It is the eve of my one year anniversary and I feel the year coming full circle. Yesterday was the first day of spring and for the first time in a long time I felt warm again. Next week I will be going to Osaka with Nikki which is ironic as that is where this all began. As the school year ends already I'm a little nostalgic as I say good bye to my sixth years and some of my teachers but am I ever glad to be staying another year for I am not yet ready to say goodbye to everyone. But on to recapping what I have been up to. I fear I'm not as good at blogging as I used to be but partially this is because travel has been difficult in a) the cold and b) without Rhee. But without further adieu, here is this week’s episode of ‘Sarah goes to Japan.’
The weekend after mom left was a bit of a gloomy one, with the exception of the song and flowers one of my favourite class of graduates presented the teachers with, and as it had persisted into being cold for so long the plum blossoms weren't yet out and instead spent the weekend doing little projects like building a small garden to conceal the wildness of my yard. Then we had one brilliant day of sunshine that thawed the world and then it snowed again...
The next weekend, still not plum blossoms, so Kevin invited me to go back to Disneysea with a group of our students. This was fun but mostly our students did their own thing and we waited in intensely long lines to go on a couple of rides and then really just spent the rest of the time eating as Disneysea has this little pocket of delicious western food!
The Monday after Disneysea I was exhausted but managed to get myself to school to spend my last day with my other favourite group of graduates. This class had surprised me because in the beginning it was hard to connect with them and suddenly, without me even realizing it, we had become friends and could joke with one another and laugh like we weren’t actually studying. Anyways, bring it to present day, when I said this was our last class together they all broke into fake sobs and when I asked them ‘How are you?’ the replied ‘I’m sad’ with more fake tears and when a couple of them were like ‘I’m happy’ or ‘I’m sleepy’ my fans would yell at them that they couldn’t be happy or sleepy at a time like this! It made for great laughs and a fantastic last class and afterwards I gave them little certificates and they gave me a marvelous picture of all of us complete with little notes to me! ,^_^,
But I digressed the point of this was to say that on that Monday I went to a teacher’s house with a small group of my fifth and six years so we could practice English and celebrate the dolls festival. Hina no matsuri, is a festival held at the beginning of March and celebrates young girls. When a baby is born she will receive a set of her own dolls from her grandmother on her first hana no matsuri and she will set it up every year from then on. If she does not take it down after the festival she will never get married! So, they told me about it in English and then we had peach juice and made rice balls and mocha themed for the occasion. After my kids begged me to play with them so I ran about the neighbourhood and played tag and finally a weird version of badminton. Tanoshikatta desu!
A third weekend came with a bit of sun during the week so at last we went to see the plum blossoms in Mito, Ibaraki (a few hours northeast of me), hoping the warmth would have inspired them to open. It rained and they weren’t yet that flourishing. We still had a good time as Kairakuen is one of Japan’s three celebrated garden (I’ve been to all three now!) and it was beautiful but the rain was bitter. Sheena and I made the best of it while Laura and Chelsea enjoyed plum wine, and in the end I loved the blossom laden with rain drops and a beautiful old house in the corner of the garden that had many beautiful rooms each painted with a different Japanese flower and lit by lanterns. A gorgeous veranda surrounded all of it and I found myself resisting the urge constantly to sink to the wood and just sit in peace. Totally where I want to live when I’m rich enough to buy Japan’s cultural assets lol! But seriously, it was the prettiest place that I would want to live with a high tower that overlooked the garden and had the brightly lit tatami sitting room. Eventually the rain washed us out and we returned to the train to spend the next two hours to Tokyo drinking umeshu, plum wine, and playing Uno until we went for burritos in Tokyo and headed sleepily home.
Almost done! Okay so Sunday? Mmmm, I’m pretty sure I just slept as I don’t remember much of it. Oh! I went for a walk and visited our friends in Saruhashi and then had delicious chicken burgers for dinner with Kevin! Monday I went back to school for my last day at Kowaze and then Tuesday was officially the first day of Spring! In Japan, this is more than just reason to celebrate, this is reason for us to get a full day off school! And what a glorious first day of Spring it was! For the first time I could hang about outside in just a t-shirt and overall it was just the best, warmest day I have had in a long time! It began with microwaved pizza courtesy of Kevin and then we went down to our park and cleaned up garbage for an hour in the magnificent sun! When the typhoons came through last autumn they made sure that all the garbage swept up in our massively flooded river ended up right in our little park. It was a project we intended to work on for a while and finally were able to with a bit of time and a bit of sun. Too reward our efforts it stayed warm all day and we met up with Sheena, Mershon and some other gaijin in Kofu and went ume viewing again but this time with a blue sky as our back drop in this cute little garden on a hill. Then we went to the mall and ate subway and delicious cookies and watched the new Sherlock Holmes movie! It was a super fabulous day!
I’m so excited it’s Spring again. I feel warm and excited and have little reason not to smile. My students are all excited because I’m staying another year, and I’m getting loads of thank you letters from my graduates saying good bye and letting me know how fun and awesome I am! And Nikki comes this weekend! Life is pretty darn great right now!
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