Saigo no hi (my last day)

Minsan ohayo gozaimasu.
Ima made osewa ni narimashita.
Mina to isshoni isshokenmei hataraite, tanoshikatta desu.
Mina ga sugoku yasashikatta. Jimusho no hito mo yasashikatta.
Mina no goshinsetsu wa, wasuremasen.
Takasu chuu no seito mo zettai wasuremasen.
Mo chotto America ni kaette, sensei ni naritai desu.
Shakai no sensei ni naritai desu.
Daitai ichi nen nanaka getsu mae ni Nihon ni kite, subarashii keiken ni narimashita.
America ni kaette mo, kono ii keiken o ikashite, gambaritai to omoimasu.
Yoroshiku onegai shimasu. (followed by a bow)

Good morning everyone.
Until now you've taken great care of me.
Together we worked as hard as we could together and I had a good time.
Everyone is so nice. The office workers are so nice too.
I won't forget everyone's kindness.
I won't forget Takasu Junior High's students either.
Pretty soon I'll go back to America, I want to become a teacher.
I want to become a social studies teacher.
I came to Japan about 1 year and 7 months ago and it's all become a wonderful experience.
I'm going back to America, but I will make the most of this good experience and want to do my best.
It's been a pleasure.

This was my goodbye speech to the teachers at Takasu Junior High School on my last day of work, two days ago. It's a little hard to translate because the over-simplistic tone of it in English is part of what makes it sound more natural in Japanese. In any case, knowing it was gonna be kind of a big deal, I didn't sleep that well the night before. But, I think it turned out quite well and was a great way to finish out my time at this school. I also had to give a speech to the ichi and ni-nensei (7th and 8th grade) students (the san-nensei graduated over 2 weeks ago) in the gym during the closing ceremony. That one turned out well too, and was more a mix of English and Japanese. And for both of these speeches I was fortunate to have my brother Matt there watching me speak to all the teachers and students on my last day of work in Japan.

So I'm all done with work, I've moved out of my apartment, and tomorrow Matt and I leave for Korea for our last hurrah before going back to the states. These past 2 weeks have been especially busy for me and I'm ready for things to slow down some so I have more time to sleep, think, etc... really I shouldn't worry about these things as my next move after Korea will be living at home with my parents in sleepy Medford, OR, looking for work and maybe trying to get into graduate school.

Really I think this might be my last post, lest I decide to post a few pics I'll take in Korea in the next few days. Being in Japan has truly been a wonderful experience overall; I wasn't lying when I said that to my co-teachers a few days ago. And as much as I can try to describe how life is here on my blog, it's not even a close substitute to seeing things in person; since my brother Matt arrived a week ago he's been doing just that and I feel lucky to be able to share some of my life here with him. About a year ago my parents, grandma and aunt came to visit, and my girlfriend Elizabeth has visited me a few times as well. I feel really happy to have had these visits.

I have to say that this whole experience would have probably sucked without all the love and support of my family, friends, and Elizabeth. I know that sounds tacky and simplistic but quite often it wasn't easy being over here, many times feeling alone and way out of my comfort zone. Without all your support I can't imagine how much more difficult it could have been. So to you all nothing you've done is lost on me. Arigato gozaimashita!

As I heard one graduating student say, 'Ima kara arukitsuzukemasu' - from now I will continue to walk. I like the sound of that.

A Staff Retreat (Shokuin Ryoko)

The weekend before last I went on a staff retreat with some teachers at the smaller school I work at, Ogura Chuu. Rather than rewrite what I've already written, I'll just post a letter I wrote my girlfriend right after I got back from the trip.

2/21/10

elizabeth ohayo!

yeah the trip was good! really the weather was perfect all weekend and the countryside looked beautiful where we went. yesterday a few of us climbed a mountain, a two hour hike, and saw an awesome view from the top. it was all snowy up top and the trees had icicles on them - yokatta! it was pretty steep actually and im happy we took the ropeway the way down.

gosh i took 3 baths this weekend. the first thing we did was stop at an onsen place to take a soak before lunch and the hike. then after the hike and checking into the hotel room we took another. i think this pre-dinner bath was like a given for these sensei. and i took one by myself this morning after breakfast while the other teachers were eating or still sleeping. honestly after so much time feeling a little out of my element it felt good to be alone for a bit.

what else...our first meal was japanese style korean bbq - yakiniku, which was bomb! we had that after taking a dip, and last night we had a pretty good feast too - fugu, or blowfish, (real expensive here) in different forms - sashimi, in soup, tempura style, and lots of beer. the group of teachers were more or less informal so there wasn't a lot of speeches or things like that - and there were just 18 teachers who went. anyway after the feast we had the 2nd party outside the hotel - at a 'snack bar' - like a lounge joint where we drank more. i was a bit sleep deprived then and lacking in language skills but everyone was so nice to me the whole time so i never really felt uncomfortable.

really im happy i went. and on the way back we stopped at a place that had these old buddha statues carved from stone on the sides of small cliffs - they looked really interesting and again the weather was good so it was nice to be out by the big bamboo trees and in the sunshine too. anyway we did a mini tour there before heading back.

for whatever reason i ended up bunking in the same room as the kocho sensei (principal)! im not sure how that worked out, i think the room plans weren't totally worked out and they were trying to figure out where to put me and whatever. kind of funny sleeping on a futon next to this guy but he was so polite and a kind of reserved guy anyway that thank heavens nothing awkward happened...
i remember waking up this morning and saying 'ohayo' to him after seeing he'd been up for a while and, because the night before he came back from the snack bar early to sleep, he asked me what time everyone got in last night. i squinted and said 'wakaranai' and felt it too early to be trying to come up with more polite japanese.

and the place we stayed was beppu, a town on the ocean, in a neighboring prefecture, famous for hot springs. i actually stayed there when my family came to visit me last spring for a weekend. anyway those are really the highlights and i wish i had pictures to send but my camera died cuz i was an idiot and forgot to charge it! i'll ask for some pics from the teachers who took pictures tho and email em when i can. it might be 2 weeks tho.

i had a moment today when a nice breeze hit my face after i saw some budding cherry blossoms and i thought gosh i totally love the weather. we most definitely, gotta, have to kick it outside this spring and enjoy fresh air, beautiful views and nature together.

hope u have a sunny sunday

paul

That's it! The only thing I wanna add on this post is that fugu is a poisonous fish and needs a skilled chef to remove the poisonous parts to make it edible.