Wednesday broke the seal on a flood of goodbyes. Around 11 o'clock Joe and I performed our goodbye speeches three times to the mayor, superintendent and his sidekick, and what I believe was the school board(the superintendent sat on this board, so he had the unfortunate distinction of listening to our speeches twice. In summary, I just said thank you for the opportunity. I told my unwilling listeners that the program was very important for me and that it is also important for the Springfield/Ashikaga relationship.
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Here I am after my speech at the mayor's office(guy behind me is Mr. Maekawa, the head of our division of the board of education). I had to make a conscious effort to ask the mayor interesting questions. He was notably rushed and the minute the conversation slowed down Joe and I were out on the curb.
Thursday was my last after school teacher party. It was nice but it definitely reminded me why I stopped going to those things. For one, it cost 60 dollars at the door. As in, I hand them a 100 dollar bill and they destroy it and give me the scraps remaining. That buys a set course of food and "unlimited" beer for two hours or so. For that kind of money in Springfield I could go to the movies and bring 6 friends with a few dollars left over for popcorn. Everyone was a lot more interested in speaking with me as it was my last hurrah, so that was nice. I got a few little gifts, one of which was an envelope with 5000 yen inside. A nice little chunk of change to be sure, but less than it cost for me to enter my own party. Hehe.
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The table was set this way when I sat down. Additional dishes came by later, including some sashimi and a big slice of egg plant in some sauce. We had little ice cream cups for dessert. This meal was notable in that we were all given a dish to take home, something I've never seen happen. The dish was eel on rice. I think it must be eel season.
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Here is a pretty outlandish beer snack. These are eel's spines, some with a bit of head still connected. I ate the first one reluctantly, but I quickly had several more. They bones are fried so hard that they become crispy and brittle. If you chew on a fried chicken wing's tip, the part where there's no meat but only gristle and fried batter, you get a similar taste.
After the party I biked over to Gold's Gym to cancel my membership. The girls at the front desk suddenly seemed much less friendly once I ceased to be a paying customer. Hehe. Then Friday I gave a little bilingual speech to a gymnasium full of my students. I said a few little goodbyes to teachers and students and then that was it.
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The principle often gives a speech with a moral during these assemblies. I suppose it could be related to a sermon without the religiousness.
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The view out of the side door of the gym. It doesn't get much more rural than this, does it?
Friday was my last day in my apartment. I did a lot of running around trying to get everything into boxes and I'm a bit worried about how much it will cost to get everything shipped home. That fact that it took so little time and effort to sever my Japanese life felt a bit strange. After a few days and a few speeches I have closed the door on most of my Japanese social groups, returning to outsider status once more.
I am writing this from the guest room at Tung's family's place in Melbourne. No problems so far. The flight was long but uneventful. We are about to run so I will have to talk about that later.
Yeah it was sad to see you go. Lately its been only goodbyes, SAD TIMES! I feel the same way as you, I have a bunch more paperwork to do because I'm going to be living in OSAKA! yeah boi! i'm excited.
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