 

The first time I went to Walmart, I was in absolute shock….Walmart is HUGE!!!  Dear America, do we REALLY need ALL of those snack food aisles???  Even though I went to Walmart to get groceries to stock our pantries, I left with very few items in my basket.  With so many choices of food, I was overwhelmed with what to actually get!  In addition to the food choices, I felt like an ant wandering up and down the aisles full of EVERYTHING AND ANYTHING THAT I COULD READ.  However, the worst side effect of Walmart was the people.  *sigh* I never realized the amount of weirdoes and rednecks who shop at Walmart until that day.  Good gosh!   

Japanese has slowly trickled out of our vocabulary, but it doesn’t stop it from being a sweet and endearing way for Ian and I to communicate with one another.  We’ll tell each other to ganbatte through tough situations, ask each other if we need hashi to eat with, complain that the weather is too atsui, that we should janken to decide who doesn’t have to take out the trash, or that some situation is taihen.  Although people sometimes wrinkle their brows at the words we use, it has kind of become our own secret language that we can communicate in.  Neither one of us think twice of using Japanese words with one another, but occasionally we’ll say something to someone who doesn’t understand us.  For example, I wanted to ask a grocery store clerk a question the other day, and I almost said, “Sumimasen.” I had the “s” sound forming on my lips before I switched to “excuse me.”

As I catch up with people, I’ve had them ask me some pretty interesting questions or say things about our two years over there, such as:

Did you have air conditioning?  …..yes.  Of course.  Japan is a first world country.

You must me happy to be back among your kind.  …….”my kind”?  What exactly does that mean??

Were there any animals in Japan?  …..DUH.  Even in the harshest and hottest desert or coldest and cruelest tundra, there are animals.  So yes, there are animals in Japan.

Well, your eyes aren’t slanty, so I guess you didn’t become one of them.  …..OMG, RACISM! 

Where are you going next?  ….Uuuummmm….we JUST got back and are JUST settling into our lives here, so no where right now.  Where would I LIKE to go?  Well…that list is endless…..

The most popular question I’ve been asked is “Aren’t you glad to be back?”  The answer to this is most definitely yes and no.  We left some of our best friends in Japan.  We left a place that we called home.  It was hard to leave Paducah originally, but we always knew that we’d be back.  Leaving Japan was a billion times harder because we knew that we’d most likely never be back or see a lot of our friends again.  Coming home for us was bittersweet.  We’re glad that we did it, but it didn’t make the bitter part any easier.

I absolutely and positively love to talk about my experiences in Japan.  I’ll talk to everyone and anyone who will listen.  In September I did my part as a JET alumni by speaking at the JET table at Murray State’s Study Abroad Fair.  I absolutely loved that day.  During the four hour break between my classes, I talked to potential JET participants about my experiences and what they could expect if they joined the JET program.  I could see their eyes lighting up with the idea of potential.  Their excitement excited me!  Since the study abroad fair, I was contacted by the JET program coordinator for the Nashville area and asked if I would be the JET representative to MSU.  HECK YES I WILL!!!

……and I guess this is how I end my blog about Japan.  Despite what we say sometimes, we are happy to be home.  Has our sense of adventure been quelled?  NEVER!  Are my blogging days over?  NEVER!  We’ll see just where the wind blows us and what happens to us.  Maybe the next blog of mine that you read will be titled: There and Back Again: A Peace Corps Adventure or There and Back Again: A Motherhood Adventure.  If one thing is certain, it’s that Ian and I love adventures.  We haven’t had our last, so stay tuned for the next one!! 

So Two Months Later….

Okay, okay, okay….I know.  While I had the best of intentions to write about Tokyo/Fuji/Hawaii/coming home, life happened.  Both Ian and I have been RIDICULOUSLY busy since we’ve been home.  I’ll get to that in a second, but first I did want to briefly catch up on where I left off.

Leaving Yunomae behind was incredibly hard.  Since I’ve been home, I’ve had so many ask me, “Aren’t you glad to be back?”  Well, honestly…yes and no.  That tiny mountain town gave me so many beautiful memories and allowed me to meet some of the most amazing people.  As we left, my students and co-workers lined the street with banners while waving goodbye.  Needless to say I bawled halfway to Hitoyoshi before I regained my composure.  It was so sad to leave so many good memories behind!

Anyway…we flew to Tokyo and promptly made our way to Mt. Fuji that night.  Fuji is the tallest mountain and most widely recognized symbol of Japan.  Most people climb Fuji in order to watch the sun rise.  We hiked through the night in order to complete this task.  I have never felt more like I wanted to die than on that mountain.  While the three of us (Ian, Melissa, and I) enjoy hiking, we all agreed that we started the hike on the wrong foot by being sleep deprived, dehydrated, and hungry.  Couple that with the progressively thinning air, the despair of hiking in darkness, and all three of us were completely BEAT by the time we made it to the top.  While sunrise was absolutely beautiful and an incredible sight, we found it difficult to enjoy as we huddled together for warmth.  Even though the temperatures at the base were sweltering and muggy, at the peak it was like stepping into a windy freezer.  Brrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!  While the way up was strenuous, the way down was tedious.  It was a steep slope of volcanic ash the whole way down, so slipping and sliding was just part of it.  I was getting so tired and worn out that one time I slipped, busted my butt, and just wanted to give up on life.  I had a little breakdown, to which Ian comforted me with the last of our water, peanuts, and his wise words, “Sweetie, I know you’re tired, but there’s only one way off this mountain, and that’s with your own two feet.”  Whenever we reached the base camp, the three of us had a two hour wait before our bus came, so like hobos we laid down on the concrete sidewalk and fell asleep.  Yes, we were that tired!

 

The next few days Ian and I spent exploring Tokyo.  Unfortunately, Melissa had to return to Kumamoto since she only had so many vacation days to blow.  Ian and I explored well known tourist attractions like Tsukiji fish market (the largest fish market in the world), Sky Tree (the tallest tower in the world), Madame Tussand’s wax museum, Odaiba’s waterfront, the Rainbow Bridge, Asakusa’s trendy neighborhood, Shibuya crossing and Hachiko’s statue, Ginza’s ridiculously overpriced shopping district, and several other fun things.  While Tokyo was super fun to visit, I would never, ever, EVER want to live there.  I felt like I couldn’t stretch out my arms out without touching people.  The metro-Tokyo area has over 35 million people living in it.  Waaaaaaaaaay too many people for me to feel comfortable!!

 

After our few days in Tokyo, we kissed Japan goodbye and headed back to the USA!  The most exciting part of our journey was the three day layover in Hawaii.  If you are traveling to or from Asia, I definitely recommend trying this!  Not only was it a wonderful way to break up the long journey, but IT’S HAWAII.  (Added bonus: jet lag never affected us!)  I don’t know if we’ll ever get back to the islands, but if not, we can at least say that we’ve been!  Three days was barely enough time to scratch the surface, but we made sure to squeeze every last little bit out of it that we could.  As soon as we got there, we checked into our hotel, grabbed lunch, and hit the crystal clear, warm, and sandy beaches of Waikiki until sunset, where we watched one of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve ever seen.  On our second day we took an island tour in which we visited Pearl Harbor, Dole’s pineapple plantation, the famed North Shore beaches, the ranch where Lost and Jurassic Park were filmed, a macadamia nut and coffee bean farm, and Pali lookout (the best lookout spot on the whole island).  I felt like we saw a ridiculous amount of things in just one day!  Our final day in Hawaii was spent hiking Diamondhead, the volcano that towers over Waikiki’s beaches.  I hiked past people who were pulled over to the side of the trail huffing and puffing.  After Fuji, Diamondhead was basically like walking up a large hill.  That afternoon we laid on the beach wishing that we had a few more days in Hawaii but knowing that we had a plane to catch.

 

I was hoping to sleep a little bit more than I actually did on our overnight flight to Las Vegas.  After that, it was Vegas to Dallas, and Dallas to Nashville.  I really enjoyed flying across country and seeing the landscape change from the jagged West Coast to the tall peaks of the Rockies to the desert of the southwest, across the brown plains of Texas, and finally to the green woodlands east of the Mississippi.  Our friends, Adam and Alison, picked us up from the airport in Nashville.  Apart from them, only two other people (my sister, who lives in Lexington and Ian’s dad, who lives in Boca Raton) knew that we were coming home on that day.  SURPRISE!!!!  We told everyone that we would be back on August 15th when in reality it was August 9th.  When we bought the tickets in January, we decided that it would be incredibly fun to surprise everyone.  By far, going around town and surprising everyone is one of the BEST memories I’ve made in my life.  Instead of deciding whose family should be the first to see us, we decided to surprise our friends.  They were in shock to see us, and there were hugs and lots of chatter. 

 

We spent the night with David and Lucy.  The following morning we woke up early to surprise my family.  Since it was a little after 7 AM, I wasn’t sure if Mommy and Daddy would be up, so we went to Grandmother’s.  We rang the doorbell, and Grandmother came to the door in tears.  She squealed, hugged us, squealed again, and told us what a blessing it was to have us on her doorstep that morning.  I’m pretty sure that she hugged me about twenty times that morning.  She’d start talking about the weather or some distant family member and then stop what she was doing to hug me and tell me how much we were missed.  Daddy and my brother, Aaron, also popped in for their morning coffee.  Both of them stopped in their places when they saw Ian and I at the kitchen table.  Aaron froze, looked down at his phone, back up at us, and said, “What day is it?”  Ha, ha, ha!  Those surprises were priceless!  The best surprise of all was Mommy.  Ian and I wandered across the yard to my parents’ house and found Mommy in the living room on the phone with my sister.  I strolled up in the kitchen like I owned the place, and once she saw me, she freaked out.  (I wish I could share the video with y’all, but I have sworn to Mommy to not post the video online because she thought the way she reacted was embarrassing.)  It was rather hilarious!  As soon as she saw me, she disregarded the phone conversation she was having and screamed, “WHAT?  WHAT?  WHAT IS HAPPENING?  HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?  WHAT?”  Honestly, the video is HILARIOUS.  After that, it was off to the Reeds, who reacted with the same amount of disbelief of everyone else.  We surprised Ian’s sister, Bridget, at the boutique she works at.  She began greeting us like regular customers, “Hi, can I help you—HEEEEEEY!!!” 

I think I’ll stop here because this concludes our journey home, but there’s so much more to write about.  A LOT has happened in the last two months!

Last Minute Reflections

I’m leaving.

It has finally set in.  I switch through these intense moments of anxiety in which I think I CAN’T POSSIBLY LEAVE!  I STILL HAVE TO DO _____, ______, AND ______!  THERE’S THE KITCHEN FLOOR THAT STILL NEEDS TO BE MOPPED, THE LAST LOAD OF CLOTHES TO BE WASHED, MY BAGS TO DOUBLE CHECK, AND SO MUCH OTHER STUFF THAT I CAN’T POSSIBLY LEAVE UNTIL IT’S DONE!!

Then I switch to these intense moments of pure excitement.  I’m going home!!!!!!!!!!  As I write this, there’s an intense excited sensation in my belly—kind of like when you are at the apex of a roller coaster and waiting for it to plummet down.  Before I get there, I get to have a few more incredible experiences, including climbing Mt. Fuji, visiting Tokyo, and something that I’ve always wanted to do, go to Hawaii!!

I have successfully completed my bucket list of things that I wanted to do before I leave Japan.  I created a list back in May of last little things that I wanted to do, including camping one more time, taking the 219 to Miyazaki, swim one last time in the Yunomae swimming hole, hike at the Mizukami waterfalls, play at the Taragi rocket ship park, and a few other things.

Ian and I have prepped for this day.  We’ve both found jobs, found an apartment, switched the car insurance for my car back into my name, and are looking at health insurances.  For the past week and a half we have deep cleaned our house (even moving the refrigerator, kitchen cabinets, and washing machine away from the wall so that we could clean behind them!).  When my supervisor came over yesterday to check the house, she basically said, “Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!!  I don’t have to clean anything in this house after you leave!”  Ha, ha!  I love my supervisor!

This will probably be my last blog written in Japan.  I may be able to squeeze one more out while in Tokyo, but if history is any indicator, I generally don’t blog well while I’m traveling.  As one last Japanese entry, I wanted to mention some of the things that this wonderful, amazing, incredibly enlightening experience has taught me. 

1) You don’t have to speak the same language to communicate.

This one is sooooooooooooooooooooo true.  Today my supervisor took me to the mayor’s office to say goodbye to the mayor and all of the town officials there.  The last time I sat in the mayor’s office was that first day two years ago.  I was offered hot green tea as sweat rolled off my forehead and people chattered away in conversations that I was unable to contribute to.  Today I was able to ask and answer questions and give a short speech in semi-broken Japanese.  I digress—in the past two years, I’ve used more choppy three-word sentences, wild waving hand gestures, and even pictures to get my point across than I ever have in my life.  Most of the time it works!  If it doesn’t work, a simple smile and nervous giggle at least shows that I’m trying!  Body language is also an important factor, and I’ve learned that here.  I’ve heard that 90% of communication is non-verbal, and I completely believe that.  

2) Kids don’t care if someone is “different.”

Kids understand that I’m “different,” but they don’t see that as a bad thing.  (Racism is a learned behavior that if developed is more prevalent in JHS.)  They are curious about me and want to run their fingers through my hair, touch my freckles, pinch my arm fat, or run their fingers over the hairs on my arm just to see what it feels like.  However, they aren’t racist.  They love me regardless of my inability to speak Japanese to them.  They want to see how I react to situations, what I do, how high I can jump, fast I can run, or how many cartwheels I can do in a row.  They are fascinated by the simplest things that I do, like eating with chop sticks or sticking my tongue out at them.    

3) It’s possible to feel like home is in two different places.

Gack!  So true!  I realized this once we got back from our summer vacation in the States last year.  When we were at “home” in the States, things didn’t seem right.  We missed things about Japan, like gas attendants pumping our gas for us or the mountainous scenery that Yunomae provides.  Once we got back to Japan, our lives seemed more settled, but we missed the States.  We missed the friends and family that we had just visited and being able to speak our native language.  Ian and I both feel torn between Yunomae and Paducah.  In both places we simultaneously feel like it’s where we belong and yet……not.

4) Soup can be eaten with chop sticks.

Ha, ha, ha!  This one is definitely a little less heavy-handed.  My first morning in Yunomae my host family prepared traditional Japanese breakfast for me, miso soup along with a few other things.  My host mother sat the miso soup down in front of me with chopsticks.  I had an instant panic moment as my eyes darted around the table in search of a spoon.  There wasn’t one, but I noticed one of the boys pulling the larger chunks of tofu out of the bowl with his chop sticks and then slurping the broth down straight from the side of the bowl.  Ta-da!  This is how soup is eaten with chop sticks.

5) Feeling like an outcast is a ridiculously humbling experience.

I won’t say that I know what it’s like to be a minority because I’ve only had to be one for the past two years, not my entire life.  However, I definitely have a greater appreciation for what it’s like.  When the store clerk follows me around the store because he/she is afraid I might steal something just because I’m “different,” I understand.  When old people and very young children stare at me because I’m the only “different” person for miles, I understand.  When I don’t do things correctly because I don’t know the social norms, I understand.  It’s been an extremely valuable experience, and I wish that more Americans could have it.  I feel like that would cure some of those race issues that we have…..

6) In the age old nature vs. nurture debate, I’m now leaning toward nurture.

I know this is an ongoing debate of whether certain things in life are what we are born with or learn from our care givers and surroundings.  After living here for two years and seeing the difference between American and Japanese students, I feel like nurture is a stronger component of this debate.  Students here are taught morality from a VERY young age and as a result turn into adults who know right from wrong.  They don’t even contemplate stealing things and are constantly watching out for their neighbors.

These are just a few of the lessons that I’ve learned.  This entire experience has been more rewarding and beneficial than I ever could have imagined.  I will miss Japan and my tiny town of Yunomae.

Until next time, Japan.

Thanks for the memories.

Changing Gears

So here it is…..the final week.  72 hours from now I will no longer be a resident of Yunomae.  72 hours from now I’ll be on my way to Tokyo.  72 hours from now, I will officially begin my journey home!  How strange to think……

Since this will be one of the last blogs I’ll write, I thought it would be fitting to recap some interesting things.  I’ll start off with my supervisor.  I’m not sure if I’ve ever told about my first impression of her.  When I landed at the Kumamoto airport, two people were waiting to pick me up and take me back to Yunomae, Mr. Fujiwara and Sawada-san.  Mr. Fujiwara is a older, stern looking man, whereas Sawada is a cute, bubbly looking girl.  To be quite honest I thought she was Mr. Fujiwara’s granddaughter that he had brought along to meet the cool foreigner.  It wasn’t until we were at lunch after we left the airport that I realized she was my supervisor.  I didn’t think she was old enough to be my supervisor (as it turns out, she is a year older than me)!  Boy was I wrong.  For the past two years she has saved my skin more times than I can count.  She was an absolutely amazing supervisor, and I could not have asked for more!   

 

Changing gears completely, here’s a few things that the Japanese do that I think is rather funny.  Most of you reading this blog are like me and have western mindsets, so when we think of or do things, it’s with that mindset.  For example, whenever we make the gesturing of eating, we hold a pretend fork and bring that to our mouths.  It’s common knowledge that that means eating.  However, in Japan they extend their index and middle fingers to look like chopsticks and bring those to their mouths.  This (in Japan) is the gesture for eating. 

Another thing that I find funny is that on any maps of the world, Japan is always smack dab in the middle.  Even if the kids draw maps of the world on the blackboard, they always start by drawing the four main islands of Japan.  For example, one time when we were playing Pictionary in class, the word was “world,” and the student drew a round circle for the globe, four main islands of Japan, continental Asia, and Australia before the word “world” was guessed.  It blew my mind.  As an American, I’m so used to seeing North and South America in the center of the map.  If I were playing Pictionary and had the word “world,” I wouldn’t think twice about drawing those two continents before anything else.  Both of these examples are fun little differences between eastern and western cultures.

Changing gears completely again, let’s talk about the bugs…..big, giant, nasty, numerous bugs that live here.  I’m not sure if it just didn’t get as cold and kill as many off this winter or what, but the bug population has been out of control this year it seems.  Melissa and I were talking about it a few weeks ago, and both of us agreed that the bugs were waaaaaaaaaaaaay worse this year than last year.  Here are a few examples:

Since it has been so hot, I decided that instead of going for a walk right after work like normal I’d wait until the sun went down and it cooled off a bit.  Seems logical, right?  ….except I forgot that after the sun goes down, the bugs come out.  I’m pretty sure that I ate at least three or four bugs while walking.  I wasn’t doing anything out of the ordinary…just walking.  Simply inhaling was enough to get me to accidentally eat bugs.  UGH!

The next two stories are even worse.  Since we haven’t turned on our air conditioner this summer yet, we generally leave the windows open.  At night this becomes a double edged sword.  If we close the curtains, the breeze doesn’t pass through.  However if we leave them open, the bugs are attracted to the light and will somehow squeeze through the screens to get inside.  (I think it’s really funny because spiders have learned that if they make webs right outside of our windows, they will collect a bumper crop of bugs.  Thanks, spiders!)  The other night I was in the kitchen making my goodbye gifts of cookie jars, and not only could I see one million bugs crawling on the screen, but I could feel the ones that had gotten in crawling on my legs.  I had to do a little dance every few seconds to get them off of me.  They would fly off and land somewhere else.  I was just praying to the Almighty above that they wouldn’t land in my dang cookie jars!

Ian had the light on by his desk the other night, and (of course) bugs were attracted to that.  Our bed is right next to the desk, and our bed sheet is white.  Before I could crawl into bed that night, I (no joke!) had to scrape a layer of bugs off of it.  UUUUUGGGGGGGHHHH!  Talk about have the willies before going to bed……  Ian and I decided that this is why we’ve gotten into camping while being in Japan.  Staying at our house is basically like camping….except indoors. 

And the final change of gears in this blog is something completely and totally unrelated to any of the above topics.  Since we’ll be home soon and will be riding the motorcycle more, I thought it would be a good idea to go ahead and buy a motorcycle jacket to wear while riding.  I got a couple of Amazon gift cards for my birthday, (thanks, Margaret and Bill!!) so together Ian and I picked out a stylish and reasonable jacket.  EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!  Time to go ride the motorcycle, including long road trips out West!  Hurray!  Both Ian and I can’t wait to get back on the bike once we get home!

I believe that’s all for today.  The number of entries that I’ll write before this blog comes to a close are rapidly dwindling.  Leaving time is upon us!

Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow…Part II

Friday was more goodbye-ing to my classes.  Friday was the last day of school before summer break, and although there were only two class periods, I had English classes during both of them.  We played an English board game of mine in both classes, and afterward both 1-1 and 3-2 gave me more sweet farewell notes.  I was really impressed with some of the 1-1 notes.  They’ve only studied serious English for about three months, yet some of the kids were able to string together more complex sentences.  How sweet!

 

 

After both classes was the hour long cleaning period.  On the first and last day of each trimester, the school has an extended cleaning period in which the students do things that get pushed aside for the trimester: washing windows, intense weeding and gardening, cleaning out the cobwebs from the corners, etc.  I haven’t met anyone who enjoys this extended cleaning period, but it’s just a thing that happens in Japan.

After that was the closing ceremony.  The Vice Principal told me that I would give my speech at the end.  For an hour and a half all of the students and teachers sat in the stifling hot gym sweating as speech after speech was made.  It was over an hour before I was called to the podium to speak.  I gave my speech in both English and Japanese, and (surprise, surprise!) I cried.  While it was a slow, tearful goodbye, I really lost it when two of the best 3rd grade English speakers presented me with a bundle of flowers from the student body and read me the cutest, sweetest, most heart-wrenching message in both English and Japanese.  Then the students lined up shoulder to shoulder and made a tunnel for me to walk through, smiling and clapping as I did.  HOW COULD I NOT BAWL LIKE A BABY AT THAT POINT IN TIME!?!?

I went home that day with a full bag of goodbye gifts.  That night I met back up with the teachers for the farewell party for me.  It was a lot of fun, and I got to talk to the teachers in a way that I rarely get to do on a daily basis.  They presented me with a nice bottle of champagne, a beautiful fancy fan, and a hand made scrap book.  That really got me.  It was such a personalized gift with so many memories and cute pictures of everyone that it (surprise, surprise!) brought tears to my eyes!  The Japanese teacher made it, and I thanked her again and again, telling her what a perfect gift it was!!  The math teacher told me that he could be my Japanese brother, and my VP told me that I was her American daughter.  So much love!!!

Over the weekend we had to say goodbye to Krista and Mollee as they headed home.  Our little Kuma-gun family has officially been fractured.  Sad day.  I already wrote about the BOE farewell party, so I’ll skip to last night’s eikaiwa class.  It was my last class with adults.  They’ve been a great class!  Last class period I told them that we’d be cooking and gave them three options of what to make:

1) cheese fondue

2) southern down home cookin’

3) Mexican food

They went with the down home cookin’ because they thought it sounded good, so we made meatloaf, mashed potatoes, gravy, biscuits, and a veg blend.  As we were prepping things up, one lady started to peel the potatoes.  I told her that she didn’t have to.  I don’t think that the Japanese eat potato skins because she looked at me as if I had told her that I eat babies.  We finally compromised that if she scrubbed the skins hard enough, they would be suitable for eating.  We had two ovens and three burners going, so the kitchen was ridiculously hot.  Ian had beads of sweat on his forehead, and the bottom of my shirt was wet with sweat.  Icky!  However, it was all worth it because the food was great, and I was surprised at how much they put away!!  They were uncertain about the gravy, but after they tried it, they agreed that it was delicious.  Bringing comfort food to Japan….hurray!!

    

After we had stuffed ourselves silly, I gave them their goodbye presents, and they gave me mine.  I gave them cookies in a jar (they were really confused by this) and some spices.  They gave me a bunch of traditional Japanese things like a set of chopsticks, miniature hina (dolls), and a furoshiki (cloth wrap thing that can be tied in different ways to make different things).  The oldest lady in the class, Itsuki, even gave me an additional package and told me that it was money for my trip.  It was 10,000 yen!!!  ($100)  How sweet!!!  As we were leaving, I gave them each a hug, and Itsuki started crying, so I hugged her again and told her that we would see each other again and she should come to America.  It made me realize how much we have affected each other’s lives.  She has always been a motherly figure to me, and I guess she considered me a daughter. 

*sigh* That’s all of the goodbyes for now.  I’m really not looking forward to next week whenever we have to tell those closest to us, our Kuma-gun family, goodbye.

Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow…Part I

A week from yesterday I will leave Yunomae for good.  While I’m happy to be coming home and seeing everyone, it’s so incredibly tough to say goodbye to everyone here.  Last week was the most emotionally challenging week I’ve had here. 

It started off with saying goodbye to my ES kiddos on Wednesday.  It was my last class day at that school, and I wasn’t exactly sure if I was supposed to write and deliver a speech or not.  (Generally when teachers leave, there’s this big assembly for the teacher, and he/she is expected to make a teary-eyed speech.)  My suspicions were confirmed when I got to school and saw my second period class scratched out of my calendar and replaced with some strange kanji.  I asked my vice principal what that meant, and he confirmed it….an assembly for me.  I needed to give a speech.  Hello, Google translate!  I quickly translated a few sentences before rushing off to my first class of the day, 6th grade.

When I walked in the door, I noticed that the backboard was covered with drawings, decorations, and the message “Thank you, Melissa-sensei!”  My heart melted at that!!  We played fruits basket for the whole class period, alternating between grammatical concepts learned in the past trimester.  At the end of the class, one-by-one the students came up to me and gave me hand written cards to express their gratitude to me.  I couldn’t help it, but my eyes teared up.  Even though I couldn’t read most of them, it was such an amazing, beautiful gesture! 

 

After that class was the assembly.  Ugh!  The entire school, students and teachers, sat down before the podium.  My emotions were already on edge after my sweet 6th grade class.  I had to sit at the edge of the stage and wait for the 6th grade teacher to say a few words about me.  As I glanced out over the crowd, more tears came to my eyes.  All of those cute, smiling faces tore at my heartstrings and reminded me about all the good times we’d had.  I was really afraid that my Japanese grammar and pronunciation were going to be terrible during my speech, but I think that high pitch whiney/wailing sound that comes out when you cry is the same in all languages!  I had to stop and pause a couple of times as I gave it to wipe my eyes because I couldn’t see the paper.  Once I was finished with my speech, all of the students stood up and gave me a deep respectful bow.  Then I had to walk out of the gym by myself as the students and teachers clapped and gave me one last cheer.  Ugh!  I was an emotional wreck!!!  Once I went back to the teacher’s room, the Vice Principal, who claims to be my “Japanese father” gave me a plant and regional famous wooden toy that he had made.  More tears.

My last class of the day was 5th grade.  Like the 6th grade class, they had drawn on the board and made me notes.  It was precious!  Then as I left class, each of them wanted me to sign anything that they had…hats, notebooks, pencil cases, random pieces of paper, English books, etc.  I felt like a celebrity!  Then they wanted me to draw pictures of me and Ian.  No shock here, but I’m not the best artist.  Instead of drawing actual imagines, I drew the silliest and goofy looking couple ever.  I gave Ian spiky hair and made myself cross-eyed.  Ha! Ha! Ha!

At recess all of the kids wanted to play one last game of tag.  It was really too hot, so we wore out quickly.  Instead we decided to sit in the shade and make clover chains.  A couple of the girls started playing with my hair and putting flowers in it.  I didn’t stop them because they were being just too dang cute!

 

On Thursday it was another heaping helping of goodbyes.  My final 3-1 and 2-1 was that afternoon.  Since my favorite class is 3-1, it was especially hard to say goodbye to them.  They are such a smart and well-behaved class!  At the end of class, each one of them came up to give me a goodbye letter and shake my hand.  Their letters instigated more tears.  Some of them were as simple as “Goodbye, Melissa-sensei.  Thanks for teaching us.  Lesson was fun.  Have good life in USA,” but some of them were a page length and went into more detail about what they will specifically miss and told me to return.  Once again, waterworks.

 

I had to brush off those tears quickly because then it was off to 2-1.  While I don’t often enjoy 2-1 as a whole, I do love a lot of the kids from that class.  A lot of kids from that class also wrote really sweet letters, too!  After reading all of these kids notes and seeing their reaction when I say that I’m leaving, I realize that I actually have made a difference here.  This whole time I thought that I was just a walking tape recorder, but it turns out that I have made some pretty darn strong relationships with some of these kids and have affected their lives.

   

Thursday night I had my last eikaiwa with the kids.  It was a cooking class, and we made pizzas!  I first went to the kitchen to set down my things, but I heard movement from the normal classroom.  I figured that the kids forgot about our cooking class, but when I started opening the door to the classroom, they yelled out for me to stop and told me to wait.  They had arrived early to plan a surprise for me!  Awwwwww…..  I went back to the kitchen to prep stuff.  They soon came into the kitchen and said that they would give me the surprise at the end of class.  Hurray!

  

We busily started making pizzas for the class.  I think the girls really enjoyed learning how to knead dough.  I also think that they thought it was amazing that we could make pizza….from scratch.  Even though the kitchen was already sweltering, we had to turn on the ovens to cook the pizza.  However, we wiped the sweat from our brows and got busy rolling out dough.  We ran that like a well-oiled machine.  Three girls, supervised by Ian, separated the dough and rolled it out to acceptable pizza sizes.  Three other girls, supervised by me, put marinara sauce on the pizzas and added toppings.  The last girl, supervised by Hiromi, was in charge of the ovens and slid the pizzas in and out.  We were running a little behind time, so as soon as all of the pizzas were out of the ovens, I basically was like, “EAT!  EAT NOW!”  I was too busy cleaning up the mess that I didn’t get to eat my pizza.  Instead I bagged it up and said I’d eat it at home. 

By the time we were finished picking up, the kids were already five minutes late on getting out of class, but they insisted on giving me my surprise, so they hustled back into the classroom and told me to wait.  When they gave me the OK to come in, they set off party poppers.  There was a huge banner on the wall that said, “Thank you, Melissa-sensei,” and the white board was covered with drawings and little notes.  Each of them gave me a thank you card and even brought little presents for us.  How sweet!!  I gave them my presents that I had made for them as well.  I could not believe how kind and considerate these girls were.  They got to class EARLY and STAYED LATE just to give me the surprise that they had planned all by themselves.  They didn’t have to at all, which makes the gesture that much more sweet!

 

I’ve still got a ton more to write about regarding goodbyes, but I’m going to end this here and separate it into two blogs.  Stay tuned for more! 

The Paradise of Kumamoto

Right off the coast of Kumamoto are the islands of Amakusa.  Although it is quite a drive to get there from our Hitoyoshi area and traffic can be a big issue since they are islands with a limited amount of space for roads, they are by far the most beautiful area of Kumamoto.  I’m not downing Kuma-gun.  I love Kuma-gun and all of my beautiful mountains and clear water streams, but Amakusa has something that we just geographically don’t have here….a gorgeous coastline!  Amakusa is famous for its lookouts and beautiful views.  I’ve never been to California, but I imagine that it’s something like California’s famous Pacific Coast Highway.  At least….that’s what I think…..

 

I promise that there’s a point to this blog and that I’m not just randomly babbling.  A week and a half ago, Ian, Melissa, and I went to Amakusa for the last Kumamoto-ken ALT event of the year, Waterwheel.  We decided to go the last time we were in the city and some of our Amakusa friends persuaded us to do so.  Waterwheel is called such because the event used to be at the sight of Japan’s oldest working waterwheel.  However, the thing was made of duct tape and dreams, so a typhoon a couple of years ago took it out, but the event still carries on its name.  The event now centers around the same area at a gorgeous waterfall and swimming hole area. 

We left for Amakusa around 11:30 that morning but didn’t arrive at the venue until about 3 PM.  It’s not that the area was that far away.  According to Google maps, from Melissa’s house outside of Hitoyoshi to the Waterwheel area was a grand total of 70-ish miles.  UGH!  Traffic was horrible as usual going through the town of Kami-amakusa, and we were stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic for about forty-five minutes.  Then we got lost once.  We started going up this tiny mountain road that eventually turned into a hiking trail.  Lost without cell service, we turned around until we reached the main road and had cell service again so that we could call someone for directions.

Once we got there, we realized how worth the drive was.  The swimming hole was beautiful!  Since we didn’t pay for a cabin, we had to set up our tent before we got in the water.  We knew that we didn’t want to be close to the party area in case things got wild and crazy and we wanted to go to bed early.  We walked to the cabin area to see if there was any place to pitch a tent.  However, the ground was too rocky.  Ian found a set of steps leading up the hill a bit.  It led to a private little area that was perfect for our tent!  We cleared sticks off the ground and set up what we called Ft. Reed. 

After that, we went back down to the waterfall.  After a long and hot day, the water felt so good!  We swam, laughed, and splashed for a while.  Several people were jumping off of the waterfall rocks, and I admired them for their courage.  It was a looooooooooong way down.  Once the initial crowd cleared and the BBQ started, Melissa and I decided to investigate the rocks.  We climbed up a little bit, and behind one of the crevasse’s was the most beautiful little hidden area.  You know those picture perfect places that couples make out in in the movies?  This little cove was exactly like that.  The water was deep, but you could see all the way to the bottom, the water cascaded gently over the rocks, and the entire thing was enclosed in this tiny private area.  We continued to climb up the rocks until we reached the top….as in the area where people jump from.  We glanced over the edge and and realized just how far down it was………..  Melissa was brave and actually did it.  I stood at the edge for a while staring down that drop.  My internal monologue was something like:

Do it.  Do it.  DO IT!  Don’t be a baby.  JUST DO IT.

AHHHHHHHH!  Don’t do it!  You’ll be the ONE person to hit a rock and die.

Everyone is watching.  Don’t wimp out.

Be responsible.  Peer pressure is a bad thing. 

In the end, reason one out.  I couldn’t do it.  I jumped from a lower peak instead.  Gack!

 

Hanging out with everyone that night was a blast.  It was our last time to see everyone who doesn’t live in Kuma-gun, so we talked well up into the night….despite the horrible bugs!  When we went to our tent that night, the three of us crawled in.  Ian fell asleep immediately on his back.  UGH.  Whenever Ian sleeps on his back, he ALWAYS snores.  Melissa and I are both light sleepers, so snoring that could wake the dead just wasn’t going to cut it.  I would pinch his nose shut, but somehow he would still manage to snore through it.  I don’t know how!  It would get him to stop for a bit, but as soon as I was almost asleep, he would start again. 

I’m not exactly sure when I fell asleep, but I remember waking up through the night hearing Melissa getting out of the tent.  I assumed that she was just going to the bathroom.  When I woke up the following morning and didn’t see her laying next to me, I immediately thought Oh shit.  She fell off the mountain!  I got out of the tent, noticed that her stuff was gone, and decided to calm down.  If her stuff was gone, then at least she hadn’t fallen off the mountain!  I found her by the party area cleaning up the huge mess.  She said that she couldn’t sleep with Ian snoring, so she had gone back to the car to sleep for the night.

Once everyone else woke up and got their things together, we all decided to go to the beach.  Hurray!  Amakusa has the most beautiful beaches in Kumamoto (sorry, Ashikita!).  Although I’ve never been to Hawaii, the beach that we went to is what I imagine Hawaii looks like.  It was amazing!  The waves were really nice, too, so we enjoyed playing in them. 

 

After a bit, Ian, Melissa, and I decided that it was time for us to head back in order to return at a decent hour.  We said goodbye to everyone and promised to meet up again in the future somewhere.  Our drive back through Amakusa wasn’t so bad until we got stuck in that infamous Kami-amakusa traffic.  At a standstill in 90 degree heat, we crawled along.  What was even worse was that the three of us got burnt in that time!  We had on sun screen at the beach, but it had worn off long before we got in the car.  The sun beaming through the windshield ended up burning Melissa’s legs, my shoulders, and Ian’s face.  We hadn’t realized what had happened until we got out of Amakusa, and by then it was already too late.  Fail!

Anyway, that was our trip to Amakusa.  I’ve been meaning to write about it for a while, so here it is.  Ta-da!