Sayonara Japan, my home away from home

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It's time to go home. I can't believe it. I've waited until the last possible day to leave, and now I'm struggling with saying goodbye. It was a magical year that I would trade nothing for. I learned so much about other cultures, and a great deal about myself. I saw many amazing places, and met even more incredible people. It's not going to be easy to leave all of this behind.

My last few weeks of school were filled with goodbye lessons and games, as well as farewell ceremonies. Each school treated my leaving quite differently. Some didn't do much, as I'm sure they're all used to English teachers coming in and out of their lives. However other schools presented me with gifts and cards, and said wonderful things at school assemblies. At one Junior High School, all 200 students wrote me a letter in simple English. The top of each page reads "We Love Ms. Heather!".... It was so sweet. All of this made me wonder, why am I going home?

There were a lot of farewell parties in the evenings too....dinner, drinking and of course karaoke! Teaching, parties and packing kept me extremely busy! It all went by in a flash, and before I knew it, I had to move out. My year in Innoshima definetely had its up and downs. There were a few times that I wished that was far, far away from that island and cursed the day I decided to move here.... but in the end I grew to love Innoshima and the people dearly. There are so many things that I am going to miss about Japan...I've added a few photos down below.

Japan is my home away from home. I hope that I will return soon.

Thanks for sharing my adventure with me!
Heather

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Photos

Goodbye Party
Innoshima Board of Education

receiving my farewell gift
I got a fancy (and heavy!) version of the traditional board game "Go"....I played it all the time at school with the kids

Innoshima karaoke
with some friends...

English teachers' night out
Innoshima

Things I'm going to miss
Beds (futons) hanging out the window to get some sun

Things I'm going to miss
Taking the bus every day with the same people...my morning and afternoon friends

Things I'm going to miss
Being called "It" on a lesson plan!

Things I'm going to miss
Riding my bicycle past the beautiful mosaics on the main street...

Things I'm going to miss
Taking a ferry to work...

Things I'm going to miss
Living by the sea in a fishing town...

Things I'm going to miss
Arriving at school, and having hot green tea served to me...

Things I'm going to miss
Playing dodgeball at recess...

Comments

[Roothie]

Days Gone By
Yes, you surely did have a great experience there this year and even though you may have struggled to leave it, you probably left a little bit of "Heather" back there too. You touched lives and made a difference in a way you will may never fully know. A wonderful opportunity and you gained a lot from it!

[Suteishi]

Sayonara, and a bit of a boo hoo hoo....
Heza san! Thank you for bringing closure to your blogs:) I really enjoyed reading the final installments of Heza in Japan. I especially enjoyed this last one. I remember my sayonara blog was bittersweet as well. How do you say goodbye to such a lovely, beautiful year and the people to go along with it? I outwardly sighed at your taking the ferry to work and the hot, green tea as "things I'm going to miss." Let's just hope there's lots of good adventures still to come! Stacey

[Ethan]

Habu
Hey Heather, i've stumbbled across your entries more than once but I never realized that you had been living on Innoshima! I live way out on Uoshima, about an hour away from innoshima (pretty well known as one of the most rural placements on the jet program... 280 people, only 5 students, etc... do you know it?). Just yesterday i was out at the Innoshima International School day and probably saw a lot of your old students. They are a wild but cool bunch. Then I met up with the new jets out on In-to, jennie and angela. A good night of wandering around the Habu chinatown, karaoke, and picking up my weekly shopping at saty =) Hope all is well wherever you may have ended up.

[heatherinjapan]

Ethan.....
Hey Ethan. I'm surprised we never ran into each other in Habu during weekly rounds to Saty. man I miss going there! how was the International School Day? I started working on that, but (obviously) didn't get to see it through. You know, I always thought you were an urban myth....only having 5 students and all!! haha. Are you staying in Japan for another round after this one?