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Published: September 22nd 2006
Corrie, Rachel & Eve
Celebrating Eve's birthdayI have 4 more full days in Japan until I return to Canada! The time has gone by quickly, especially in the last week.
With it being my last week and Eve’s 24th birthday this week, I’ve been busy running around town and meeting with people. On Tuesday night I met Eve, Corrie, Dave, and Eve’s French students to celebrate her birthday with dinner at a local izakaya I hadn’t been to before. It was a fun night and a chance to practice my French- I haven’t had to speak French in such a long time, that I have forgotten a lot of simple vocabulary and ended up speaking a bizarre mix of English, French, and Japanese. Luckily, all of her students spoke English quite well for me, and the two non-French speakers, Dave and Corrie.
After dinner, we went to a bar for drinks. I’ve gone to a lot of new bars and restaurants for the first time this week. I’ve discovered a lot of new, delicious places. It figures I wouldn’t find them until my last few days here. For a smaller city, Fukushima is teeming with restaurants and bars- I wonder how some of them even
stay open since there never seems to be anyone in them.
Thursday was my last day teaching. I picked up some cakes from the local bakery and shared them with my wonderful class. The ladies in my class bought me a gift of a traditional fan and Japanese charm, and the company gave me a water bottle cooler- unpractical for packing, but useful none-the-less. My class- Jane, Nancy, Paula, Lee, Yoshy, Sue, and Mary- took me out for lunch at an Italian café near our classroom. It was a fun afternoon with good conversation. One of my students was crying when I hugged her goodbye. We all exchanged email addresses to try and keep in touch. And it seems as though Corrie will be taking over my classes next week, so it’s nice to know that my class will be in good hands with her.
Yesterday was also Eve’s actual birthday and I met up with her and 3 of her English students for cake at the school where Eve teaches, followed by a very filling dinner and an hour at karaoke.
Tonight’s plans again include more birthday celebrations with another group of friends before Eve and
I head to our onsen (hot spring) resort tomorrow afternoon. We’re very excited. Our Japanese friends are also excited that we are going and curious to see how we find this traditional Japanese experience…especially since bathing suits are not allowed in the baths and that you have to walk around din a yukata robe all weekend. It’ll be interesting and relaxing to say the least!
We’re heading to Tokyo Monday night, where I will spend my last two nights in Japan, cramming in some last minute sightseeing and events. My luggage is almost packed and it’s both really heavy and really full, so that’ll keep me from doing lots of shopping- whatever I buy, I’ll have to wear on the plane because I’m out of room!
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