Sayonara!

I have been reading Basho's Haiku prose/poetry travel diary, "Narrow Road to a Far Province." It was a gift (one of three books) from Yoko, who is brilliant, and has been taking my short story reading course. This book describes the poet's journey from Tokyo (then called Edo) to the remote upper areas of Honshu. As I was reading, I got this brilliant idea of composing some haiku to put in this blog entry, but all I could come up with was:

A lonely gyoza
Left uneaten on a plate.
A fly heard buzzing.

The gyoza was an obvious (if you live or have lived in Japan) nod to Utsunomiya (宇都宮), which has over 30 gyoza restaurants. But then I couldn't make the rest of the poem work in any meaningful way, and anyway, I'm pretty sure, if I were in a room with a plate upon which a lonely gyoza sat, I'd eat it before the fly ever got near it. So I have abandoned the idea of writing anything of poetic value in this entry (I do have some pics below of sakura, or cherry blossoms, so perhaps I'll be inspired further down).

I'm including pictures here from the last week or so - it's been a busy time, getting ready to leave Japan. And I've been lucky to be able to spend time, between packing and getting things organized, with a lot of the people I've grown to care a great deal for. A week ago, I played tennis with Tomoko, Isao, Motoki, and Anthony. Soon after we arrived, Anthony and Isao went off to play doubles with some other players on another court which left me, Tomoko, and Motoki free to play tennis and pose for silly pictures:
Isao and Anthony joined us after a bit and I was able to get this cool shot of tennis balls (and Anthony in the background):
After tennis, we had a great lunch spread out for us at Tomoko and Isao's. I love spending time with Tomoko and Isao: one is always certain to be well fed, to never have an empty glass, and to always have great conversations. After spending the afternoon there, Anthony and I had to head out to a small party at Aiichiro and Fumi's. Michel, Seiko, and Kohei were also there. Aiichiro did himself proud by cooking up a great Chinese dinner. Seiko brought her violin so that Fumi and I could play part of Bach's double concerto in D minor. This was a surprise I found out about only a day or two before going over there, so I practiced with Fumi a bit and then we had a concert where we played only the intro part of the first movement - I have never played that piece well, and after such a long time of not practicing, my playing was pretty rusty, nevertheless, it was a lot of fun:
Aiichiro and Fumi had also invited a candidate for city office over for dinner and he made a short speech which Aiichiro translated for us - this was amazing, as it was the first time, I'd eaten dinner where a political speech was made. I found this much more agreeable than what most politicians here do, which is to drive around in vans with loud speakers and yell about how everyone should vote for them. One of the things he talked about was the issue of a memorial that the local Korean community wants to erect near a mine where several Chinese and Koreans, forced into labor there, died. If you check out Michel's blog, he does a fine job outlining the history of this controversy (unfortunately when I use Blogger in my browser, I'm not given the option to create hyperlinks). Here we all are minus Fumi (who was the photographer):
This next group of pictures was taken at my farewell party last night. Madoka booked us a large tatami room at a restaurant near the school and it was perfect. The atmosphere was much better than the last couple places we'd had such parties at. Here I am with Isao and Tomoko:
It was great. Everytime a camera came out (and there were many), people would dive over tables, squash together, make peace signs with their hands. Here I am in a couple such group shots:
Scott was able to come up from Nagoya to spend the evening with us, which was a great surprise to many of the students at the party:
It was also the last time to see Michel and Yoshiko on this side of the world, so I was happy they could be there. I'll miss you guys - come to Minnesota soon!
I was humbled by the many gifts students gave me: pictures, flowers, sake, books, a soroban (Japanese abacus), furoshiki (traditional Japanese wrapping clothes for gifts, lunches, etc.), picture albums and frames, and lots of cards with warm messages. Yet none of these made me laugh as much as the shirt my Friday night discussion class presented me with. The front had a picture of me with the class - taken a couple Fridays ago. The picture on the back made me jump and let out what may have been as close to a scream as you will ever hear come out of my mouth. Here 'tis:
After Anthony led a Matt trivia game (won by a student who I've never taught before, but talked to in the lobby many times), Yasuko made a toast, Stacy gave a speech, and the staff and teachers presented me with a really nice fountain pen. Then I got up and gave a short speech - I had to keep it short because it was like the third time that week that I was worried that I'd start crying in front of my students. But I made them promise to visit me in the Land of 10,000 lakes as well as e-mail me from time to time, so I hope to be able to continue the many friendships that have begun here.

Earlier in the week, I took some pictures of the cherry blossoms, and as my kid sis asked me to post them, I am doing so here. But first, another fat lady sculpture - I like this one a lot:
The last four pictures were taken in Hachimanyama, the park where we had our hanami last year:

Okay, let's try a haiku again for the picture below:

The cherry tree's limbs
Droop and claw above my head.
Attacked by shades of pink.

(I think I'm channelling a bored student in a seventh grade English class during a poetry unit, rather than the spirit of Basho)



Tomorrow Anthony and I will meet the new teacher, Dayne, who is fresh from training in Omiya. Then two days left of work and a ton of things to do before leaving for Seoul on Saturday.