Goodbye!

I'm turning my keys in, in about an hour or two! I will be KEYLESS! Whoa, not a key to my name! :( Well, hopefully my father will return my car key to me when I get home. :)

Tonight I head with Alice to Shimonoseki (thank you Matt and Bethany for your hospitality!).

Tomorrow we head off together to Nagasaki for a couple of days.

8/3 To Mt. Aso we go! The biggest volcano in the world!

8/5 Goodbye for now, Alice, I'm off to meet Christina in Fukuoka!

8/6~8/9 Hello again Korea!!

8/10 A day of rest in Hofu at Christina's place (thank you thank you my dai tomodachi)

8/11 Off to Onomichi to rent some bikes and ride across 6 islands to Shikoku!

8/12~8/14 What's up Shikoku? Nice to meet you!

8/15 Night bus from Shin-yamaguchi to Kyoto

8/16 Daimonji (大文字) in Kyoto with Alice again! Long time no see!

8/17 Early morning shinkansen up to Tokyo to use my three remaining nights taking advantage of the hospitality of my very good friends Preston and Junko. Maybe meet up with Sarah, or whoever else is around!

8/20~~CALIFORNIA!!!!!!

Well, I will have to finish up my Japan Time blog from America, because I think I'm going to leave my computer (and some luggage) with my friend Naoya until August 15th, the last time I see Hofu... but I here are just a few of the goodbye's I want to mention!

Goodbye disgusting Japanese food! I don't know what she is eating...it was probably very tasty..but the half of the food here that is not tasty--- see you!

Goodbye Choruru!!! I will always love you! Take care of Yamaguchi for me!

Goodbye crazy Japanese people! Oh, and of course the normal Japanese people too. :D

Goodbye Hofu city children that say "HALLO!" to me everytime I pass! You haven't seen the last of this white girl!

Goodbye my lovely Japanese class! You taught me so much! I learned some. But you taught me so much! I when I die, I can remember everything from my life with perfect clarity, I will surely be able to speak Japanese in the afterlife. :D

Goodbye friends, schools, apartment, everything and everyone. Japan was the best time of my whole life. I love you.

So, yes hopefully I'll finish off all my planned blogs in late August or September. Thanks for reading everyone. *hugs*

Official Leaver's Ceremony

Once upon a time, on July 8th, 2011, it was time for the Prefecture of Yamaguchi, Japan, to officially let me go. ...

As a JET teacher, I am employed by Japan, not by a private company. I always thought that was the coolest part of my job. :) So ending our contracts is a pretty big thing. Very formal, and Japanese style. Here is a view from the prefectural office's 14th floor. Yamaguchi city is the capital of Yamaguchi, and here I was, looking out on it all. So beautiful. !!

I've always meant to count the number of bows in a typical Japanese ceremony, but I never actually did...and I have exactly zero ceremonies left. I'm done. I'm out. I am going to work for 2 more days, but everything big is done, and it's time for me to get on with my life. The future is pretty exciting, I must say.

I received this, along with some other paperwork, and then the traditional gift that people get when leaving Yamaguchi. I can't put a picture of mine up, because I already sent my two sets home (one from Yamaguchi Prefecture, and one from a private adult class I teach, that had the same idea.) But click here to see the gift: Traditional folk handicraft, Ouchi Dolls . Made in Yamaguchi! Yay!!

Here's all the prefectual JETs that are leaving. We all either stayed here for 1, 2 or 3 years. I'm right in the middle, length-of-stay wise.

Our gang sign is Yamaguchi--- 山口！

Rice Bowl

AJET (the peer-run social organization for our assistant language teacher network) put together a wonderful event for us JET teachers in Yamaguchi Ken!

There were about 12 events...3 of them simply being JANKEN (or Rock, Paper, Scissors) which is really funny if you live here. It seems like all decisions in Japan are based off of Rock, Paper, Scissors. Americans often do a "coin toss" but Japanese people do Janken, and at a rate that would alarm most rational people. hehe.

The other events were awesome. One event, for example was a relay for each team of 4 members. The first person had to use chopsticks to get a cup of marbles from one cup to the next. Next was perhaps, moving a deck of playing cards one by one, with only the chopsticks, and last one was transferring a bowl of uncooked rice into another bowl. Very silly and fun. There were also events that tested us on our knowledge of the Japanese language, and Japanese culture/pop culture. It was a great day!

My team:

Christina-chan, Eric-kun, me, Kris-chan.

WE WON! Yes. We won. :) I still have my awesome trophy, shaped as a bowl of rice.

Down time activities

Badminton is one of the most popular sports in Japan. Before coming here, maybe I played it in Junior High School a few times? But I didn't really know anything about it. I would always prefer volleyball, but on some days when there are no classes, some of the other teachers invite me to play! And it's fun! I just stink at it. I can't get use to the badminton racquet. I treat it like a tennis racket..which I probably don't know how to use either. haha.

I really like the camaraderie between teachers at my base school. Through random spontaneous sporting events like this, I have learned so much useful vocabulary too. Close one! In! Out! You suck! Winner! Loser! I get called a loser often, you see. hehe.

My supervisor, below, is the badminton queen of the world! I probably won't ever play again, after leaving Japan! How sad!!! Great memories here. :)

Goodbye enkai

In a few minutes, I'll be leaving to a goodbye party thrown for me by my base school. I'm nervous about crying. Only 14 people signed up to come, but that means it's the 14 people that like me the best, so I'll totally have a propensity to cry!

These are pictures from a formal enkai earlier in the year, sometime. hehe. Maybe 2010 even! But tonight, my enkai is at Tre Buono, a nice Italian restaurant in town, which specializes in parties and such. So hopefully the food will not look like the food below. ;) I'm sure it won't, I've been to a few parties at Tre Buono, and it's always great food, and a bit too much drink.

P.S., it's not that I don't like Japanese food. It's that I don't like expensive Japanese enkai food. It's always like a 80 dollar party, with fancy food that tastes like butt, and I can't eat 90% of it since I don't eat meat meat (I eat fish).

I'll post pics of all my goodbye parties over the coming weeks! So many blogs to catch up on, as I'm sure no one is going to be interested in reading about my Japan experience after I return home! Maybe I'll just pretend I'm still here, as I wrap up my Japan Time blog... ;)

I'll miss lots

It's less than a month now, until I return home to America!

I am going to miss so many things. One thing, is just being famous. Sticking out. I like sticking out. Probably most people don't, but I do.

Here, I'm walking along the other side of the street... Some Junior High School boys see me from their cram school...sticking their heads out of the second story window.

"HELLO!!! HELLO HELLO!!! My name is naninani. HELLO!"

Students talk to me whenever they see me, wherever they see me. These students almost fell out the window trying to get me to come talk to them.

I will miss random groups of girls look at me, and then exclaim "Kawaii!!!" (so cute!!) just because I smile and say hello. No one will ever call me kawaii again, after my return. :(