Picture of Sakiyama Junior High's VP and students marching during the opening ceremony of the track and field tournament. Mt. Onidake looms in the distance with a smoke stack blocking an otherwise perfect view. Damnit.
It's incredible to think that this time last year I was wrapping and packing up my life in Spokane preparing for my move to Goto. I was saying goodbye to friends and family, diligently researching anything I could learn about Goto and Nagasaki, and belatedly resuming my Japanese studies.
Now I find myself preparing to return to the U.S. Yesterday after an ALT meeting where we discussed departure steps and the last two months of classes, I bought boxes to send winter clothes and some possessions back to Washington State. At this point all my co-workers know I will be leaving. I am starting to learn the names of the new arrival ALTs and have a strong guess as to who my successor is (I will know officially soon enough). I am starting to figure out my last few months here will look. Very soon I will be on the move once again!
I am confident I will have a job and there are certainly plenty of things I want to do upon returning to America. In addition to Japanese stuff, I am bringing with me new skills and a greater sense of confidence and optimism in my own future. Living abroad, like any rewarding but challenging experience, subtlety changes your personality enhancing innate abilities you didn't know you had or developing entirely new ones.
I admit I have taken the foot off the pedal of my Japanese studies, but I was always a mediocre language student. I enjoy speaking and practicing the language but rarely take the time to study it; that's just not where my passion lies. Yet I am as involved in my schools as ever. I attended Midori Elementary's undokai or "Sports Day" several weeks ago; last Friday I helped clean the school pools with my students and co-workers at Sakiyama Elementary; on Sunday I cheered on Sakiyama Junior High at Goto's Junior High Track and Field Tournament. So I like to think I am finally managing to live in the present moment, an elusive state of mind that repeatedly escaped me in the past.
This Friday I will attend a meeting with all the other ALTs and Japanese Teachers of English (JTEs) at City Hall/Board of Education. We will discuss the development of Goto's English program and alongside several of my co-workers I will present my "short talk". My short talk is a short speech I say in English at the beginning of class to test my students' comprehension and listening skills. The topics vary from American culture, my interests and stuff about me/friends/family, what I did last weekend, etc. (one time I tried to talk about the holiday and movie Groundhog Day but that got lost in translation) It's an opportunity for students to hear a native speaker talk and a chance for them to learn a little more about the wider world around them.
This weekend I am getting off the island to visit Unzen and maybe Shimabara too. Unzen is famous for its onsen, beautiful mountains, and "hell". Many of the onsen are linked to a volcano and there are sulfur patches that have risen to the surface to create a Modor-like environment in Unzen. There are also stories how Christians were tortured and martyred in these scalding-hot sulfur pools centuries ago when the Tokugawa Shogunate banned Christianity. Sunday I will hang out in Nagasaki and perhaps watch "Guardians of the Galaxy 2". Don't get me wrong: I'm no comic fanatic but I thought the script-writers for Guardians 1 were on-point (the musical soundtrack was simply great). The last movie I saw in theaters was the latest Star Trek back in November! It's high time I treat myself.
That's all for now. I'm simply enjoying and preparing for the final stretch!
Midori Elementary's fourth grade students performing a dance during the Undokai. Persevering despite the heat!
The school divided into three teams all grades: red, yellow, and blue. Red ran away with the victory.
As a friend joked once, if Japan needed to militarize TOMORROW they could. Kids learn marching in elementary school. This may be less funny now as Abe has led conservatives to amend the peace clause of the Japanese Constitution...Still amazing how disciplined the students are!