I distinctly remember the rain on my last day in Japan, May 13th, In June of I finally returned. After years of dreaming I would someday return and practicing my Japanese, I made it back. Last week began the farewells, as I said good-bye to my third-years at my other school for the last time. They gave me those lovely flowers and a small board with notes from students saying how much fun they had with me. The kids were honestly the only reason I really loved teaching here.
I like my schools and my company, but what made me smile, what made me love it, were the kids. Tomorrow marks one year since I embarked on this journey. Well, it would be if it was a leap year and February 29th existed. But rather than dwelling on the mysteries of the Gregorian calendar, let me take a moment to highlight some of my favorite parts of this journey. Every year in the states my friends, family, etc. Every year, I turn up my flu-resilient nose at them and refuse shots or even daily cautions.
And then I experienced flu season in Japan. Props to Taiki for always remembering to take pictures! After a long day of on-going training on Saturday, a group of us decided to stay to play in Tokyo for a little bit. You know what I mean. Yesterday, a group of friends and I decided to take a trip two hours north to our nearest ski slope, Hunter Mountain.
As we drove, we noticed bad weather was moving in, but decided to give it a try regardless. This should have been our first sign. We had an awesome time skiing, despite the bad visibility and somewhat icy slopes. Around lunchtime we saw friends posting pictures of our home towns further south covered in snow.
Our second sign. Stupid me forgot to take a picture of our hosts. So here is a picture of cake! When trying to book hostels for Christmas in Hokkaido, we ran into a glaring problem: everything in our price-range was booked. Over my two-week break, I managed to tick two items off my bucket list:. These have been on that list since long before arriving here. Sunday, after an long night of partying, we dragged ourselves out of the house just in time for the sun to set and the illuminations in German Town to switch on.
