Thursday I took a break from my morning study routine and caught a train into Nishinomiya to visit my old school (Hamawaki Junior High School) for their sports day event.
I had forgotten about the commute – it’s a long one. I jammed into a train and made the change at Sannomiya and then on to Nishinomiya. The whole time I was wondering how I did this every day for nine months. I was travelling at a busier time of day today, so that might explain things a little bit.
There’s a word in Japanese, æ‡ã‹ã—ã„ (natsukashii) which doesn’t really translate into English, but it fit the situation today really well. It means a sense of happy remembrance of something in the past, kind of an appreciation of something that is gone now. I found myself saying that pretty much the whole time I was there.
The school’s second and third year students were around when I was there, but the first year students didn’t know me at all. The students were really surprised and happy to see me, and it was really good to see them. Their English level is pretty high, especially compared to what I’m used to nowadays, and we chatted while sports day was going on. The teachers also were really nice and friendly, and we caught up on what has been going on with them and with me.
I also got to meet my replacement. I didn’t catch his name when he introduced himself, and I had a hard time understanding his English (which is a bad sign when he is an English teacher). He is from Cameroon, and has been in Japan for two and a half years. The teachers seemed to like him, and some of the students said hello to him while I was around so I think it is working out OK.
It was a busy day for everyone so I didn’t get to talk to any one person for too long, but we’re going to try to throw a little party sometime in November. It’ll be good to catch up more with everyone.
I left around 11 o’clock, and headed back to the station. Instead of taking the Hanshin train back like usual, I walked on to the JR station which turned out to be about 15 minutes northeast of the Hanshin station. We’re staking out Nishinomiya as a place to live in the future perhaps.
The rest of the day was the normal set of classes in the evening, and then I headed home afterwards while dealing with a truant student and his mother on my cellphone. The student had cut class in the past, so the mother asked me to message her if he was absent again. This time he came home and said that English class was really good this time and she showed him my message… busted! She put him on the phone and I had to ask him just exactly what he was doing and play the bad guy. Yuck.
Still, after the conversation was over and the mother and I had talked about what to do about the situation, I congratulated myself on speaking Japanese well enough to handle somewhat delicate situations like that.
It’s almost the end of the week. Kuniko has a busy weekend, but I should have a quiet one. I’m hoping the weather continues to cool down so that I can hit the trails again.
