Japan part 8

It's now our last month in Japan (in fact we'll be back in the states in exactly 3 weeks and 3 days ... Taco Bell here we come!); but we have been keeping busy and our last few days are filling up fast.

This past Saturday we went to our on-again-off-again pottery class and I had my weekly taiko practice. My last taiko will be on July 25th, and I'm definitely sad to be leaving! I've already done a Google search for taiko dojos in Tennessee and it seems like there are exactly zero in the eastern US, so it looks like this might be the end of my taiko days (for now anyway). However, my group is having a going away party for me and Ian a few days before we leave, and that will be fun :)

Yesterday (Sunday) one of the English classes that Ian tutors took the two of us out to dinner in Kobe. We went to a "Viking-Style" restaurant ("Viking-style" = Buffet .... I have no idea where they got the name from) overlooking the Kobe bay. It was really cool; Ian and I had never been to the Kobe waterfront before and now we want to go back at least one more time before we leave!

This week is my last week of school. On Wednesday all the JETs who are leaving Nara (myself included) will be going to Nara city to have a farewell ceremony and meet the Governor of Nara prefecture. We will get our picture taken together and get some sort of "Nara ambassador" certificate - which is cool - but we will also have to wear suits (in 85 degree weather with 85% humidity) and make a speech in Japanese - not so cool.... Then this Friday is my last day of school ever, so I have to make a speech to my teachers (in Japanese) and a speech to the entire school during the closing ceremony (in Japanese).

You may think that after a year of living in Japan we would both speak Japanese really well, but this is not the case! We both have a pretty good listening comprehension level, but our speaking skills are next to nil. However, I have written a basic speech in Japanese that I can use for all three occasions with a few little word changes here and there. My governors speech is about how I enjoyed Japan and will miss Japan; my teachers speech is about how I enjoyed Takatori and will miss teaching, and my closing ceremony speech is about how I enjoyed teaching and will miss the students. ( Clever, I know. )

Next week we are going to make our last day-trip to Kyoto (we've been there handful of times over the past year but it doesn't get old!) and we are also going to climb Mt. Fuji. As luck would have it, one of Ian's students is taking a short family vacation to Fuji next week and said that we could ride along with them! We weren't quite sure how to get to Fuji & back (and we heard it can be pretty pricey) so it's super nice and convenient that they are going to drive us. As a matter of fact, almost everyone here has been INCREDIBLY nice to us, so before we leave we are also going to go on a big shopping trip for some little gifts for all the people who've helped us along the way during our stay here.

Anyway - the week after that we have another going away party hosted by another one of Ian's classes, and we are also going to see a Hanshin Tigers baseball game. Hanshin is the Osaka/Kobe team, and the pride of the Kinki/Kansai area of Japan! We've heard that the games are quite an experience ... not so much because of the team, but because of their die-hard fans. Sometime in there we also want to make one last day trip up to Osaka and Nara cities.

Then on August 5th we will be back in the states!

Japan part 5

12/18/2008

Teaching is going well for me - two weeks ago we gave out our finals and last week we did grading. I actually really enjoy grading the students essays because they say the funniest things. For example: one essay question was, "is it okay to marry a foreigner?", and one student wrote - "yes, because if you marry a foreigner you will have a mongrel baby. Mongrel babies look like angels. Many times I buy magazines to admire mongrel babies." Don't we all?

This week I have been anxiously awaiting my winter break! Since Christmas isn't a holiday here I DO have to use some of my vacation days, but luckily not that many. Dec. 23rd is the Emperor's birthday (and so a national holiday) and then our school gives us off from Dec. 28 - Jan 4th for New Years. It's quite convenient!

While Christmas is not an actual holiday here, they do still celebrate it ... kind of.

"Merry Xmas" signs are literally EVERYWHERE in stores and buildings and train stations (but we have yet to see "Merry Christmas"), and in some of the bigger malls (and Starbucks) they have been playing American Christmas music non-stop for the past few weeks!

Japanese families with small children will sometimes get a Christmas tree (always fake) and give their kids 1 or 2 presents each ... but this usually stops before the child becomes a teenager.

Couples also celebrate Christmas by going out to eat at the neighborhood KFC (which is also decked out for Xmas; including colonel sanders dressed as Santa).

So, while it is definitely different here; we are still getting into the Christmas spirit! Most recently we went to Kobe to see the luminarie festival.

According to wikipedia:

"The Kobe Luminarie is a light festival held in Kobe, Japan every December. It began in 1995 and commemorates the Great Hanshin earthquake of that year. The lights were donated by the Italian Government. They are kept up for about two weeks and only turned on for a few hours each evening. Each light is individually hand-painted. Major streets in the vicinity are closed to auto traffic during these hours to allow pedestrians to fill the streets and enjoy the lights."

Unfortunately, because admission is free and Kobe is running out of money, this may be the last year they do the luminarie, so we were really glad we had the chance to go.