Goodbye Kitachu!

Yesterday was my last official day at Kitachu.  I had my final class and the school prepared my farewell ceremony.  I was given a bouquet of beautiful flowers, said my speech and exited to a standing ovation like some kind of super star.  I spent the rest of the day cleaning out my desk, saying my goodbyes and signing kids' folders, books and pencil cases.  

That evening my school had a farewell enkai for me.  I finally had a chat with the new principal and other administrative people.  Most memorable was chatting with my kyoutou sensei about my future endeavors.  He told me that I kumi was happy to have class with me.  That made me tear and smile at the same time.

Today I went to school to work with my speech competition students.  It was our first time practicing together but they did so well.  I wish I could watch them perform their speeches in September.

Then when I was leaving one of my teachers said her goodbye to me.  It was so emotional that we were hugging each other with red teary eyes.  I was surprised that I made such an impact on her.  I think we made a good team when we taught with each other.  And I will miss her as much as she will miss me.

The goodbyes will continue as I will take purikura with my former sannensei student and have my last badminton practice at Ozaki.

Out with the old...in with the new

I realized when I played badminton on Friday that my grip was done for.  I've had the same grip for some time so it was dirty and lost its tackiness.  To make it worse, the humidity had gotten to it; making it damp with sweat from its last use.  Yuck!  My practice that night was terrible and my racket even slipped out of my hand.

My last racket was gripped by my kareshi because he has regripped many times before.  He's not here so I had to consult YouTube sensei.  After a couple of tries, I haphazardly succeeded.  Or at least that's what I think until I play again on Thursday.

I also purged half of my wardrobe.   Not a big shopper so this was a big step for me.  What moving constantly has forced me to do is pack lighter.  So I want to have more room for omiyage.  That means I need to get rid of my stuff.  I filled up a Nitori bag of stuff to purge.

After discarding all that stuff, I replaced it with one skirt :p. I wish I was more of a shopper sometimes.

Chiffon cake!

Saying goodbye seems to drag out longer than I would like.  For example, today I said goodbye to little Midori chan about 20 times.  I don't know if I'll see her and her family again before I leave.  I want to at least stop by so we can take pictures together.

Anywho, we made chiffon cake together.  I remember I tried to make it a long long time ago and failed with a flat dense cake.  That was my first time making a meringue and didn't know anything about shiny stiff peaks.  So when Sasaki Sensei showed me how to make it today, I knew what she was trying to tell me even though I don't understand more than half of the Japanese she was saying.  Success!  She made some fresh whipped cream too.  We ate both with sweet blueberries!  To top it all off, I watched DVDs with Midori chan while mom could relax a bit.  I'm going to miss this family!

Hawaii Sunday

The entire day reminded me of home.  I feel even more excited to be going home in about a month.  The days events went like this:

1:  My cousin finished her 9-month bible study program.  She will now start her three month outreach in west Africa.  We got to Skype which made me even happier.  One day we will meet our significant others :).  Hopefully it'll be back home in Hawaii!

2:  Visited a woman who I met at my cooking lesson in March.  We finally met up where I got introduced to her daughter.  She did a 8 month program in Hawaii.  She really wants to go back.

3:  Had dinner with two of my teachers.  They both really want to visit Hawaii.  One teacher's aunty bought a hotel room.  So now she can visit Hawaii anytime.  

'Home is a special place for me, in the middle of the sea...'

One of our seven dishes we had for dinner.  Japan always gets an A+ for presentation :)

Sunsets

I don't know why I have so many pictures of sunsets.  I think I like sunsets.  Not just because my cat's name was Sunset.  Perhaps it's because I subconsciously miss watching the sunsets from my house on the Big Island.  Regardless the reason, sunsets in Japan are awesomely awesome!  I think watching a sunset is the perfect way to say goodbye to the day.  Watching sunsets alone make me a little sad.  But watching sunsets with others make me happy.  I think sunsets should be watched with good company :)

This picture is of a sunset at Misaki park on the edge of Akita and Yamagata.  Took it today on an impromptu trip.

And these are sunsets I've taken pictures of before.

Reunited and it feels so good...

Yeah, just like the song.  So I haven't seen Ayumi since my junior year of college.  Finally, after all these years, we met up in Akita.  She works for ANA so she can fly for free.  So I took her around Yurihonjo.  We visited Hottai waterfall near Chokai.  The water was a beautiful aqua color, trees green, sky blue and clouds white.  So beautiful!  Then we visited Hadate's Milsey dairy.  We saw cows and horses, ate udon and jersey milk ice cream.  We then headed to Iwaki to see the beautiful ocean.  The weather was awesome the whole day.  It was fun to catch up and visit these beautiful places in Yurihonjo.

Parting is such sweet sorrow

I've never been good at saying goodbye. So when my kareshi left Akita in March, I was a wreck that night driving home.  I wanted to cry all my tears so there would be none to shed the days to follow.  It worked more or less according to plan.  This time I left him to go back to Akita.  Once again, I was a wreck driving home this morning.  It was a little different as I have less than two months left in Japan.  There's so many things to do and so little time!   But that can wait for tomorrow.  Tonight I'll think about my kareshi so that I can tackle the tasks of tomorrow.

The funniest memory of our trip.  The monster potato shake 😂