Hindsight

My last day at Chiyo was quite.. warm. There was a ni-nensei “selection” class (kids can choose a class to take among the subjects once in awhile) for English where they made Christmas cards. I got a bunch. Some of them were just way damn creative and cute. And for once they didn’t care about writing “perfect English” and just went with what they could try to write, regardless of mistakes. I was happy.

“I fun your classes.”

“I hope that came back to you from America soon.”

“I hope that we can stady with you.”

“Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Mr James. Do you like FF Final Fantasy”

“Wishing your all the best in 2003.”

Picture of mini santa with his cap over his eyes and super poofy white moustache with text to the right:
“Be happy”

Chiyo and Tahara – good times.

—

Today was one of the best days I’ve had in awhile.

I took nenkyuu so today I didn’t go to school. Instead I took today off to do some Christmas shopping and go easy on preparing for the flight tomorrow.

I woke up in the morning, went to the post office to mail off some Christmas gifts off and went to the Uomachi shopping arcade to find some gifts for relatives back home. I was able to go through two trinket/souvenir shops and buy what I needed. At the second shop I did some small talk with the old storeowner. It was nice talking in Japanese and putting it to more practice. Even though I explained to him just my current situation, that I was an eigo no kyoshi and such, it was still cool.

After that I went all around. Bought an ichi-man bus card so I wouldn’t have to deal with it when I’m back home (going to my schools costs me anywhere from 600 yen to 1300 yen a day). Played a little more Zelda at the kiosk in LiMB at Best Denki. Walked through Animate to check out the latest pretty things. Once again, ate ramen at Ichiran.

I hit the ice cream place on the 1st floor of Kokura Eki to chat up with the owner and worker. The owner/manager likes to talk to us. Even though we can’t understand a lot of Japanese. She’s single now with one kid in high school. It’s interesting because we talk about Japan and America and she knows nothing about the U.S. other than what the media shows. Alex and I decided to call her mama-san since we don’t know her name.

She’s aware that we’re not all about snipers and killers… sort of. She asked me why I might be staying for just one year. I told her, “mada wakarimasen” (I still don’t know). I told her I was heading back to California tomorrow and she took me a few meters down to a place that sold soy sauce crackers and the like. Mama san bought me two small boxes of them to bring home to the relatives. Awfully nice, considering. I had my usual after that – macha. Green Tea ice cream.

Her store closes on January 31st.

One of her workers came by after that and we chatted it up a little and I gave her my keitai number and email. This girl was sad to hear that another of the ALTs was already seeing someone, but mama san said that Dion and I were “free”. Good times.

Once I got back home, I passed by Chris’ and paid him back for borrowing some cash. Jon showed up at my doorstep since he was in the area.

As I was packing or just cleaning up the apartment, he was reading the copy of “Game Over” (David Scheff) and we would sporadically talk about Japan, or video games or whatever else it was that seemed to pop up in conversation. He asked a little about Thailand because I’d lived there for a year (even though I don’t remember anything about it, other than that being the best year of my life). Shared some of our frustrations with Japan.

I’ve never thought much about it but chilling out with Jon is really cool. He just does his own thing, be it reading a book I hand him or… reading some other book. He just loves books. He’s got a sarcasm that I don’t have, and it just works well. Or he just likes to talk junk, and so do I.

Jon: Do you mind if I smoke outside?
James: Surely, go ahead.
Jon: ….
James … those fucking chain smokers
Jon: Yeah, fucking chain smokers.

…even though he knows he is one. It’s great.

Before he left (I had finished with packing too), we wrapped up on the Japan stories and he said some really earnest things.

“Go home and have a good time… if some of your friends call you up and they give you shit about because you can’t meet them, tell them what’s up… you’re going to have downtime.. relax.. talk to your parents a lot… cry if you need to.. let it all out… I’m one for letting things all out….have a good time.”

It was quite a surprise to hear all that. At the same time, it was quite comforting. He’d been going through a bit, apparently, in the last couple of weeks. Jon hasn’t adjusted much to Japan, but he’s been keeping a good sense of humor going and trying to live it up around here. Those two things are what any ALT needs. Especially having a sense of humor. Without it, we’d all crack down here.

In about 12 hours I’ll be on a plane to Haneda. From there it’s heading to Narita and a flight to San Jose.

I’m going home.

It looks like a lot of the JHS ALTs here in Kitakyushu are heading off. A few are sticking around though.

I’ll be heading home for Southern California this Saturday. When I hit San Jose International, I want to find a Taco. It got silly as I was rambling about “going home and finding a taco” at the ALT meeting when everyone was chit chatting with others next to them.

Tonight was nice. After school (2 classes that went nicely) we had our ALT meeting and then it was off to Yakyuu-dori for good food-on-a-stick, umeshu (plum wine, spelling?) and the usual nama beer. Dion was there too so after that we headed to my apartment where he played GTA Vice City for the first time, running over people as usual.

I’m happy to say that I’ve caught up with all my laundry. There is no longer a pile of clothes laying on the tatami. The apartment is cleaned up well. Perfect since I am leaving on Saturday. I took nenkyuu (paid leave) for Friday – I can ship some packages off that morning, go Christmas shopping and wrap up some loose ends before the flight on Saturday. Good times.

If I don’t write before then, I’ll be back in Kitakyushu on January 7th, a day before classes resume. I’ll be back at my favorite school, Tahara, the next day.

I’m deciding what to do for lunch.

Yesterday afternoon I sent some packages off at the post office, went to Kokura Station, had a Big Mac at McDonald’s and took the Shinkansen to Fukuoka. Took twenty minutes.

It was my first time on the bullet train. Taking the Shinkansen is like being on a plane that doesn’t leave the ground. It was interesting – often there were pressure changes going in and out of tunnels, you could easily feel your ears pop had you been there.

I arrived at Hakata first and took a stroll the Yodobashi Camera store, several floors of electronic heaven. The PC section itself was enough to satisfy me. Parts and motherboards and everything all in one very clean store. Nothing like Fry’s back home. More.

The games section also was fulfulling – everything.

After that I took the subway to Tenjin and walked around. Everywhere. It got to the point where I just kept walking in one direction until there was nothing to see. I think I walked through at least five large shopping complexes in that area.

I’ve been searching for a toy. Rather, a figure:

Disney Magical Collection by Tomy. The figure is “Sora” from Kingdom Hearts.

I can find the others easily – Goofy and Donald are the most important as they complete the trio. Sora, though, is nowhere in sight at stores I have visited. If anyone finds him, I need two figures.

As dark approached I found, out of the blue, a multi-floor Mandarake store. Tons of Manga and one floor dedicated to toys/model kits. But nothing of the sort.

When it got late, I checked into the “Hotel Brave Inn Hakata”. It was… small, but comfy. Coincidentally, the first floor was home to another Ichiran.

This morning I woke up early, took a really nice shower (mine at home is “prison cell block 1″) and just took the Shinkansen back.

It was really nice to get away and see something other than Kokura for a change. I don’t know if I’ll be running back to Fukuoka but it’s definitely a nice location to hit up once in awhile.