07/16 - Bittersweet Symphony

All good things must end

let’s remember the summer

we shared together

 Aykut and I started today the way it would carry on, in a bittersweet fashion. We took the train to work together for the last time and did what we have done many mornings this term and went to the Vie de France in Ikebukuro Station to grab a pastry or snack and some water. We have built so many things into our routines and running joke but we felt it was absolutely necessary to go to Vie de France, listen to the 80s music they play every morning, for Aykut to inspect the pitas while I checked my hair in the mirror and finally for me to fill my water bottle from their jugs. All staples of our life in Tokyo. Then, just as we did on the first day of the term, we took a picture, this time holding our receipts up proudly because of how much we've discussed receipts this term and how the cashiers always say "reshito desu". 

“Bittersweet” is a fantastic descriptor, so I had to teach it to many of my students today, on the last day of classes. I had such a great term teaching, that I really didn’t want it to finish, and heartwarmingly, my students all seemed to feel as strongly as I did. For the last day, my two colleagues and I joined our classes for a few big “parties” during the day. We had a lot of fun playing games, chatting, and reminiscing about the term with the students. We also had some big events, like an idiom matching game, a quiz about the teachers, and an activity I made up where the students had to draw us on whiteboards and then play “Pin the Tie on the Teacher”, in the style of “Pin the Tail on the Donkey”. Some of the drawings were absolutely hilarious. We all had to take pictures of the students’ depictions of us.

At the end of each sessions we took pictures with our students and almost every student gave us a card or a gift. There were some tears shed as well. A few very things that happened. For one, my hilarious student Keisuke brought me some Topo, which is a Japanese cookie snack as a farewell gift. It was pineapple flavor and he wrote a message for me on the box. I was talking to my fellow teacher Simon when he came up and said he couldn’t stay any longer and presented me with the gift. Then he said “I think this flavor is NOT delicious” with a huge smile. Both Simon and I cracked up and asked him why he was giving it to me then. He said the design was nice so it’s good for a gift, but it’s not delicious. Another awesome student of mine, Mune, really wanted to bring beer or sake for the “party”, but I had to tell him he couldn’t as we weren’t allowed to have alcohol in the classrooms. Persistent fellow that he is, he brought non-alcoholic beer for us to share. I laughed when he took it out of his bag. He cracked open a can and many of the girls were either shocked or laughing. One of them asked “How is it?” “Uhhhh…..BAD!” was his reply.

The day at school was a ton of fun, but also very draining and emotional. It was really great to see how important Simon, Aykut and I have become in some of the students’ lives, but also a little bit crazy considering we have all know the students for such short periods of time, Simon for about six months total and Aykut and I for just under three. I really wished I could come back and spend more time with all my dedicated students, especially because it has been difficult to explain to them why I can’t come right back for the fall term on account of their ever-increasing but quite low English levels

After cleaning up our classrooms, taking down all our pictures, decorations and study aids, it definitely felt bittersweet, like we were tearing down something that took almost three months to build in just under an hour. I always feel though, as I wrote about yesterday in my haiku as well, that once you’ve made a connection with a person, they, or a part of them, will be with you for life.

Following our last day we went to meet up with some other teachers, and our awesome PC, at the Ikebukuro Seibu Department Store Rooftop Beer Garden. It is on the roof of the 8 floor section of the massive store that is itself inside Ikebukuro Station. The rooftop was actually a little underwhelming, since you basically just have a view of tons of concrete all around you. It was nice to see some familiar faces though and celebrate the end of term, even though it was as humid as being in a Ziplock bag filled with yogurt on the dashboard of a car at 2 PM on summer’s day.

Just to make things as Japanese as possible, we capped the rooftop beer garden night off with a super short trip to the batting center, it was closing, and some karaoke. It was like the holy trinity of things/places Japanese people drink that Westerners never would.