A Reason To Post

Greetings from my last month in Japan!

I have my plane ticket booked for July 28th, at which point I'll be time-traveling back to Colorado. It won't be with a fair amount of regret and longing for this place which I've grown to know and love, but it's most assuredly time to go. My last month has been busy and my next will be even busier. For those of you who still faithfully check the blog, don't go away, because there should be a small avalanche coming soon.

In the last month I've recorded an album with my band, passed my test to become a brown belt in karate, and produced a 50-page art journal for charity. If you're reading the blog you probably got an email about that, though. I saw the beautiful proofs for the journal this afternoon and it should be completed and in my hands by the middle of next week.

As you might remember, I go to two different schools on a roughly month-by-month schedule. This means that I had to say goodbye to one school last week. I got along really well with many of the students there; in fact I think there was more of a natural connection for me at Nuka (my secondary school) than there is at Takaodai (my base school). On my last day I went around the halls saying goodbye and offering my email address to any of the kids who asked for it. I figure that's a way for them to practice their English and, if they keep it in some drawer and pull it out in 5 years, a cool contact to have in America. I've done this with my graduating third years as well, and I get some pretty funny results. However, tonight I opened my email to find this:

"Hello!!Creighton★

I will never forget you.

Your was very good teacher♪

Today,I got my English test back.

The test score 93.

I am very very happy.

I owe my success to your.

thank you★

Bay.

from.Yuuka Baba."

Yuuka is an effervescent 2nd year girl (13 years old) who would often bound up to me to remind me of her name. I have no words to describe how happy this made me. Sometimes it's difficult to have a positive outlook about my impact here, because the classes get so regimented and the English curriculum is so demented. But this quite literally makes everything worth it. She can spell "bye" "bay" for the rest of her life and I won't give a damn if she stays excited about learning and English like that. 

As I close out my time in Japan, I feel a great internal and external pressure to sum it up, to frame it somehow--if you know me you probably know how much I like to create narratives for myself and figure out what it all "means". That's probably not something I'll abandon, no matter how much it can be detrimental and beside the point at times. However, I hope that some of the words and pictures I put down in this blog can show how my experience and relationship with Japan has evolved over time, regardless of whatever narrative I or others might put on it at the end.

Here are a couple pictures from the last month. I'll get to the explanations soon.

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