This week I made my sayonara speeches at school. Schools have their closing ceremonies this week, so although I’ll be working until next week, now is the time we say goodbye.
I had my first goodbyes on Tuesday, at Rogakko. We had a big day planned, with final lessons with all the students, that is, three big parties! (elementary, junior high, senior high). Unfortunately… we had a big typhoon. The wind was terribly strong, it was pouring, and much too dangerous for students to come to school.
Of course I went to school because I am a teacher.
The teachers all had the big morning meeting, and I made a speech that I had written. Halfway through, I burst into tears and had to blubber my way through to the end. Whyyyyyy did that happen? Argh. The rest of the day we just relaxed, many teachers took vacation time and went home, we all ate lunch together, and I spent my time working on a bunch of letters I had to write to English Club members.
Final school lunch was miso soup with daikon, onion, and tofu, 2 croquettes, raw okura and tomatoes to munch, cold sour chicken and cabbage salad (yum!), rice, and milk. Delicious!
I’m sad that I couldn’t see the students, but luckily, because I am staying longer, I can see them in August. They have to come to school for some reason, so we’ll do a short meeting then. Better than nothing, I guess!
Yesterday I made the farewell speech at Joto. There was no typhoon, so all the students were there. We cleaned the school really hard. The typhoon had spread a lot of leaves and dirt and branches all over the grounds, and today, the school is being used to host part of the prefectural teacher’s exam. A lot of teachers teaching don’t have their license yet, they are still studying. It’s a difficult license to get, I think.
After cleaning, we had a big ceremony in three parts: one, to congratulate the teams and clubs to had done well in the semester and are going on to compete at higher levels. Two, the closing ceremony & speech from the principal to end the school semester. And three, my goodbye ceremony.
At first, the principal introduced me and what I had done in 3 years. She finished by saying that I kicked butt at the Japanese speech contest the other day, and so I said my speech again at the students.
I’m really glad it happened that way, because I was really comfortable speaking that speech. I have it all memorized, it’s got funny bits, and it helped me relax. Then, I made my actually sad “thank you” farewell speech. I was warmed up, so I didn’t stumble too much, and I didn’t cry, it was a relief.
At the end, I made everyone do Ippon Jime, which is a thing you do to end a gathering or an event. (There is also Sanbon Jime, but I like Ippon better). Everyone holds their hands out, palm up, then the leaders says something.
I said, “本当に ありがとうございます！” (Thank you so much!), then the leader yells “Yooooooooooi!” and everyone claps their hands together once, in unison. It’s kind of a silly thing to do, so everyone laughed. That was good.
Lastly, the president of English Club gave a great speech in English, and the principal presented me with a certificate and a bunch of flowers. Later, we took some pictures together, and then that was it, school life finished.
The rest of the day, I did some work at my desk, finished grading a bunch of stuff, bullied the travel agents into giving me my plane ticket, got a bunch of paperwork taken care of, threw away old papers, worked on a map of Tokushima for my successor…
Today we have a holiday, so I’m going down south to the immigration office to apply for a Tourist Visa. Yeeeeeehaw!
