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Published: March 22nd 2007
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Preparing for Missy's arrival, I aired out some unused futon from my closet. My friend, Missy, from back home in West Virginia has just come to visit me. We’re leaving this weekend for Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand (!!!), so I wanted to put one more blog entry in before our departure. We’re both really excited about our trip. I’m taking two weeks off for the spring break so that I can get out of the country for just a bit. Our plane flies into Singapore, then we will be making our way through Malaysia (by train and bus), and finally ending up in Thailand where we will be flying back to Japan from Phuket! So, I’ll be adding three new stamps to my passport all in two weeks! We don’t have any kind of set-in-stone itinerary, but places to where I’m definitely planning to go are Tama Negara (the oldest rainforest in the world), the Cameron Highlands (a highland rainforest in Malaysia covered with tea plantations), Georgetown (a northern multicultural city in Malaysia), and a couple of tropical island national parks in southern Thailand. I’ve checked what the weather is going to be like, and it’s in the upper 30’s, lower 40’s Celsius (90’s Fahrenheit) everyday. It’ll definitely be a big change from
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Yay! Nothing like sharing a unique experience with someone from back home. the cool spring we’ve been having here.
Anyway, right after Missy arrived, the end of the school and fiscal year came to a close. This means lots of graduation ceremonies and closing ceremonies at the schools. Thankfully, this meant that I wasn’t as busy preparing lessons. I was surprised that there are even graduation ceremonies held for the sixth grade elementary students who are moving on to junior high school and the third year junior high students who will be moving on to high school. Moreover, these ceremonies were put together better than my high school graduation or even my college graduation. The students’ songs were well-rehearsed (as opposed to my high school graduation song practice which was optional), the students, teachers, and other town and education representatives all made nice speeches, and the ceremony as a whole created a very touching atmosphere.
Another thing that surprised me was that EVERYONE cried! I had been told to expect many of the female students to cry, but many of the boys were crying too! In addition I caught several parents and teachers crying! One of my best English student’s speech almost brought ME to tears, but I kept it
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Missy braving the elements off of Matsubara beach on Yuge. together. Someone asked me if I had cried at my junior high school graduation, to which my first reply was, “We didn’t have a junior high school graduation, and even if we did, I definitely wouldn’t have cried.” I just remember how happy I was to finally get out of the hell that was South Junior High School! So, when I saw everyone here crying about graduation from junior high school, I thought they were all being a bit over-dramatic at first. But, it began to make sense when I thought about it (as things usually do).
I realized graduating from junior high school here is very different from the U.S. Moving on to high school in Japan is a lot like moving on to college is in the U.S. Junior high school students in Japan have to apply to different high schools, take difficult entrance exams, and compete to be accepted into the best high schools. Some kids have to start commuting a long distance every morning to get to the high school they are accepted into. Some students even have to move (which is the case on Yuge since this small island is such an inconvenient place to
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I now have a "house friend" to do my cleaning and cooking! This was how I found Missy when I came home from work one day! travel to a far-away high school). Some of my best students have been accepted to high schools in Imabari (on the mainland of Shikoku) to which they will commute an hour every morning by ferry. My best student has been accepted to a very prestigious high school in Hiroshima city (about two hours away on the mainland of Honshu). Therefore, this class of junior high school students is being split up, and they may never go to school again with their best friends. The class was very close to begin with, being together since preschool on the small island of Yuge, so this is a big transition for them. I guess the tears were fitting for the occasion.
After my junior high school ceremony was over, I was invited by my sixth graders at my elementary school to a graduation party they were having. They made chocolate chip pancakes for all of their teachers, and we all played games. One game was a quiz the kids had made about their teachers. They had drawn pictures of all their teachers’ faces, but not in human form. For example, there were teacher’s faces drawn on cartoon characters, animals, objects, etc. The
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The bicycle parking lot at my junior high school point of the game was for the teachers to pick out which face they thought was theirs and explain to the audience why this must be your face. I was sure a pink bunny with blond hair must have been me (since I am the only teacher that doesn’t have black hair), but I had guessed wrong. It turned out that I was a face drawn on a lemon (because I taught the kids the names of fruits in English???). Anyway, it was fun, and I am excited to have these students next year at the junior high school, so that I can start to teach them some real English!
So, after all the graduation ceremonies were over, Missy and I took a trip to Hiroshima for the weekend. We were both excited to get off the ghost town of Yuge and go wild in the big city, but by the end, we couldn’t wait to get back to the totally silent, stress-free island of Yuge. Still, we had lots of fun. We did a lot of shopping, but with the ridiculous prices in Japan, we didn’t buy much for ourselves. We did, however, pick out some adorable baby
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The third year junior high school students singing their farewell songs clothes for Missy’s new niece! Missy informed me that Hiroshima is famous for its paint brushes, so we made sure to see some of those. And, I informed Missy that Hiroshima is famous for its okonomiyaki, so we made sure to eat some of that (at the most famous okonomiyaki restaurant in Hiroshima). I have decided that okonomiyaki is the best thing for vegetarians to eat in Japan because it means “whatever you like, fried (in a pancake),” so you can pick whatever you want in it! But, we also ate at some delicious Indian and Italian restaurants. Finally, right before we took the bus back home (or as far as the bus can take us that is), we visited a nice garden in Hiroshima called, Shukkei-en. It was a nice walk around the park with lovely bridges and beautifully shaped bushes and trees. The ume (plum) and momo (peach) blossoms are out here, so that was also pretty.
Yesterday, the vernal equinox, was a national holiday in Japan. This holiday coincided with the Buddhist tradition in this area that takes place every month on the 21st. I wrote about it in more detail in an earlier blog, but
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Last chance for junior high school group pictures before they are big high school students in short, a kind of Buddhist pilgrimage takes place on this island where we walk around the whole island making offerings and paying respects at several places of worship. So Missy and I tagged along with three of the sweetest obaa-sans on Yuge. By the end of the day, I think we all felt like the joy of the events of the pilgrimage extended beyond any religious beliefs. We visited interesting places that even some of these old women, born and raised on Yuge had never seen, drank tea and chatted with women that were obaa-sans even to the obaa-sans (90-year old women), visited the grave of the 104-year old woman that I had made origami with earlier this year on the same pilgrimage, saw a 650-year old Japanese pine tree, picked some kind of strange wild vegetable in a field, and received more citrus fruit and junk food from all of our stops than any of us could eat. I was really happy that Missy was able to experience some of the love that these obaa-sans have given me since I arrived here, and she told me that she was too.
Well, there won’t be another blog posted
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My sixth grade elementary school students explaining the game they had made for their teachers. for at least two weeks while I’m in South East Asia, but you can be sure that I will have a full report (including lots of pictures) when I get back! Wish me luck!
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Christine
non-member comment
Hey Jennie!
Hey Jennie (and Missy!), I just randomly checked on your blog after a long time, and I see that we have another Mo-town representative in the East. That's awesome! Hope you guys have a good time, take some great pictures, and I'll try to remember to check back! Christine