I'm leavin on a Jet Plane...

...in only one month! My JET Programme experiences ends in just a short 27 days. Wow, what a scary but exciting experience. Things are winding down and I still don't think my head is wrapped around what this means for me. I am packing up my entire post university life and saying goodbye to people to I have relied on for so much support emotional and otherwise over the last three years. I am not really afraid of change so I know when I come home things will work out, but saying goodbye is really hard. Last Friday was my last taiko concert, and this week is my last JHS visit. July is the month of goodbyes!! I have already had my official 'sayonara' visit with the Superintendent of the Board of Education and one with all the big wigs from the various departments in the BOE. This week I will go to Fukushima City to have formal farewell meeting with the Governor of Fukushima Ken and all the leaving JETS in my prefecture this year.

Some things i'm gonna miss about Japan (outside of my friends):
karaoke
onigiri (rice balls)
festivals
taiko
conveyer belt sushi
customer service
ramen
izakaya style restaurants/bars
the crazyness that is Tokyo
amazing trains
Japanese style convenience stores

Some things Im looking forward to:
seeing friends and family
Carlas wedding
traveling
shoe shopping
western grocery stores

Almost Famous

I'm famous...well almost! I often feel like a minor celebraty in Japan. In my three years here I have taught soo many students that now when I walk around the city I almost always bump into someone who recognizes me and says hello. It makes me feel like i've made a difference and have encouraged at least some students to not be afraid of using English (even just to say Hello) outside of school.

I HEART Tokyo

I love Tokyo! I have visted Tokyo 5 times in the last month and every time I have seen different areas that just make me love Tokyo more and more. On such thing are the 'themed streets'. Tokyo has different streets for everything. Im not sure how good it is for business but on these streets most of the stores will all sell the same thing. From my seat on the bus I passed a 'hobby street', 'sporting good street', 'traditional Japanese shoe street'. I also know of an area that specializes in Electronics where all the department stores just sell the same thing! It is such a unique way to conduct business.

Tokyo is also the land of themed restaurants. When mom and Carla were here we went to what i would consider the classiest one The Ninja Restaurant. Two weekends ago I went to Arabian Nights- an Aladdin themed restaurant where a guy dressed as Jafar from Aladdin brought my friend a cake for our party. Other themed places I know of are ER, Alcatraz, The Lock up, and Princess Cafe.

Tokyo never ceases to amaze me! My weekly trips to sort my visas for my summer trip have been the perfect opportunity for me to really explore Tokyo on my own. As inconvenient as the trips have been they let me spend more time in a wonderful city.

Funny school visits

One of my favourite school lessons is a sannensei (3rd grade/grade 9) lesson. The target sentence is " The letters make us happy". This particular visit was my last visit at the school and as a surprise to me the teacher had the students give me goodbye messages in the last 5 minutes of class. Here's what some of the kids said.

"Nicole teacher makes us happy."
"Nicole teachers lessons make us excited. "
"I'll never forget Ms. Nicole"

One student made a mistake and said "I'll never forget me"- how cute?!

More Mr. Potatohead

In June I enjoyed another Potekai get together. This time we went to a BBQ site near the Shinmaiko beach. One of greatest parts of this day (aside from the great food and fun game of BINGO) was the Japanese Girl Scouts that we met. The scouts were local school children who were very excited to see English People. They took turns introducing themselves and singing all the English songs they could remember from school. Japanese Kids are soo cute!!

Hanami

Hanami is the Japanese celebration of Cherry Blossoms. This season Ichida no Kai (my taiko team) played at a Shrine in the town of Ogawa in Iwaki along with a bunch of other taiko groups. This shrine is famous in Iwaki for its weeping cherry tree.

Another BBQ

A group of use went back to Eda for a BBQ during our final Goldenweek Long weekend in May. This time we invited our Japanese friends to join us as well. We had a wonderful crowd and followed up the BBQ goodness with hours of karaoke!!

Badminton in Izumi

We followed Masahiros official goodbye party with a get together at Junkos (Capetowns leader) house. Junkos house party was for Masahiro but it was also a chance for all of use to meet Kyokos (her daughter) boyfriend. We played badminton in the backyard and enjoyed a pot luck meal and drinks that lasted from 4pm till 10pm. Capetown goodtimes!

Capetown Forever

My adult conversation circle is called Capetown. At the end of April Capetown had a party because one of the founding members (Masahiro) moved to San Francisco to study English for 6 months. We all went to an izakaya, sat on the floor and enjoyed a 2 hour set food course and nomihoudai (all you can drink). We passed around a shikishi (a square piece of cardboard) where we all wrote our goodluck notes for Masahira then presented it to him with a polaroid of the group in the middle.

Masahiros final words were - I love Capetown! Foerever Capetown, Capetown Forever!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CANADA!!
140 YEARS!!!