My last full month in Japan 😭My July was jam-packed full of activities and good times so I'll dive right into it GFFs (Grace's Faithful Fans)
On July 4th, I had a couple of events to attend to. First, was the principal's meeting. All the principals in Shimanto were gathered for their usual meeting but since 6 of the 7 ALTs were going to be leaving, they decided to invite us to say a few words about our time here at the meeting. Originally it was supposed to be 10 minutes per person but as that would lead to an hour of us speaking it was cut to 5. The 6 of us had made our speeches and had been practicing all week (I made mine the week before). I was very nervous but it was not my first time giving a presentation in Japanese so I knew I could do it. I was proud of myself and of everyone else because we all gave our best with our varying Japanese levels. We ended up taking about an hour anyway because some people's speeches went long but I'm sure the heartfelt words made up for it 😂
That evening, it was our and our boss's going-away drinking party. The head of the BOE was retiring and the 6 of us were leaving so we had our party at the same time. It was with all of the BOE, even with some of our previous coworkers who had been transferred to different departments in April. We all gave another goodbye speech that we had also made that week and received certificates from the new head of the BOE. There were some tears shed by a couple of people but it was overall a good night.
Two days later, 6 of us (not the same leaving 6) drove into Kochi City for our JLPT tests, Japanese language tests. Since mine and my friend's test was early in the morning, we all decided to grab a cheap hostel and stay the night so we could get a good nights sleep. So, we drove in, grabbed some dinner, walked around the shopping street, and then headed to bed.
My friend and I woke up early the next day and grabbed some nice breakfast before our test (N2).
We headed to our test and I was so nervous. But, I opened the test up and tried my best 💪(Spoiler from future Grace: I passed, with a perfect score on the listening section 👑). The test was 4 hours with breaks so by the time we finished it was lunch time. We met up briefly with the other 4 downtown before they headed off to their tests and then we stopped at a really cool cafe. This cafe was medieval themed and had really cool decorations. It felt like I had just jumped out of Japan.
After lunch, of course after taking an advance Japanese test the first thing that we would want to do is read more advance Japanese so we headed to the Kochi City Museum of History. The museum was actually lovely and did not feel strenuous on the brain at all. They had an exhibit on old Japanese money there that was really cool and I loved seeing old maps with my town labeled on them. After we grabbed ice cream and chilled, then went to Kochi Castle for a bit. It was really hot so we tried to stick to indoor activities. Finally, the other test takers finished up and we headed to Korean for dinner.
The next interesting thing that happened was 2 of my friends and I were invited to Yakitori, grilled chicken skewers, by a couple we had met at karaoke and had gotten dinner with one time. They ran into my friend at the store and heard that we were all leaving so they wanted to get dinner with us one last time. We went to their house first to have some drinks and chat and then went to a very nice traditional style Japanese yakitori restaurant. It was a really cool restaurant to see and I saw many things that I had seen before in my video games and in anime in real life. The food was amazing, of course, and I was reminded of how amazing it is to be able to speak a language and connect with strangers from across the world. I really cherish moments like these where I have the opportunity to have these moments of cross cultural exchange with people who aren't even necessarily my friends but people who are also interested in those different from them and from different backgrounds and parts of the world.
The next weekend, 6 of us (a different batch of 6) went camping in Kagawa. We started early and drove 4 hours to our campsite to set up. After setting up, we went to the beach to get a burger lunch.
It was a great day so it was lovely to look onto the beach while eating a delicious burger. After, there was a donut shop next door so, of course, we all stopped to get some.
Then it was time for our first stop on our itinerary: Takaya Shrine. This shrine is on top of a (small) mountain and outlooks the sea and town so it is also referred to as the Gate in the Sky. There was a bus to the near top so that was easy and we just chilled up there in the heat.
Next was the beach! We went to the beach, this time to swim (made a quick pit stop for icecream). We weren't the only ones swimming, luckily and we ended up spending a good while there. We even got the non-swimmers out 😆We played many water games, had one shorts casualty, and then headed back to camp before it got to dark because we still had dinner to make.
Dinner was a delicious bbq watching the sunset at our waterside campsite. We stayed up chatting and having a good time.
When it was time to go to bed, three of us decided to go for one more swim at night. Which turned out to be an awesome idea because we saw bioluminescent plankton! I had heard and seen pictures of them glowing before but it was so cool to see them in real life. We ended up being pretty enchanted by them for a little while but then decided to head back and go to sleep.
Nobody ended up sleeping very well but we all woke up early and got started on breakfast. I got up early enough to catch the sunrise, which was equally beautiful as the sunset the night before.
Our first stop of the day was to hike Mount Shiude. Mt. Shiude was an easy hike with stunning views of the hilly islands surrounding the coast. We gave riddles and chatted during the hike to distract our non-hiker friends from the hike so it ended up not being to bad for them either haha. There were beautiful gardens both on the way and on top of the mountain so we stayed and enjoyed those for awhile.
After the mountain, we grabbed some late udon lunch since Kagawa is known for udon. It was delicious and amazing and filled us right up.
Last on our itinerary was Takamatsu, the biggest city in Kagawa. There we went to a beautiful park, a touristy area, and to the castle ruins. Though the castle is no longer there, the surrounding castle area was very interesting because it was one of the few water-based castles. It used the ocean water to make its moat so you could so jellyfish and other things in the moat which was cool.
Then of course at last we had our long drive back to our corner of the island we called home.
The next week was full of goodbyes for my schools. My students were all so sweet and made me things and planned fun activities for our last classes. It was sad to leave them but I was happy to be done teaching too 😂
My friend from college who is also doing the same program as me in Japan, came a week later for 6 days to visit me and my town. It was great timing because I was able to play tourist in my town one last time before leaving and do all the things I hadn't but wanted to. First, we went to Nakamura Castle and enjoyed the city museum there.
Second, I showed her the waterwheels in town, and then we had a picnic on the river.
Then it was time for the beach! We enjoyed being pummeled by waves (a typhoon was coming) and then went to dinner. It was a little tough because the first two restaurants we went to were full but we found somewhere eventually 😅.
The next day we headed into the big city, Kochi City. We visited the Sunday market, perused the stalls, and purchased a couple of items.
Next, was lunch which took forever because it was a holiday weekend and was therefore immensely crowded. But, we got our Katsuo Tataki finally and thoroughly enjoyed it. Even though it was really hot out, we went and explored the castle. I had been a couple of times but this time Tanjiro from Demon Slayer was there to say hi so that was nice😂 (I discovered a couple of weeks later that he was at every castle in Japan lol)
After smoldering in the heat, we decided to spend the rest of our time indoors at the mall and grab dinner there.
Day 4, we grabbed a nice breakfast and chatted then enjoyed a late lunch on a river boat tour. The tour was so lovely and perfect for the hot day. I had wanted to go for a long time so I was thankful to finally go. I showed my friend our local park and giant slide and then we had dinner.
Our last final day together we went to Cape Ashizuri. There we enjoyed a glass bottom boat tour, explored some funky rock formations, enjoyed the aquarium, and ate some delicious shaved ice.
Our dinner was the first place we had wanted to go to days before so we made a reservation and went at last.
I drove her into the airport the next day and said goodbye (for 2 weeks).
Some final activities in Shimanto included a bbq dinner with our old boss, the English Summer Party we put on for the kids, and our big farewell party hosted by one of the ALTs. It was a sad time saying goodbye to everyone and doing fun last hurahs with everyone.
A particularly fun evening and the following morning happened pretty spontaneously. I increased my spontaneity skills while in Japan and this was one of many moments of spontaneous fun. One of my friend's friend was in town and they had an evening of fun activities planned that I got a last minute invite too. It was funny actually, they asked me if I wanted to join then immediately asked me if I would drive because none of them had a car 😂 so I saw what their true intention was (haha jkjk). First on the plan was jumping of one of the submersible bridges into the river. Normally I would never do something like this because I am too scared but since I was leaving and thought I should engage in some classic youth activities while I'm still in my youth, I also decided to partake. I jumped twice and besides the water up my nose and stomach dropping feeling of jumping and falling, it was pretty fun. Next, we had to rush to the new brewery in town before they closed. It was a nice small brewery and I was able to try a flight of their local brews. We stayed there for an hour or so and then headed to dinner.
On the way back from dinner, I volunteered myself to play chauffeur the next morning for a morning beach run. My friend's friend wanted to surf some and my friends and I just enjoy the beach, so we headed out around 7 am the next day and spent a couple of hours hanging out at the beach. What did we do, you ask? Well, one, forget sunscreen, but two, build a raft out of bamboo sticks we found on the beach 😁 It was quite fun to practice my weaving skills and it did actually work in the end and floated us one at a time. We stopped and grabbed ice cream after before our big farewell party. I realize I got no pictures of the farewell party but it was a good time and we invited everyone we knew and were sad to say goodbye to.
My last big hurrah in Shimanto, was being able to participate in the Shimanto City Festival. I had wanted to try the traditional dancing in the parades like I saw when I first arrived so I was so happy and grateful for the opportunity to. We showed up to the city hall to get ready and they had costumes all ready for us. Lovely ladies dress us and even gave us special ribbons. We ate some prepared lunch and then someone put on our hats for us. We were all ready to go! The dance was very easy but that allowed me to enjoy the moment and parade with no worries. It only rained a little but that was for the best, I worry about how I would have been if it had been sunny. Luckily, the Japanese people really care about taking care of themselves and preventing heat stroke, so there were free fans, water, electrolyte drinks, and snacks for the performers for our break half way.
The festivities didn't stop there though. After more free food after the parade, my friend (who danced with me) and I went to see the night parade with the floats. These floats are full of lit up lanterns and on top in the middle sometimes, is a boy playing the drum. The people carrying the floats run in a circle and spin the float super fast and then lift it into the air. It was really cool to see. The whole day was amazing and it was so awesome to enjoy all the happiness that was in the air, a type of festiveness only festivals can bring 😊
After that final hurrah I had my one last weekend which included a couple of lunch dates and a paint party with some older ladies, but then it was to packing and cleaning and packing and cleaning and ......
July was a busy and fun-filled month so good job sticking through the whole blog post. My next post will be my last about my time during JET, unfortunately, so I hope you enjoy reading that one too 😢
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