Everyday

This year I haven't posted as frequently as I had during my 1st year living/working in Japan. The main reason behind this is because I had felt that I had finally settled into my life here and things began to feel routine and thus not worth a blog update. However, now with less than 18 days until my last day of classes and 20 days until I move out of my apartment I have come to realize that a lot of these seemingly mundane occurrences are what I will miss most about my job and life here in Japan.
So below are a few moments that I have experienced and shared with my students this past week that, although may have no significance to the reader, hold a special place in my heart.

- June is rainy season in Japan and as such many of my schools resorted to letting the students  use the gym as a space for them to release all of their pent up energy during lunch recess. This past Wednesday had been one of the rainiest days on Oshima this tsuyu (rainy season). So during lunch break I ran beneath the covered pavilion connecting the main school building to the gym to meet with my students to play an indoors version of one of their favorite school yard games jintori (It's kind of like capture the flag). I'd been a little late in getting myself over so by the time I arrived in the gym they had already taken off their shoes, finished setting up the flag posts,and were beginning to divvy up the teams. As we were playing I kept noting this wet foot shaped prints around the gym floor and was a little perplexed. Surely my students weren't running around so much that their feet were leaving sweat marks about (gross). In hindsight, the answer seems pretty obvious perhaps you've already figured it out. When the school bell chimed to announce the start of cleaning time we all piled out of the gym and started to make our way back to the main building. However, my students stopped about halfway and started shouting, "Keri 先生、見て！”(Ms. Keri, look/watch!) and proceeded to jump into a large puddle of water and drag their way through it all while looking mighty pleased with themselves. They then ran across the playground, that  by this point bore more of a resemblance to a pool, to the school entrance as I stuck to the covered path. Ah hah, that would explain the soggy feet.

- Yesterday while eating lunch with my elementary students one boy, Taiko an ichi nensei (first grader) had a piece of rice stuck on his face just below his eye (we were eating giant onigiri and elementary school kids are sloppy eaters). His fellow classmate Makato (the smallest cutest boy ever) turned to Taiko and told him that he had a piece of rice on his face. With Makato's direction, Taiko was able to pluck off the piece of rice and pop it directly into his mouth. Shortly after, Taiko managed to get another grain stuck on his cheek and after more help from myself and Makato, Taiko again proceeded to pluck and pop and mumble about his messy eating. It was very sweet and funny.

Even at my trouble maker school, I've managed to have some memorable (pleasant) days. This week's class has proven to be the most...semi successful class in awhile. While I don't have any particular anecdote to share, I want to be able to remember that even at my most trying school there were days that I really enjoyed. On many occasions I would arrive at this school dreading to teach the lesson because the students are so rowdy, lack attention, and chaos rains throughout the class. So the rare moments, like this week, when the students would behave and practice their english reassures me that perhaps they were getting something out of our lessons.

Definitely the best memories that I'll be taking with me when I leave Japan involve my students. Working here has been such a challenge, originally with 16 schools it was impossible to develop any sort of relationship with my students and it was obvious that they were disappointed when I couldn't remember their names (but how could I, there were about 1,000 of them!) . And while cutting down to 8 schools has lead to a generally less hectic schedule and being able to remember most of my students names it comes with a different price of its own. I've been able to get to know their personalities, share jokes, and learn more about them (even the trouble makers). So now when I leave I will be saying goodbye to Moeka, Mai, Ken, Aito, Risa, and Sei (to name just a few). Now these are no longer just names that I've memorized to please my students. These names now embody silly moments, personalities, and friendship.

I'm not ready to leave.