Saying Farewell

Around December I had to decide again whether to recontract for another year. I had wanted to stay at least three years just so none of the students would have to go through three different ALTs during their middle school careers (since we arrive in the middle of the school year). There were difficulties, like being out in my small town making it hard to hang out with the other ALTs, or the language barrier, even at my level of Japanese, making it hard to socialize, but the good outweighed the bad since I liked the job, loved the students, enjoyed doing calligraphy and tea ceremony, traveling during vacations, and being in a quiet town surrounded by so much nature.

The main reason I decided not to do a fourth year was that I'm getting old. With past jobs years of my life would fly by without feeling like I had much time to do anything, and now I'm at an age where it's going to be more difficult to find anybody to settle down with, and each additional year in Japan would just make that harder after returning. (And I did always intend to return.) I hated to leave, but the fact was that with a maximum stay of five years it was going to happen in the end anyway, so I wasn't making a decision of whether or not to leave, but only when to leave. So it was a difficult decision, but I decided to return sooner rather than later.

After that there was the knowledge that every annual event that I attended was going to be the last one. The last school concert I would see, the last calligraphy exhibition I would participate in, the last town festival I would attend. As my departure approached (July 31st), it was time to do any things or visit any places that I had been putting off "because I can do that anytime", and revisit any places that were particularly special.

One thing that I had wanted to do since coming here was get ahold of some of the woodblock prints by a nationally renowned artist who lived here. His works are hanging in every city-owned building, including the schools, and I always loved the style of it, but had no idea really where you would be able to buy it. Eventually I turned to Yahoo Auctions and found loads of his works for sale, so I stocked up on a bunch of them and had them shipped back to the US ahead of me. I like to think that I now have the largest Ikeda Shuzo collection outside of Japan.

The smaller Ikeda Shuzo prints that I bought.

The largest that I bought: "Autumn paddies and fields"

The owner of the private English school had a college kid, Daniel, come for the summer to help teach, so one weekend at the end of June they made plans to have him climb Chokai. I hadn't planned on climbing it again that summer since I was going to climb Fuji before returning, but since the opportunity presented itself, I went along. It turned out that the day was rainy, but we went just a few minutes along the path anyway to visit the lookout point before turning back.

The lookout in the rain.

 July 7th is the Tanabata holiday, and the tea ceremony club has their two major events for New Year's and Tanabata, so this would be my last tea event. Although everyone dresses in traditional Japanese clothing for these, including the men, without any such clothes I would just wear Western dress clothes, but this time one of the women said that she could arrange a yukata (cotton kimono) for me if I would wear it, so that's what we did.

At the lunch before the event they revealed that I would be leaving soon to all the other guests (there were people from a few area tea clubs, not just ours) and that this was my last event, and it turned out that they had even gotten a whole set of tea ceremony tools for me as a farewell gift. It was totally unexpected and one of the many times in the final months that I had to hold back tears (which I always did successfully in public, but never attempted to in private).

They had also gotten word to City Hall that the town foreigner would be wearing Japanese clothes at the tea ceremony, so photographers came to take pictures to put one on the cover of the town newsletter, which also ended up having a message about my departure on it.

The snacks served before the tea.

The kettle and other implements.

The tea ceremony implements they gave me.

The newsletter.

The last elementary school class was on Wednesday the 10th, and they had one special group class of all three classes which was a bunch of review activities, and had me say a few words at the end of the class.

The next day, Thursday, July 11th, was the Board of Education's going-away party for me and the other ALT that was leaving. It was a typical work dinner event, with a lot of speeches, and they gave us an official certificate, but also a nice wooden lunchbox, and one of the women separately got us each a little pot of flowers. And for me especially, they had gotten ahold of the tea ceremony pictures and had one framed for me.

This style of bent wood is called magewappa, and is an Akita specialty.

On Saturday the 13th the international exchange group which handles the sister city exchanges and hosts the international food event had a small dinner for me at a local restaurant, which they also invited my calligraphy teacher to.

The next day, Sunday, I went back up the mountain, not to climb it, but to buy some kind of souvenir. I had seen cars with round stickers of the mountain, so was mainly aiming for that, as well as maybe some kind of keychain or phone strap. I ended up getting, not just a few stickers, but a couple books on hiking and mountain climbing in Akita, as well as a t-shirt, which I subsequently wore while climbing Fuji and got a couple of comments on.

I put one of the stickers on my laptop. The mountain is 2236m high.

Akita mountain climbing and hiking books.

A shirt with the mountain on it.

View from the Chokai "base camp".

On the way up I had noticed some sort of pull-off on the road with a point-of-interest signboard, so stopped at it on the way back down. It turned out to be a path to the site of an old shrine, Reiho Shrine. From what I could gather it blew down in a typhoon in the '50s and was planned to be rebuilt, but apparently never was. I hadn't even know this was there, so it was a serendipitous discovery just before my departure.

Signboard explaining the shrine.

This lantern was crooked...

...so I straightened it up.

The finial had fallen off this one...

...so I put it back on.

Apparently these are memorial tablets for the dead.

An old retaining wall I guess.

More memorial tablets.

A triangulation point for surveying, even way out here.

The back of it.

This tablet had fallen over...

...so I stood it back up (and revealed the ants nest under it).

Some kind of "boundary marker" along the path, but I don't know of what boundary.

Next Friday, the 19th, my English conversation class had their farewell party for me. It was at the nice sushi restaurant in town, the one I had first been taken to for my small welcome party for the middle school, so it was nice to have one of my last dinners here too. Everyone prepared some little thing for me, like a little note of thanks, a song, a furoshiki, or a Classical Chinese farewell poem. They got me a bouquet of flowers too.

On Sunday I took Daniel from the English school to calligraphy class with me so he could have that experience while he was here in Japan. After that was the ALT farewell BBQ at Hottai Falls. This was a waterfall I had never gotten to yet and was on my list to visit before I left, so it was convenient that the party was here. Had lots of food and drinks and a good time, and the waterfall was nice too. The water was freezing, but we all went in for a quick swim anyway.

View from the top of the falls. There was a path you could climb to get up here.

A nice view of Mount Chokai on the way home.

Monday, the 22nd, was the last day of school before summer vacation, so we had the closing ceremony, which included my speech and the student council presenting me with flowers and a book of messages from them. Then that night was a school party which doubled as my farewell party. I rode over with one of the English teachers, who gave me a gift from her hometown, then at the party I only had to give a little speech. One thing that happened over the three years was that all three teachers who had been at my original welcome party had left (the principal, vice-principal, and one of the English teachers), but with the new school year that started in April it was the old vice-principal that came back as the new principal, so it was nice to have him there for my farewell too.

The flowers from the English club and the flowers from the middle school.

This style of ceramic is called naraokayaki and is the specialty of the teacher's hometown.

 After the party I went over to the town's American style bar to make sure there would be no problem if I invited a bunch of people over without warning on Friday (just wanted to make sure they wouldn't be closed or expect me to make a reservation or something). Who do I find there but one of my student's mothers! I had met her before at the same bar, that's a different story, but after making sure my Friday party would be okay, I spent the rest of the night talking with her and the bartender.

On Wednesday I drove out to the Nakajimadai Recreation Forest to hike the path there for the last time. The forest is known for gnarly trees called "agariko". They form because in the winter, when the snow's a few feet high, woodcutters would go out and lop off the trunks at snow level, making them regrow again and again every year into these candlestick shapes.

An old kiln that was used for making charcoal, which is what the trees were being cut for.

The biggest of the trees, "King Agariko".

 

This giant spring was called "the bears' drinking pot".

A lot of these streams get channeled into these tunnels which eventually are used to irrigate the rice paddies.

The second largest of the trees is "Queen Agariko".

This stream runs over thick moss mats which can apparently only be found in one other place in Japan.

The next day, Thursday, I went up to the nearby waterfalls, Mototaki and Naso no Shirataki, for the last time.

The path to Mototaki with the stream next to it.

The old and new steps to Kimpo Shrine at Naso no Shirataki.

A nice shot of the mountain over the rice paddies.

A vista over the town, coming down the hill.

On Friday the 26th, three days before leaving, the car shop came and picked up the car. One of the members of the English conversation club had invited me to his house for curry with him and his wife, so I spent the early evening there. His wife insisted on giving me some gifts: a kokeshi, when she heard that I liked collecting them, and since I was studying tea ceremony, a folding fan that she had won (multiple of) for identifying tea varieties.

I would have liked to stay later, but I had already planned my own going away party at the Jolly Roger bar for this night, so I headed over there next. I had invited the foreign English teachers in the area and a bunch of the younger teachers at my school, including a couple of the English teachers who had since been transferred out. In the end about seven other people made it, including one of the previous English teachers that I had gotten along really well with, so it was nice to see him again one last time.

My packing was all done by now, so on Saturday with nothing else to do and no car I took the opportunity to stroll around the town one last time. I also finally got around to doing something that I never had because I kept using the excuse that I could do it anytime: I watched the sun set over the Sea of Japan.

A final shot of the mountain from a hill at the outskirts of town.

A statue of the Chinese beauty Seishi, to which famous haiku poet Matsuo Basho compared the town's official flower. Given by the town's Chinese sister city.

The flowering trees that Basho was commenting on. I walked past them every day on my way to the school.

The sunset over the sea of Japan.

One of Japan's top 100 sunsets.

The last day, Sunday the 28th, I went to my last calligraphy class in the morning and got some photos of the classroom to remind me. Also ran into one of my students while going past the station who insisted on getting a picture with me when she heard it was my last day and I was leaving the next morning. And finally, Daniel was also leaving soon and his going away party was that night, so I got to see the people from the English school and some members of the conversation club one last time.

And finally, Monday morning, my supervisor from the Board of Education came and I handed over my banking documents, apartment keys, etc. and we went over to the station to wait for my train. The same couple I had dinner with Friday night live right next door, so came over to see me off as well.

And then the train came and we all waved goodbye and I was gone.