I will finish work on July 12th, then spend a few weeks traveling in Japan. I'll visit Kyushu (the southernmost main island) for a few days, come back to Kanonji to watch some students and friends dance at a cute Zenigata (sand coin) festival, and say my final goodbyes, then it's off to Osaka to visit a former student, then I am meeting the wonderful Ms. Katrina Barlow and two of her Whitman friends (also lovely women) at the airport to fly up to Hokkaido (the northernmost main island) for about five days, before leaving Japan to go back to the states, via....INDIA! I get to visit my dear, dear friend Aakanksha while she is there this summer!!! Unbelievably, the ticket price is actually the same price (read: outrageously expensive) to go through India on my way home as it is for me to just go straight home. I was pretty bitter about the price of the ticket (you don't want to know), until I managed to squeeze this lovely trip in there, the week before I wanted to be home. Now, I really couldn't be happier with the way the next six weeks are scheduled! Also, I feel incredibly lucky, because as it works out, I am going to be attending festivals three weeks in a row; in Kyushu, in Kanonji, and in Osaka. The festivals in Kyushu and Osaka just happen to be quite famous festivals in Japan, so I feel lucky to have accidentally planned my trip that way. And of course, the Kanonji festival will be a lovely last event in my area.
So that's my whirlwind of a next month. I feel a bit guilty telling people, especially Japanese people, about my plans, because they work so hard and rarely take vacation days, hence why the government basically has to force the New Year's holidays and Golden Week holidays onto people. I always feel the need to make the crack that I am going to blow all the money I have managed to save in the last year of work on about four weeks of traveling in Japan. Unfortunately, that "crack" is almost completely true! Oh well, that's what I prioritize my spending on, it seems--travel. And food. And beer. Haha!
Luckily, however, I will be couchsurfing my way through Japan, as well as bussing and taking ferries as often as possible, so that will help with expenses.
Okay, enough of this rambling about my travels.
Recently, a few things that happened at the gym tugged at my heartstrings and made me realize how sad I was to be leaving this place where I had inadvertently made so many friends, most of whom's (that's not a word, but I want it to be) names are entirely unknown to me. A few days ago in the locker room, a woman near me looked around furtively and then slapped two wafer cookies into my hands before popping the last into her own mouth, all with her back to the rest of the room. Not two days later, another woman did nearly the exact same thing; she tapped my shoulder (I got embarrassed because I was naked and picking up something off the floor, but glanced up at her), she looked around to see if anyone was watching and then slipped two small packages of cookies into my locker. Then today, during my last pool session, I entered the walking lane, because all the other lanes were taken. I walked a few laps before I saw a woman in the farthest lane, beckoning me towards her. She, too, was checking to see if other people were watching. I knew I couldn't say, "Oh that's fine, I'll just keep walking," mostly because my Japanese is definitely not good enough to straddle that line between polite and casual, but also because I knew she was trying to do me a favor. I quickly swam over to her and she said, "Dozo" (here you go), and hopped out of the pool. This was especially lucky for me, because there were a few other people in the walking lane, also probably waiting to get into the swimming lanes. Oops. Ah, c'est la vie.
These moments made me realize how--though it can be annoying to never have anonymity--there are some wonderful perks to being that "the foreigner." Slipped cookies here and there, accidental priority in the swimming pool "just because," and of course, the incessant desire of others to have a conversation with you or, more often than not, about you. Of course, with the conversations about me, I can get the general gist through their tone and where they're looking and on a rare occasion, I can actually understand what they're saying: "Her hair is so light, her legs are so long, she is so young!" Can't complain about those things that I do understand. Perhaps it is better that I only seem to understand the somewhat positive or at least objective statements.
I have so many more things I want to remember and say about the club, but I'm drawing a blank suddenly. There was, however, one thing I thought was ironic today. Oh, actually two things. First, I was asked today by the pilates instructor if I was married. This, on my last day at the club, after having gone to the club and talked with him regularly for about nine months. Haha! I guess he never has to see me again. And secondly, after I finished my swim, I took a shower and decided to use the same shower that I used on my first day at the club. For those of you who haven't read, or don't remember, my first blog post, this is the shower that wouldn't turn off and I had to ask for help from the naked old Japanese women near me. :) I figured it was fitting, as a way to bring the whole experience full circle (I know, I know, I was probably over-thinking this whole "last day" business). Plus, it's like the first and last episode of LOST, for all you people with good taste in TV, haha. ;)
I also just like that shower sometimes because it gets stuck and you don't have to keep pushing the button to keep the water going. Today, however, it didn't get stuck ONE SINGLE TIME, no matter how hard I pushed it in. What!? It was as though it was trying to communicate to me that my time was up, that it was "pushing" me out of the club by popping back out instead of staying pushed in! And I couldn't help but go further with that idea, that the first day there, the shower button was pulling me in...for the long haul at the Japan Swim Club. Yep. That's my stoner thought for the day.
Anyways. It struck me that the first of the "lasts" have already happened, between my last shuji calligraphy lesson yesterday and my last day at the gym today, as well as my last volleyball tournaments a few weeks back. It's scary how quickly they all seem to be coming and going. And I know it'll only get quicker. Scary.
Can someone figure out a way to make the good days go by slowly and the bad days go by quickly? Please?
I have some other things I want to mention about meeting my lovely friends in Hawaii in the beginning of June, in addition to realizing how much I really do like Japan. I'll save that for the next post, which will probably be surprisingly soon!
Lots of love to you all.
