Saying Goodbye

On July 25th, five of my co-workers picked me up and drove me to the airport to fly home. When I think about the past year of my life, it's hard to believe how much I experienced and how much I learned. If I had to summarize the highlights in one word I would say "relationships". I had the opportunity to meet so many amazing people, and make so many wonderful friends.
So, here's goodbye to Japan in hopes that one day I can go back.


With my co-workers at the airport.

















Me and Nizeki-san!!

















Imakawa-sensei, one of my wonderful Japanese teachers, also came to the airport to say goodbye. Every week throughout the year she voluntarily gave me Japanese lessons. We always had so much fun together, and she spoiled me with so much tea and food after every lesson! Even at the airport she was giving me more chocolates!

















Me and Kae.

















And finally, farewell to my neighbour at the office, Sasaki-san.

English Camp

Probably the most rewarding thing I did in my job as an ALT, was the English Challenge Cup. The ECC is an English speaking competition for first year Junior High School, and first year Senior High School students. It is completely run and funded by JETs in Hokkaido. Students who wish to enter the competition practice with their ALT for several weeks and then have a video-taped test. This video tape is then marked by several judges. The top winner in all of Hokkaido gets to take a 2-week trip to an English speaking country of their choice, all expenses paid! The top 40 winners get to attend a 5 day English camp run by Hokkaido JETs. It's a really great program, and it really makes the kids use their English which they don't really get the chance to do in regular school classes.
This year I entered 15 of my students in the test, and 8 of them ended up in the top 20! AND, one of them was #1!! So, we were all pretty excited!!
Here are some pictures of my kids and other kids at the ECC Camp in Sunagawa, Hokkaido.



Making team banners on the first day of camp.

















Camp cooks!

















Some of the guy camers.






















And some of the girls. Ayaka, on the right, was the #1 winner!

















Saying goodbye to four of my students. I had to leave half-way through camp to fly home to Canada.

Other July Events

July was filled with trips and farewell parties with friends. All through July I was so excited to be coming home, yet at the same time it was so hard to leave the friends that I had made over the past year, knowing that I probably won't ever see some of them again (although 3 of them have visited already! Thanks guys!).
But, I am left with so many many many good memories from our year together.



Summer festival with Paula and Stephen.

















And we met some of my students there. They all loved seeing me dressed up in a 'yukata'.

















At a party with 6 of my students who won top places in the English Challenge Cup.


















And some of my elementary school students.


















At a Nippon Ham Fighters baseball game with Sakuta-san, one of the teachers I work with at elementary school.

















Autograph session with some of my elementary students on my last day at their school. "Sign please, sign please!"

















Farewell speech at Ryokuendai. At every school I taught at I had to make a farewell speech to the teachers and students...in Japanese! It was rather intimidating, but I made it through.

















The vice-principal and students at Ryokuendai Elementary School made me this beautiful, painted banner as a farewell gift. It is Mt. Fuji in the center, and messages from several students on the outside. The big words on the left say "To Christy", and on the right is the name of the school.

















And another farewell photo with flowers at Tarukawa Junior High School.


















Last day with some of my favourite Junior High Boys.


















Farewell BBQ picnic with Eriko, Naoko and Hae Young at Eriko's house. Eriko intensely fanning the BBQ flames!



































Canada Night at Kaiwa Cafe! Kaiwa Cafe is an English conversation "class" at the church that I went to. Every week on Friday night we had a class, with a native English speaker directing the conversation at each table. It was so much fun, mostly because our students (ranging in age from 15-65) were so much fun.
















After "Canada Night" we taught some of the students how to play spoons. Very fun and slightly crazy!

















There are so many more memories that I could share, but I can't show it all so I think I'll leave it at that.

Dad's visit

It's been over 2 1/2 months since I left Japan and I'm finally getting back to my blog. These past couple of months have been a blur of readjusting to Canadian life, catching up with family and friends, planning for the wedding, getting married, honeymooning, and settling into a new life in Hawaii.
Anyways, I thought I should at least finish up by showing a few pictures from my last couple of weeks in Japan.
Just two weeks before I left, my dad came to visit for 10 days. Although I was working most of the time, we did find a few days to go exploring and go out for Japanese dinners etc. So, here are a few pictures to show some of our adventures.


Dinner out at "Sally's" house....Sally is her English name, and I'm not even sure what her Japanese name is! But, she is like the mother to all exchange/foreigner students and teachers in Ishikari.

















Dinner at Arata-sensei's house....one of my dear Japanese teachers. She prepared such a feast for us.


















The exchange of gifts...

















My church had an outdoor service that week.

















And afterwards we went and played "Park Golf", which is bigger than mini-golf, but smaller than Pitch'n'Putt. Very fun!

















We also hiked a mountain.....and yes, as some of you may have heard, I thought I was going to die, not from the difficulty of it, but because I thought that one of the ropes I was using to pull myself up the near vertical cliffs was going to give way and I was going to plummet to my death! Needless to say, I survived and it was very fun : )


































Dad also visited school with me and all the kids thought he was very "kakoii!!" (cool), and they also all thought he was my husband! I'm not sure if I should be offended, or if my dad should be flattered!
Here he is with some of my grade 9 boys.
















In addition to all of this, my dad also helped me pack up/clean up my house in preparation for leaving. Thanks dad for the good memories and all the help!

Strawberry "Tabehodai"

After church on Sunday, a bunch of people from both church and Kaiwa Cafe went strawberry picking at a farm in Ishikari. It wasn't your typical strawberry picking adventure, but instead "tabehodai", which means "all you can eat"! So, for 700 Yen (approx. $7), you get a little can for the stems, and spend as long as you want in the fields and greenhouses eating! I'm not sure if I want to see another strawberry for a long time. But, it was fun while it lasted!


Getting ready to go....me, Eriko and Naoko


















Starting to get bored with the strawberries and instead having more fun taking pictures!

Day with the Girls

A fun Saturday afternoon with some of my friends from 'Kaiwa Cafe'. Kaiwa Cafe is the English conversation class that I help teach at my church. There are so many amazing students in our class, and we always have a lot of fun every Friday night. But, it's also super fun to hang out outside of class. It always amazes me how much people from all different cultures and backgrounds can have in common.



Naoko, Eriko, Susan (my pastor's wife), me, and Hae Young with our feast at a Chinese restaurant in Sapporo.


















And enjoying fabulous "Mango Tangos" at Tully's Coffee afterwards.

Hakodate

A few weeks ago, Momoko and Saori took me on a trip to Hakodate as a "Happy Engagement" present. Hakodate is at the very southern tip of Hokkaido, and is a beautiful older town with lots of history and interesting architecture. As well, it is famous for it's sushi, night-view and hotsprings. We enjoyed all of the above.


At a little roadside Japanese-style hamburger restaurant on our way to Hakodate...

















Welcome to Hakodate!

















On the side of Hakodate mountain, there is an old neighbourhood full of churches and temples of various denominations - Catholic, Buddhist, Russian Orthodox, and Greek Orthodox...







































After exploring the churches, we went up the Hakodate tower to see the view of the park and city below.

















There were also all kinds of great displays about the history of Hakodate.


















That night we went out for sushi, and filled ourselves with many many plates worth!


















And then we carried on to take the gondola to the top of Mt. Hakodate to see the famous night-view. This was what it was supposed to look like.....









But, unfortunately, we hit fog halfway up, and had no view at all! Oh well, the ride was fun!



And finally went back to our traditional Japanese style hotel, complete with futons, tatami floors and an onsen (hotspring)! Very very relaxing and comfortable!

"Taikusai"...aka. Junior High Track & Field Day

June 3rd was the Track & Field Day for all the Junior High Schools in Ishikari. I joined the school that I'm currently working at, and had a great day spectating and cheering on all my super eager students! It was unlike any sports day I had ever seen at home. In addition to the traditional 100m/200m/800m/1500m/shot-put/long jump events, there were also tug-of-wars, massive jump rope competitions, 36 person relays etc. All of the homeroom classes competed against each other, and the top class from each grade got a prize. Very cooperative, and very fun!



The students all line up with their class flags before the opening ceremonies...

















Boys lining up for the 100m...


















Seventh-grade girls (the coloured bands around their foreheads represent their class)...

















Some of my favourite 9th graders...

















And some more....oh, so many favourites! It's going to be hard to say goodbye, but as these girls told me "at least we've made sooo many good memories together this year, Christy!".

















Whole-class jump rope competition....the winning class jumped 54 times!


















In this competition, students competed class-against-class by lining up side by side, bending over so their backs were flat, and then having one person run across their backs....they did this the whole way down the field, with the back people running to the front as soon as they had been run over!

















Here, students ran in fours down the field, carrying a long bar between them. At the end of the field, they rounded a cone and came back. Once they reached their class, they lowered the bar and ran through the whole class, while everyone jumped over it! And repeat!
Running...

















After jumping, bringing the bar to the front again, and getting ready to repeat!