It’s been another few months since my last blog post, and things are certainly different here. When last writing, I was enjoying the still-cool temperatures of the staff room, and a morning commute consisting of an at times irritating amount of icy spots. Writing this now, we’re already seeing the rapid waning of the intense summer temperatures that defined the last few months. There’s a lot to cover, so I’ll jump right in!
March
The main theme of March this year has to be graduation. Spring break at the end of March marks the end of the school year in Japan. While I’ve only known my graduating students for about half a year, it still felt quite sad to see them go. This was particularly the case with my special needs students, who were by far the smallest of my classes, thus being one of the few in which I got to know the students individually. They held a small graduation party for this class, which some of the staff and parents of the students. I was invited too. It was really sweet involving some speeches, music and games. There was a quiz game where one of the questions was the height of Mt. Fuji, which I happened to know was 3,776 meters tall, having climbed it almost eight years before. Everyone was quite surprised to have the only foreigner in a room of about 30 Japanese know the height of Fuji and answer in Japanese no less. As well as amusing moments, there were also very emotional ones, including really touching speeches by the students to their parents and classmates, and slideshows of the memories the students had shared over their three years of middle school. I had bought a handful of tissues for a runny nose and ended up using them all up. It was really moving. The main graduation ceremony was held about a week later and was not dissimilar from ceremonies back home. Plenty of speeches and the handing out of diplomas.
The final weeks included lots of little things besides the main events, such as numerous textbook signings and a handful of handwritten letters from students in both English and Japanese. Some of them were really touching. Probably one of the harder parts of the end of the year was the discovery that my favorite teacher I worked with would be retiring. This came as a pretty big blow to me, as we had a strong relationship from the beginning and both had our desks next to each other in the staff room. We always had wonderful conversations and would share stories. She mentioned how she loved teaching still, but was getting tired of all the paperwork and meetings involved in public school teaching. She would be going on to give private English lessons. She asked if I would be interested in helping her out with her teaching, which I enthusiastically agreed to.
I had wanted to give her a gift before leaving and had recalled something she had mentioned a while ago. She grew up in a city to the north called Asahikawa and mentioned how, as a student, she had volunteered as a miko or female staff of a Shinto shrine. I had remembered this and decided to get her an omamori, a kind of amulet sold at shrines to bring good luck. I made a day trip up north one weekend and managed to make it to the shrine that she volunteered at, which ended up being quite the trek. Being so rural, I had to ring the doorbell to the shrine office to actually find someone who worked there. The woman selling the omikuji was really nice and, I ended up buying an omikuji that bought good luck in business, figuring this would be appropriate for her English teaching endeavors. I also was sure to buy another goshuin for my book. I was able to deliver her gift on her last day, along with some flowers.
Besides graduation, there were plenty of other things going on throughout the month. One of which was a production of Don Giovanni. One of the local concert halls puts on a small opera production once a year and I had managed to get tickets. The production was well done, though given that there were only overtitles in Japanese, getting all the parts of it was difficult at times. I found a combination of my knowledge of French making the Italian understandable and Japanese reading ability allowing me to follow the story pretty well. After the opera, all the singers were stood by the exit, taking photos and waving to the guests. I went up to speak with the singer who played Don Giovanni to find that he actually spoke quite good English and was currently living in Naples.
As I had mentioned in my last post my favorite Izakaya had closed indefinitely for renovations at the end of the previous month. I had made a point to exchange contact information with some of the regulars to try and keep in touch. I had found out that a restaurant that shared the adjacent building was staying open after hours to serve drinks to old regulars before they too had to close their doors. I managed to get invited one evening, which ended up being a cool experience. Sharing a closed restaurant with 3 other regulars and the owner was definitely neat.
The year ended off with a work nomikai to see off all the departing teachers. The seating was random, but I was pleased to be sat in between some of my favorite teachers, one of whom was the departing one I was so close with. It was a nice evening, and included speeches from the departing teachers, as well as gift-giving and reminiscing.
April
April marked the beginning of the new school year. It was fun getting to introduce myself during the opening ceremony to all the new students. Since I started last August, it was in the middle of the school year, so this batch of students would mean that I would be their only middle school ALT thus far. While I was sad to be missing the departing teachers, it was still fun to meet some of the new ones. I had a chance to introduce myself to a few of them, which was nice.
The new year was generally pretty slow to start, with classes mostly consisting of orientations and introductory lessons. Once I started with my own lessons, it was mostly introduction lessons from last year. It wasn’t that much longer before I got into the swing of things.
About halfway through the month, we had our second JET nomikai organized by myself along with the other ministers in the Ministry of Fun. Having had more experience from the last one in the fall of last year, organization went a bit smoother. It was another great success and followed much of the same format as the previous, I did have the chance to try Fugu, or raw puffer fish. It was a pretty interesting sensation. For the after-party, some split off to karaoke, but I opted to grab some stuff from the convenience store and hang out by the river to enjoy the now bearable outdoor temperatures.
Towards the end of the month was another nomikai for work. This time, one to welcome all the incoming teachers. This one was a lot of fun, with plenty of games and good conversation. I was sitting next to the vice principal, who is a lovely guy, but still felt a little awkward since he was basically my boss. I had a few chances to make everyone laugh, which is always fun. It really helps make me feel like a real part of the school staff.
The next morning, I flew to Hawaii to meet with my parents and younger sister. It was a lovely visit and interesting to be back in the United States after so long. We had a little over a week together and enjoyed our time visiting beaches, enjoying restaurants, and exploring the island. Given the focus of the blog and length of this post, I’ll leave out the details, but it was a great visit and nice break from school.
May
May was a pretty low-key month, which was very welcome. By now, vacation was over, and I was beginning to really get into the swing of the new year. The weather had also really improved, and I enjoyed taking walks in the park and visiting shrines, being that cherry blossom season was in fully swing in Hokkaido at this point.
May also marked the Lilac Festival in Sapporo. It’s basically a spring festival with tons of food and drink stalls selling delicacies from all around Hokkaido. It was held in Odori Park, as most other festivals are, and is named for the lilac trees lining the length of the park, all of which were in bloom. I really enjoyed the rotating selection of local wines at the drink tents, which were available in tasting sets.
At the same time, further down the park, the Ramen Festival was being held. Tickets could be purchased for a single bowl of ramen at any number of stands hosting a rotation of ramen shops from all over the country. I went a few times and tried some really good ramens. This was also my first time trying miso ramen. A style originating from Sapporo in the 60s. It easily climbed to the top of my ramen preference, with spicy miso in particular being exceptional. On one day, I even got an extra slice of pork in my ramen as thanks for helping translate for a foreigner unfamiliar with the ticket system in front of me in the queue.
One day, a coworker in the office at the desk across from me was wearing a sweater that read “St. Albans, VT Parks Department”. I complimented her sweater, showed some photos, and talked to her a bit about St. Albans. It was really amusing to see a Vermont town of only 7,000 people show up all the way on the other side of the world.
June
Opposite to May, June was packed month, mainly due to me beginning my moving process. Being that the lease on my compact, dingy, and, most deleterious of all, un-air-conditioned apartment was coming to a close at the end of July, this was my chance to move into something a bit more comfortable. I was connected with a real estate agency that has worked with other Sapporo JETs in the past and began working through the process. I was pleased to find things moving along quickly, from visiting the office to touring apartments just two days later. I managed to find one that seemed good to me in a great location and decided to apply for it on the spot. I would discover I was approved for it just a few weeks later and would be moving in at the end of July.
Besides the activity involving the application and paperwork of moving, I was kept busy by plenty of other events. On the first weekend of the month, I went to Hokudaisai, or the Hokkaido University festival. It was really impressive, with the main road of the campus filled with hundreds of activities and food stands put together by students. It was a lot of fun to check out. Among the most popular were the foreign food stands with local food served by students of their respective countries. I bought a pretty large deer antler from the outdoors club.
Midway through the month, a friend from the US moved to Tokyo and some other friends from high school were visiting. Another JET and I decided to head down south for a long weekend to visit. It was a great weekend, and it was nice to catch up with high school friends as well as give some advice to my recently arrived friend. We enjoyed popping around and seeing the sights, but I found my thoughts regarding the uninhabitable weather of Tokyo in summer to continue to be well-founded. That said, it was still nice to check out some places, both new and old. We even made the hike to a New York-style pizza place, which was pretty convincing. Towards the end of our weekend, my friend had one of his friends coming up from Australia, and we managed to meet him for breakfast right before flying out that afternoon. I found it greatly amusing to put on a New Zealand accent when I met him, which I managed to carry on with for nearly half an hour. It was pretty funny to finally break out of it for the big reveal.
The rest of the month went pretty well, with me keeping myself busy spending time with friends and, of course, work. The month capped off with a barbecue arranged by myself along with the other members of the Ministry of Fun. It was a hot day but had a modest turnout with folks coming and going. I also managed to run into the owner of the bar that closed in February. I was pleased to learn that he was working in his friend’s bar downtown, and I was invited to stop in. It was a great day overall and served as a nice cap to the end of the month.
July
July continued the trend of plenty of things to do, along with increasingly intense temperatures. I found myself sleeping with ice packs to keep cool before my move. There was also preparation for the school festival that would be held in September. I started staying after school to help the English Study Club with their festival preparations. They would be preparing a movie, so I would help them with corrections and edits to their script. I also would help out the drama club by recording some lines for a play they were doing unrelated to the school festival that I would later find out they won an award for at a competition down in Shizuoka.
I decided to check out the bar that the owner of my regular I met the at the barbecue had suggested. I went with my friend who I’d visited the old place regularly with. Hidden away in a little passage and down some stairs on a block just adjacent to the busy downtown area. We went down reluctantly to find a sign that said, “member’s only” on it. We waited outside a bit wondering what to do before we heard the voice of the owner and I decided to enter. We were welcomed right away and introduced to the owner of this bar, who gave us each member’s cards. It was really small, with only seats for about 11 people. We stayed for a bit before another regular at the old place that I was friendly with showed up. We spent the rest of the evening catching up.
The following weekend, I went over to the Sapporo craft beer forest on a whim and met up with some friends from outside of town. It was at a ski resort and had a bunch of breweries from all over the country as we as local food and live music. I spent some time there before heading over to meet a friend of mine for a saxophone performance in a jazz club in town.
Around halfway through the month, the Sapporo beer garden started, beer really seeming to be the theme of July over here. There are big tents set up all through the main park, with each block dedicated to the four main breweries, Suntory, Asahi, Kirin and Sapporo. There’s also areas for international foods and beers, as well as a “German Village” which is themed around Hofbräu. I managed to make it there a few times in the month that it was on, but I was mostly swamped with the move.
I picked up my keys on the 25th, the week before had included the hottest day of the year and classes ended early two days that week. It had really made me wish I had chosen to move in the week earlier to enjoy the AC, regardless, I finally had my keys. The night I collected them, I met up with some friends for a summer fireworks display. This was with a few people who would be heading back home after the end of their time in the JET program, so I didn’t want to miss it. I enjoyed a great fireworks display and a calm evening with friends.
The next morning, a friend showed up with a car, and we made some runs of things to the new apartment. I would be going from an 18² meter place to 34² m, so it was very exciting. We managed to get most of my things in two runs. I spent the afternoon beginning to unpack. We met up again along with some other friends for a friends’ birthday karaoke evening.
The rest of the week was occupied mostly with moving in procedures. I got the essentials such as a fridge and washing machine, as well as a stove top. I made my final trips to my apartment and did my last bit of cleaning and could finally say I was moved. The last day of the month, we had a farewell dinner for our friend before she left. It was a lot of fun but definitely bittersweet.
August
August started off with mostly more settling in. Being the summer vacation, it was nice to have time to go shopping for various household necessities throughout the day. I figured out that my new apartment was two subway stops away from the Sapporo Racecourse and decided I’d go check it out with a friend on the first weekend of the month. We had plans to go on Sunday, but I decided to go on Saturday to scope things out. It ended up being pretty exciting. It was pretty strange to see people betting since gambling in Japan is very restricted, it turns out horse racing is an exception to this. I spent the rest of the day figuring out how the track worked, as well as trying betting. It took a bit to figure out what all the bets meant, but it was pretty easy to do. I didn’t really win anything, but left satisfied. When I went back the next day, I was better prepared equipped with sunscreen, binoculars, and outside snacks and drinks (which I discovered were permitted the day before). My friend joined me in the afternoon, and we enjoyed the rest of the races that day, including a larger graded race, which I made a quite successful bet on. I ended that day up about ¥7,000 (~$50 USD).
On Wednesday and Thursday the following week, I volunteered at something called the “Otaru English Camp”. It was an all-day event in Otaru, a picturesque town which I actually wrote about in my blog post in November. This consisted of leading a group of some students, elementary school the first day and middle school the second. We would create a little presentation about a tourist attraction in the town, including a little poster and some rehearsed lines, before walking around the town to find tourists for the students to share their presentation with. It was a really nice time, the students were really enthusiastic and sweet and the people we spoke to were really receptive and nice. I also had a chance to meet with some of the new JETs who were filling roles in and around Otaru.
At the end of the week, I joined in on a welcome lunch in the Sapporo Beer Garden organized by some of the advisors from the area surrounding Sapporo, giving me yet another chance to meet more new JETs. After about 2 hours socializing, I headed to the airport to fly to Germany. Like Hawaii, I think the focus of this blog centers more around my day-to-day life in Japan rather than this being a travel blog. This also feels like a good place to leave this current post and resume after the end of summer break. Overall, my trip to Germany was wonderful, it was nice seeing somewhere so important to me after so long, especially coming from Japan. I feel like it took me a few days to get used to being there again. It was lovely to see both friends and family, and I’m looking forward to my next visit.
Wrapping up for now
As of my writing this, it’s currently mid October. I think moving forward I’m going to try to adopt a new strategy to writing my blogs so I can put them out more punctually. Strategies aside, the bulk of my move being over should give way to more free time to put into more blog writing moving forward. That said, I hope you enjoyed reading this post, and I’ll be looking into putting out the next post a big sooner next time!