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Published: August 4th 2012
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My last week in Japan! I could hardly believe a whole year had passed since I arrived in a nervous whirlwind the previous July.
The rainy season had passed and my house was transformed from the winter freezer into a baking, hot sauna. I sat, lethargically most days after school, sprawled on the sofa, sweat streaming down my face.....there was no respite from the heat unless I went and trawled around the local supermarkets to enjoy the aircon.
This was a busy week of cleaning, packing and parties. Monday was my first leaving party with the board of education guys. They picked me up from my house so I could drink and took me to a really nice traditional, and fairly informal, Japanese restaurant. We shared lots of delicious fish dishes - although at one stage they did resort to the "test" the foreigner's limits by encouraging me to eat a slice of raw whale and some cod innards. I wasn't overly keen to try whale, but to save face I tried a slice. It was similar in some ways to raw tuna, but fattier. The cod innards were surprisingly tasty. I was pleased to discover two of the
newer members of staff who joined the board in April, spoke very good English, which made the evening much more enjoyable for me. They gave me some lovely locally made crafts as a goodbye present. The sake flowed in large amounts and by the end we were having arm wrestling contests. They also told me I should stay in Japan and marry my supervisor (which did not appeal since he's 12 years my junior and really not my type!). All in all it was an excellent goodbye party...well maybe with the exception of the raw whale.
Wednesday was my last day in junior high school, with an end of term teachers' party in the evening. I nervously gave a goodbye speech (in very bad Japanese) in the end of year assembly. My students made me a thousand origami cranes, an amazing, beautiful gift, but also quite a challenge to get them home without squashing them! The evening event was a more formal affair than the party on Monday. I was driving, so soberly watched all the other teacher's getting rather quickly off their faces (the Japanese as a rule really cannot handle their drink). I gave another bad speech
and they gave me a pretty handmade parasol (which is a speciality craft of my village) as a leaving present. I was very touched and it is a lovely present - but it was certainly a challenge bringing it home as hand luggage! I half expected customs to stop me and declare it a potential weapon!
Both my elementary schools gave me wonderful goodbye assemblies, with the kids putting on little sayonara shows for me. My favourite was year 4.1 at the larger elementary, when they put on a mini festival with homemade dragon costumes and sang the YMCA in Japanese.
Thursday evening my lovely Eikaiwa group took me to a Koi Carp restaurant. The place is famous in the area for being one of the best carp restaurants in Iida. It was small and most of the space was taken up with a rather fancy indoor pond! We had a delicious meal of several courses. The first was carp sashimi in an iceboat, followed by baked carp (my favourite) and then carp stew.....really good food, but I was a bit over carped by the end! My group bought me a pretty yukkata (summer kimono) as a goodbye
present, and the ladies gave me an impromptu lesson is wearing it in the restaurant at the end of the meal! They have been such good friends to me this year I will really miss them all. Kinoshita-san gave me a lift to the highway bus on Sunday and Sumiko-san joined her to wave me off - it was lovely to have the two of them there at the end of my time in Iida.
Friday I went into school for one last time for a teachers' sports day and played mallet golf all aftenoon (which is basically like crazy golf but with croquet mallets), which was fun if exhausting in the sweltering heat. In the evening my friend Yuka invited me to her house for a goodbye Okonomiyaki party. Finally on Saturday, I finished my packing and cleaning, then went to an amazing fireworks festival in Anan (a village 40 minutes south of Iida), with several of my teacher friends. A really perfect end to the year. I was sad the year had come to an end, but also relieved to be coming home.
I got back to the UK on Monday 30th July, after a long
12 hour flight from Narita. It felt good to be home - and a week later, Japan already seems like another lifetime and another world away.
I'm glad I did my year in Japan. When I think back, I got the opportunity to meet some fantastic people, visit some beautiful places and to do some amazing things. It wasn't always easy, and there were certainly many times where I questioned why I'd chosen to come - when the language barrier made me lonely and the cold weather made me want to hibernate, when I missed my family and friends back home, pranged my car and got captured by a crazy Buddhist cult....but I think overall the good stuff far outweighed the bad.
So sayonara and arigato Japan....it's been a memorable adventure.
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