Today was a big day. It was the last day that I would be at school with the students – they were having a closing ceremony, and starting tomorrow most of them wouldn’t come to school. In the staff room I was asked to make a goodbye speech to the teachers, so I did a short goodbye in Japanese. I was pretty nervous, though. The teachers all smiled and clapped, and I sat down with some relief at the end of the speech.
Soon after we had the closing ceremony in the gymnasium. I sat on the stage to one side in a chair, and then the principal came up on stage and spoke from the podium. He told the students how I had found a new job, how I had spent three years at the school and had even gotten married a year back. He pretty much stole the thunder from my speech, but that was OK. I listened politely off to the side while a thousand students watched me from the floor. As I looked around the gym and looked at faces I was struck by the fact that I could look at each student and remember something about them – in class, in club, in the hallways – somewhere we had had a conversation or made some kind of connection, and that was pretty impressive.
Finally it was time to make my speech. I stood up and spoke in English, thanking the students and telling them how happy I was to teach at the school and how much I would miss it. Then, I switched to Japanese and spoke for about five minutes. I told them about how I learned Japanese, what I will be doing next, and where I will be living next. It was fun to speak with them, although I was pretty nervous and I made lots of mistakes in Japanese. The students were smiling and reacting well, though. After my speech the student council gave me flowers, and made a short speech in English thanking me for my time at the school. I thanked them for the flowers, and then stepped down and walked to the back of the gym. As I walked down the line of students they smiled and nodded at me.
There was more ceremonial stuff to take care of, but at the end I stationed myself at the exit and as students walked by I said goodbye and good luck to them.
Back in the staff room, everyone congratulated me on the speech and gave me words of encouragement. Also, surprisingly many teachers gave me envelopes of cash. It is a Japanese custom, but I certainly didn’t expect it to be applied to me. At the end of the day I had nearly $400 in envelopes.
In the afternoon things slowed down quite a bit. I waited until there was a staff meeting, then headed home to do a quick wardrobe change and then go to Kobe to meet Nel and Kiyomi.
Nel and Kiyomi had organized a final get-together with me and Antoine, and they had invited Kuniko and Antoine’s girlfriend Miwako to meet up as well. Unfortunately Miwako couldn’t make it, so it was just the five of us. We all gathered in Kobe’s Harborland, and together went to a buffet style restaurant to pig out.
I hadn’t seen Kiyomi in a long time. She and Nel met in America, and she came here with Nel to live. They actually got married here in Japan. Kiyomi is from the Tokyo area, and they are planning on moving back that way in the next couple of days. Kiyomi is not shy at all about using English, and it is very good because of all her time living in America.
We sat around a table and talked and laughed and had a great time. Kiyomi and Nel told us about their new place in Tokyo (near a Mexican chain restaurant!) and Nel’s new job, and also that they were pregnant! They’ve been trying for almost a year now, so that was great news. It will be nice to have some friends in Tokyo – next time we visit we’ll have some futon space.
Antoine was happy about landing a job and someone to sponsor his visa. He’ll be teaching elementary school kids in Nishinomiya – the same city where I’ll be working, and is really happy about being able to stay in Japan. Anyway, everyone had good news to share, and we ate lots of food and drank plenty of beer. Afterwards we walked along the pier and then back to the train station. After doing a little shopping at an import foods store, we all made our way back home. It was a fun night, and a busy day for me.
