Dear Friends,
Dear Friends,
I write to you from my work desk at one of the schools I have worked at over the past year. It is my last day of work here, and I feel compelled to update the world about my life in a rather concrete fashion. (Well, as concrete as it could be, posting on my blog with an audience of about 10.) It has been almost one year since I first arrived in Japan, and my time here has been filled since day one. Not simply filled with excitement, but with emotion, reflection, and a lot of evenings at home opting for sweets instead of turning on the stove for a proper meal.
Over the past year, I have been teaching English to students at two Japanese high schools in the city of Kobe. One of my schools was very close to my house, and I'd frequently find myself waking up with only a few minutes to get ready before running to work. It reminded me of running to class from Young O in the mornings :). I skipped a lot of breakfasts, since the only thing between my apartment complex and my school was a giant man-made lake/water resevoir, but that was fine with me since it was surrounded by beautiful nature-made wildflowers that bloomed and changed with the seasons. I ate a lot of Japanese curry, ramen, and udon in the school cafeteria. I ate a lot of cookies, pudding, and things stir-fried with kimchi at home. The students were the best part of working, by far. Some of my classes tried really hard all the time, and others were a pain to get to pay attention. At some point or another, I felt like something I did got through to them though. I realized that it was very unlikely that the kids would ever remember my lessons about summer vacation or remember the crazy tongue twisters we practiced, but hopefully they got a little more curious about what the world outside their beloved Kobe is like.
I had 3 advanced/elective classes, and during the month of June I had the students complete a movie project in pairs or groups, taping a short scene from 1min-5min . Some of the movies were completely original, others were scenes translated from Japanese shows, but most were short scenes from English movies. When the movie screening day came around, I knew that they were extremely proud of what they had made, as was I. (I'm still trying to figure out the legality of me uploading the videos to youtube).
Even though I've been here for a year, I didn't end up learning much Japanese. I can understand the train conductors and travel agents telling me directions or instructions, but in terms of what I myself can construct and speak on my own, pretty zilch-y. I'm actually giving a speech with a lot of Japanese in a few hours, but I got a lot of help from my Japanese-studying friends on contructing it, and pronunciation is pretty straightforward. Learning to speak Japanese would have been an admirable task, but I learned what I could in the time I had in a city where I could easily get away with speaking Japanenglish, miming, and dictionary help. Like much of my life in Japan, one day I could feel on top of the world because I could have a nice conversation with a lady while visiting a shrine, and the next day feel like a total fail because I couldn't find the post office. It's all a part of the life here.
During my time in Japan, I did a lot of travelling within the country. I was lucky enough that my mom, my best friend, and some of my buddies from college were all able to visit Japan at different times throughout the year. Living in Kobe, I am in a short, easy (but very expensive) train or bullet train (Shinkansen) ride to Osaka, Himeji, Kyoto, Nara, Hiroshima, and even Tokyo. I became well acquainted with train passes, buying discount tickets from old ladies (it HAS to be legal if they sell them right outside the station, right?), night trains, night buses, etc. My boyfriend, though also in Japan, lived clear on the other end of Honshu (the big island) in the Tohoku region of Japan. It gave me a good reason to visit even more of Japan though, and I'm really glad for it. We've done our best to see each other once a month or every six weeks, and we've had a lot of wonderful adventures together. iPhones and FaceTime are great inventions.
So what is next for me? Well in less than a week I need to move out of my apartment, and I will celebrate my one year anniversary in Japan by jetting off to Korea to visit my best friends. For a week I'll explore a new country, hang out with my girls and eat lots of real Korean food :) After that I will return to Japan (tourist-status and Japan Rail Pass in hand!) and explore Tokyo with my boyfriend, complete with DisneySEA, Mt. Fuji, and the Ghibli Museum. We'll meet up with his brother and brother's girlfriend, and play tourist in Japan one more time, hitting up my favorite festival in Nara, my favorite place in Miyajima Island, and exploring new places like Amanohashidate. It's actually hard to believe that my time in Japan is almost over, when I have so many things to look forward to.
That's all for now, it might be hard to believe, but even though I am going home soon, I still miss my friends and family very much. My heart is stretching out pretty well though :) so until next time, take care <3
Sincerely,
Elaine (your Japan-residing friend for the next 5 days)
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