The last day of school was kind of dull at first. There was a closing ceremony where the principal had a very long speech and then each student moving on to the next grade had his or her name called out. Luckily there were only the first and second-years since the third-years already graduated but it still took quite a while. After school I hung out with the teachers for a while to have lunch (it was a short day) and then they had the announcements about which teachers would be transferring. In Japan a teacher at a public school rarely stays at that school for more than three years before the higher-ups (I'm not even sure which ones) decide to transfer them to another school. So teachers always have to be ready to move come March. Most of my teachers who are transferring got lucky and will be going to nearby schools so they won't have to change where they live but one of the younger teachers got transferred all the way to Tokyo so he's not even going to be in the same prefecture anymore! When I told one of the teachers that in the US sometimes teachers stay at the same school for their whole careers she thought it was crazy. Six of the teachers were chosen to be transferred (about a quarter of all the teachers at the school), most of whom had been at the school for two or three years but also one of the English teachers I have been working with who had been with Hashi for six years. So come April we will be getting new teachers including a new English teacher who is apparently very young.
Anyway, after school that day was the soubetsukai (farewell party). This isn't your typical party where all the guests stand around the room and chat and eat h'ordeuvres, this is a Japanese enkai-style party where everyone sits on the floor, eats a feast, there are many speeches, and there is quite a bit of drinking. During these kinds of parties one is never supposed to pour her own drink, someone else is supposed to notice that your glass is not full and to pour it for you. In a case like this it's difficult to say exactly how much you have had to drink so people often drink a bit more than they're used to. I was just drinking juice bit I still drank more than I intended! I think that Japanese people use parties like this to let their hair down since everything else in their life is so formulaic most of the time. Enkais can be pretty crazy since people have more courage to say how they really feel about things and then there is an unwritten rule that no one will be talking about it on the following work day. Due to Japan's zero tolerance policy for drink driving, enkais are usually held at hotels so that no one has to drive home that night. But since Anne and I live only ten minutes away from the hotel we both decided to not stay over (her bonenkai happened to be taking place in the same hotel on the same night so it was convenient).
As I mentioned, there was a feast. I literally had ten different dishes in front of me at one point and everything was very high quality. Some of the sauce definitely had wasabi in it though so that's the only thing I avoided eating. Other than that there was soup, soba noodles, raw fish, cooked fish, stew, half of a huge crab, fruit salad, vegetable salad, pickled-vegetable salad, and other things I couldn't identify at all. During the feast the principal had another long speech (that man can TALK!), all the teachers who were transferring had a speech, I helped hand out flowers to the transferring-teachers, and some of the non-transferring teachers gave one-on-one speeches to each transferring-teacher saying how much they would be missed and it was very emotional. The teachers at my school became very close over this past year especially since they had so many experiences together starting with the tsunami. All of the teachers seemed very close, probably closer than they would have been during a regular school year. I hope that the new teachers will be as kind as all the teachers have been so far.
After all the eating and the speeches I got to talk to the teachers in a very relaxed setting. Everyone was still pouring drinks for each other (I felt kind of bad for the younger male teachers since they got the brunt of the attack). Some of the female teachers noticed that I had changed earrings from earlier and told me that having pierced-ears is very uncommon in Japan and that they probably wouldn't allow their daughters to get them. I told them that I had mine pierced when I was 17 but that it was common in the US to have them pierced way before that. They were a bit horrified when I said my sister had her ear cartilage pierced as well. They asked me if my ears hurt or would close up and I told them that they hurt at first but not anymore and the hole probably won't close up anymore.
Anyway, I've basically had the past few days off from school. Some JETs have to go into school even over school vacation in order to prepare for upcoming classes but since Anne and I go to multiple schools we would usually go to the Board of Education instead. At the moment though there is no space for us at the B.O.E. since it's in a small temporary building. So, our supervisor told us to work from home! It's been really nice to wake up at nine (or sometimes even later). Anne and I have also been doing some spring cleaning (though it's also in preparation for my dad's visit). Actually my dad is on the plane going from Chicago to Tokyo right now; according to flight tacker, he's over Alaska!
The next few days will be busy with my dad's visit. I'm going to pick him up from the train station later tonight then tomorrow I'll show him around town and also show him some of the schools where I work. On Saturday we'll probably drive to Hiraizumi (which has the Golden Temple) and Geibikei Gorge, which I haven't visited yet but sounds really cool. Sunday morning we'll probably take the train to Tokyo and in the afternoon we'll visit some tourist areas (maybe the Tokyo Tower and the statue of the loyal dog, Hachiko). For Tuesday I got tickets to see a baseball game; the Tokyo Swallows vs. Hanshin Tigers! On Wednesday my dad flies back in the early afternoon so we'll have to work the schedule around that. I'll take lots of pictures for my next posts!
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