The last week of Japan was ridiculously hectic!
Monday was my last day of school. It was only for the closing ceremony, all of us crammed into the gym and the teachers and students going through their robotic routines. I gave my farewell speech in English and Japanese (practiced for the last 2 weeks of course) and then 2 students came up, one with a bouquet of flowers and the other to read a farewell letter from all the students to me. It was very sweet, and as I walked out of the gym everyone gave me a standing ovation. It was probably the closest I came to tears thus far on my leaving Japan. It just felt good to know that I stuck out this year for my school and my students and that they really appreciated it. =)
Tuesday I was awake by 8:30am because all of my utilities was going to be cut off and I had to move out of my apartment. I ended up sending 3 boxes home for a grand total of $250, not that bad compared to other people! I had my two bags for the plane, and a small bag for my trip to Hakone the next day. My IC Koda-san came to help me close shop, and apparently I was the first and only tenant so far who hasn't gotten charged extra for any apartment damage (so I got away with the paint tears on the wall!!!). I dropped off most of my stuff to Paul's apartment, to which he was really grateful, and I got left at Allie's.
I left that day to head out to Kawaguchi, one of the 5 lakes of Mt. Fuji, for my last trip in Japan. Arrived around 8:30pm but I got lost and passed the place like 3 times before finally realizing it.
The next day (Wednesday) I took a bus ride to check out Lakes Kawaguchi and Sai. Walked through a wind/lava cave, and got a nice tour of all the lakes, but didn't see the top of Mt. Fuji as it was really cloudy. Apparently even though you always see pictures of Mt. Fuji all clear and beautiful, it's mostly covered in clouds all the time. There wasn't much left to do there, so I took a bus down to Gotemba and eventually to Togendai in Hakone, where I jumped on the Lake Ashi sightseeing cruise but ended up not getting off cuz a hostel I found was back in Togendai. Crashed early for the night, soaking in their mineral onsen and watching Sasuke, this crazy show where Japanese people have to go through this obstacle course of madness or else fall into a big pond of muddy water. It was really ridiculous, but I couldn't stop watching.
Thursday I woke up early and headed back to Lake Ashi to actually stop at each point. You're supposed to see Mt. Fuji from there as well, but the weather that day was even worse than the day before and I got rain, clouds, and eventually hail in just that 30 minute water trip. Arrived at Moto-Hakone and checked out the Edo checkpoint museum, where the Shoguns of that time would check every person going in and out of their land for weapons, etc. Then walked through Cedar Ave., where the poeple used to have to follow to enter the land, and jumped back on the cruiseship (which looked like a pirate ship) at Hakone-machi.
Took a cable car to Owakudani, which is full of sulfur gases coming out of the ground. There are these eggs that they boil up there, making the shell turn black, that if you eat will extend your life by 7 years. I wanted to eat one, but they didn't sell them individually, so I had to buy 6 and ended up eating 2. So I'm officially going to liv 14 years longer now. Yippee! I gave the rest to Allie. =) I don't wanna live that long!!!
I arrived in Gora 2 cable cars later and checked out the Open Air Museum, which was really really cool, and then headed over to one of the more popular onsens, Yunessun. It's half waterpark, half naked onsen. I decided just for the onsen since I didn't have a swim suit and didn't really want to "rent" the ones that they had. It was really very nice, huge baths, about 10 of them, a sauna, private little wooden pools, but ugh! The kids! So many of them running around and splashing and kicking and screaming. You could have hardly called it relaxing really. I stayed for as long as my $18 could last me before I started getting really hot and dizzy (in a good way) and headed out of there feeling relaxed and sleepy.
I had to take a bus to Odawara, the main station out of Hakone, which was about 45 minutes. From there I had to take the Odakyu line train to Shinjuku (in Tokyo) which was another hour. By the time I got to Tokyo, it was about 9pm. I had booked another hostel for the night, but figured, hell might as well go back to Mito and crash at Allie's. It would only be another 2.5 hours. Got to her place at midnight and pretty much crashed right away. As much as Hakone was beautiful and relaxing, especially that I was alone, it was a lot of bus and train rides!!
Friday I closed my bank account and "cancelled" my cell phone. I went money to the US and ran some last minute errands. That night I had my teacher enkai (party) for all the farewell teachers. There will be 14 of us leaving, so they had a big bouquet of flowers for everyone and we all one by one came up and gave a little speech. Some were happy, some were sad and people were crying. In Japan teachers are encouraged to move around and try teaching at various different schools. The Board of Education will usually transfer you every 5 years or so, so you will always change schools eventually. Last year there were 5 new teachers, and usually no more than 10 leave, so having 14 teachers leave is a pretty big deal. It was fun though, lots of pouring drinks and all my teachers (as they get more inebriated) telling me what a good teacher I was and how much they'll miss me.
After that, the teachers all separated into their teaching classes (1st, 2nd, 3rd grade) and went to sing Karaoke. I ended up with the principal and all the heads of teachers (the nurse, the VP, etc.) and they were very nice trying to sing English songs for me. I ended up singing Disney duets with my Head of Teachers and some ABBA and the Beatles with my nurse. It was really fun! Eventually I felt like a mic hog, so I let the rest of them sing their Japanese songs. I was buzzing pretty good, but can still definitely hold more alcohol than the average Japanese person! After I said my goodbyes, I met up with Allie, Tyler, Matt, and Su at the Dog's Bollocks and we hung out for a bit. Passed David Sharp and Paul on the way out, and Allie and I ended up talking until 5am.
Saturday was my last day in Japan. I woke up, packed the last of my laundry, etc. and met Paul at Saizeriya for lunch. We chatted for a bit, then went back to get my bags and return Allie her apartment keys. He walked me to my bus stop and waited until the bus came and accepted my 2 bags and me. It was really nice that he waited to see me off, it would have been more sad to say goodbye to Mito without a person there to wave it. It was probably the second-most saddest moment leaving Japan, but in a good way.
I arrived at the airport way to early (3:45pm when my flight was at 7:35pm) but better early than late!! Hung around, exchanged money, killed time, and my flight was delayed but I finally got on and we took off around 8pm. It was beautiful to see Japan at night, with all the twinkling lights on and all the dark patches of rice fields as I left Japan and my life in it forever.
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