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!