March: The End of the (School) Year

I hope you are doing just wonderfully this fine morning, afternoon, evening! The time difference gets me confused every so often. I am 13 hours ahead of Florida, 12 ahead of Louisiana, 12 ahead of Brazil, 16 ahead of California! So, if it is 5:00pm in Florida, it is 6:00am here in Japan, the next day. I live in the future.

Here's a video of Noto on a clear day. You can see the Hida Mountain Range across the bay. This is the same mountain range I went to in November! The route to one of my schools is along the coast, so I am able to experience this beautiful view often!

After months of not being able to make it, Mal and I finally went to anime watch night in Wajima, our neighbor city, and hung out with the ALT's there. They order pizza from a restaurant called Star Pizza that has a really cool variety of pizzas including 1kg cheese, pepperoni, teriyaki, and kalbi (Korean-style short rib). We also went to a cute Noto cafe and took a picture with blueberry hats! Noto is famous for blueberries and strawberries and I am so excited for strawberry season to start at the end of April!

I also went to a soccer game! The Kanazawa team played against a Tokyo team. Unfortunately we lost 1-2, but it was fun! Apparently the Tokyo team was 4th and our team was on the bottom of the tier. I was surprised to see a bunch of Brazilian flags and, when I looked up the roster on the Kanazawa team, I saw two Brazilian players! How cool!

---

End of the Year

Japan's school/work calendar starts in April and runs through March, when teachers move schools, and students graduate from school. I had my last class with my 6th grade elementary school students and my 3rd grade junior high school students and it was bittersweet. I had only known them for about 6 months, but I grew to know and adore them and wish I can continue teaching them, but I am so happy that they are moving to continue doing big things!

I went to both of my junior high school graduations and one of my elementary school graduations. Compared to the United States, it is much more traditional and ritualistic. The younger grades prepare a speech and song for the graduating students and the graduating students prepare the same for their juniors.

At my schools, I received notes and gifts from students thanking me for teaching them English and making English fun to learn. Two students made me omamoris (お守り) which are protection charms (A green one is pictured on the left). With one of my 5th grade classes, we played Red Light, Green Light and Tag, then they surprised me with a performance as a marching band!

In one of my junior high school "yearbooks", there was a survey superlatives section that had many questions about students who are most likely to do this or be that. There was a survey question about a teacher they liked/their favorite teacher. Out of 30 students, 2 of them chose me! I felt so happy that I made them enjoy class enough to where they would choose me for that superlative!! I only go to this school once a week, so I was shocked that I had even made it on the board! I blurred out the other teachers names for their privacy.

At this same junior high school, one of the 1st graders (7th grade in the US) is moving away, so the class of 11 had a "Have Fun Party". My English teacher at this school is also the 1st grade homeroom teacher, so I was able to join their party. The first activity, unsurprisingly chosen by the boys of the class, was to play dodgeball in the gym. Then, there was a cute trivia game about fun things that happened that year. Last, there was a powerpoint activity for the student and videos of the other students thanking him for a fun 12 years together and to do his best at his new school. I brought in a white shirt for everyone to sign like American students do at the end of the year when I was in elementary and middle school. Everyone signed it in English (with the help of Professor Google Translate).

---

Kyoto!

I went to Kyoto! I had a lot of fun and it was a 5 day trip, so I have a separate post specifically for the trip. Please enjoy that post as well!

As always, thank you so much for all of your love and support! I'll see you in the next update!