Final farewells: The end is real

Last Wednesday was the Inagakuen closing ceremony. Kira, Aaron, Antoine and I all made our final speeches to the school in the morning. Kira and Aaron made their speeches mostly in Japanese with a little bit of English. Kira cried near the end of her speech, Aaron teared up a little. I made my speech mostly in English, with Japanese at the end. I didn’t cry, but I did start choking up. It got to the point where I skipped over a few of the lines I prepared and wrote down, and just went straight to the end. I mostly talked about how Inagakuen is such a special school, and how lucky I felt to have been able to stay there for five years.

I was expecting Antoine to make a long speech in Japanese, burt he actually mostly just shouted BONJOUR! and ran around the stage, and took pictures of the students before making a short farewell statement in French and Japanese.

After the closing ceremony, I made another final farewell speech to the staff of House 2, all in Japanese. In this speech, I actually mentioned that I was heading off to graduate school to study International Education Management. A lot of my co-workers think that means I’ll definitely be coming back to Japan afterwards. I’m not so sure that is actually going to happen, but if possible, I would love to come back and visit for the 2020 Olympics.

After making my speech, I actually went around the school to say some personal good-byes to some of the English teachers that I worked with, and I gave a few of the teachers some of my hand-knit scarves as a good bye present. When I gave my gift to Tsuji-sensei, she actually started to cry, then I started to cry. Overall, it was a very emotional day.

Basically, after saying good bye, I spent most of my time at work cleaning out my desk, and packing everything in boxes since 2 house will be renovated over the summer. Now that everything is moved into a temporary English office in 6 house, I’ve been spending most of my time packing, and bringing over things to leave for my successor when she arrives.

I’ve also been bringing so many things to second-hand stores, and just straight up throwing some things away in the trash. I feel a bit guilty for being wasteful, but at the same time, everything has to go, and the second-hand shops in Japan don’t always accept everything. It’s been stressful, but I think I can say that I’ve got it all packed and ready to go when I leave this July 31st!

Last week, some of my lolita friends threw me a good-bye tea party. It was technically a joint tea party with our friend Yumiko, to celebrate her birthday. I gave everyone a goodie-bag of accessories and jewelry that I know I’m not going to wear anymore. I also included some hand-knit accessories and some tea that I never drank. Everyone was glad about their bags, and I basically said, “I hope you enjoy your good-bye presents. Do not hand them back to me.” 😉

Included in each goodie bag was a personalized note for each of the girls who attended. I wrote Yumiko’s and Hina’s notes in Japanese. Hina opened and read her note before the end of the party, and started crying. At least I’ll see some of the girls one more time before I leave Japan.

In my free time this past week, when I’m not packing and making preparations to go back home, I’ve been playing Pokémon Go. Charlotte, Serena, and I were watching with jealousy as our friends back in America, Australia and New Zealand were able to start playing weeks ahead of us, but it finally became available in Japan last Friday. You’d think it would’ve been released in Japan earlier, considering this is the country where Pokémon is from. It is definitely an addicting game, that eats up my phone battery real fast.

I’m glad it came out before I leave Japan. I can get some of the playing out of the way before I have to start studying next month, and it actually makes my Japan experience just that more Otaku-like. Actually, the day it came out, Charlotte and I went to the park across the street from the school, and ran into some groups of our students also playing Pokémon Go. The students got real excited when they saw that we were playing it too, and we’d point out where in the park we saw certain Pokémon.

It just makes me that much more sad that I’m leaving, because this game is another thing that I could talk about and use to bond with the students, but now I’m leaving. 

Either way, I’m counting down the final days here in Japan. I’m actually looking forward to going home, but the reality of the situation hasn’t quite sunk in yet.

Anyway, I have two days left! I’ll let you all know how the transition home goes.

Sayounara.

Bittersweet and Awkward Good byes

As always, I’m really bad at writing consistently, but I think I have a good excuse. I’ve been busy with finishing up all of my financial aid paperwork for grad school, packing things and shipping them home, sorting clothes and other things in my house, and making multiple trips to second hand shops like Hard Off and Kinji.

It’s kind of frustrating when I pack so many things to get rid of, only to have the second hand shop refuse to take most things. Yet, on a good day I can convince them to take everything, even if they’re not going to buy everything from me. Also, in the past week, I’ve just been trashing more and more things, just so it’s out of the apartment.

Anyway, I officially move out of my apartment on July 31st, and I fly out of Japan on August 1st. I also found out who my successor is. I won’t write her name here though, but I do know she’s around the same age as me, and is recently married, so her husband is coming over with her. Since I have many random household items lying around, I’m just going to be leaving my old dishes, laundry items, space heater, fan, and bike for her to use once she gets here. She doesn’t arrive at Inagakuen until around August 5th I think, so I won’t be meeting her.

I’ve also been finishing up my final classes at Inagakuen. It feels so weird, because I know I have no more classes to teach, but it still feels like I’ll be coming back to these same students in  September.

I said my good-byes to my students at Okegawa high school a few weeks ago. I wasn’t sad, because I’ve only really known these students for about 3 months at most, so I didn’t really feel an attachment to them, but I am going to miss some of the teachers that I worked with. I also went to the Okegawa English department’s drinking party, and since I am leaving, I was given a good-bye present. They actually gave me a money envelope with 3,000 yen! Of course I stashed it away to use for moving expenses later this month.

Even though I finished up my classes at Okegawa two weeks ago, I got called back again last Wednesday so that I could make my final farewell speech to the staff at the morning meeting. It was very short. I basically just said that I was returning home, and that everyone was very kind, thank you. However, before I left, I had to say good bye one on one with the Principal and Vice Principal. Once I did that, I said my final good-byes to the English teachers (again) and then rode my bike back to Inagakuen.

Later that same afternoon at Inagakuen, there was a foreign language teachers’ meeting, and Kira, Aaron and I gave our good bye speeches to the staff, and we were each given a bouquet of flowers and a gift. The gift turned out to be Japanese geta. They’re beautiful, and I’m glad whoever bought them was smart enough to buy the large size. They just fit my feet.

Last Friday was our final Sogo Eigo class, which is the elective English class that’s focused on debate. We had a short end of term party for the students, and even had a mini talent show. Many of the students tailored their talents to me. Two girls did “quizzes” for their talents, and included questions about me. Two girls knew I really like the movie Frozen, and did a lip sync to “Love is an Open Door.”

I haven’t really started crying or tearing up much during all of these good-byes, but I actually tried really hard not to cry when another two of my students sang an Okinawa song for their talent. I’m actually really sad that I won’t be able to finish the school year with them. I know I’m technically not supposed to play favorites, but that Sogo Eigo class is my favorite class to teach, and has some of the best students.

All of my classes at Inagakuen have finally finished, and I’ve been cleaning my desk and sorting through things to leave for my successor for her to use when she arrives. I also have to pack everything in boxes and move it to either House 6 or House 4, since House 2 is being renovated, including the Foreign Language office.

Tomorrow is the closing ceremony, and Kira, Aaron and I are going to be giving our good-bye speeches to the whole school. I’m kind of mad at myself for not learning more Japanese than I have in the five years that I have lived here, but I guess it’s part of the circumstances of my job, and the people who I’ve made friends with here. Anyway, most of my speech will be in English, with some Japanese thrown in. Let’s see how well I can keep it together tomorrow.