Blogs from Kamijima, Ochi, Ehime, Japan, Asia

This is my last blog entry. I decided to make it a kind of "best of" list. I've posted all of my favorite photos I took during my two years teaching in Japan. In addition, I have a few lists I made during my last couple of months in Japan: my opinion of the best things about Japan and the worst things about Japan. I realized that a lot of my favorite things and least favorite things about Japan involve food, so I made a separate list: My favorite food in Japan that I can't get easily in the U.S. and Food I miss from the U.S. The items on the lists are in no particular order. Enjoy! Best Things about Japan: -tatami floors -practical bicycles -traditions (music, tea ceremony, ikebana, art) -festivals -public transportation -enka ... read more

Well, what can I say? This is it. The end of my two years in Japan. The end of my life as Jennie-Sensei, as the only white person in the community, as the first woman to come here to teach English, as that weirdo who got countless stares but even more cheerful greetings, as an independent woman taking on the world. Obviously, the past two years hasn’t been all adventure and enlightenment. There was a lot of loneliness, feelings of not fitting in, frustration with language, culture, coworkers. But as a whole, these last two years were exactly what my predecessors said they would be: a life-changing experience. Not only have I opened my eyes, mind, and heart to ways of the world I never knew existed, but I have also had the time (a LOT ... read more

The countdown has begun. It is officially only one more month until I leave my Yuge home. I’ve started to get schmaltzy about everything these days, thinking it may be the “last time.” Seriously…I need to pull myself together. I even get teary-eyed if I see a commercial I like on TV thinking “this might be the last time I see this commercial!” or if I buy some dish detergent at the supermarket thinking “this might be the last time I every buy another bottle of dish detergent here!” Yes, it’s a little out of control. But, I’m not the only person tearing up. All of my students, for the most part, are in the dark about me leaving in a month. Most of them probably won’t know until maybe a week before I leave. But, ... read more

Spring has come to my little corner of Japan! And in Japan, spring time means only one thing…SAKURA! Sakura is the Japanese word for cherry blossoms. Sakura are a national symbol of Japan, and Japanese people are not short of obsessed with the flowers. Every night the national news reports on the sakura developments throughout the country, and every weather forecast is transformed into a sakura tracker to update the public as the sakura zensen (cherry blossom front) moves northward up the archipelago. Sakura are so sacred in the Japanese culture because they are only in bloom for about two weeks every year, so they are a symbol of the transient nature of life. Every year during the sakura season several pop music singers come out with sakura-themed songs, traditional Japanese dance and music performances are ... read more

Well, I have now crossed another item off my list of “things to do in Japan before I leave.” For a long time I have wanted to visit a small island in the Inland Sea called Naoshima. It is known to be an art island, and although it’s about the same size as Yuge, it has the attractions of two large contemporary art museums. Most of the people who live on the island are somehow affiliated with the art world, and there are also many old village houses that have been converted into art spaces. I thought it was a bit out of the ordinary that such a remote island in the Inland Sea, like the island I live on, could have such a thriving art community, when usually such art is seen in big cities. ... read more