Still saying goodbye and going to China...

Well, this has been such a hard week. On Tuesday I had to say goodbye to Kristine. As many of you may remember, she was pretty much my first friend here. We talked by email before moving to Japan and then met at the orientation in Tokyo. We spent our entire first month together shopping and exploring Ise. Although we both got caught up in our own lives for a while, we started hanging out more again recently and I was so sad to see her go. John, Taylor, and I went to the train station to see her off. Watching her ride away really made me feel like the first part of my Japan experience is over. I'm kind of in the inbetween stage now, waiting for the next chapter of my life to start. Today I had a goodbye lunch with John and Taylor. It feels weird to think that they won't be here anymore. I think I took them for granted. Honestly, I'm not too sure about the new JETs moving to Ise. I'll be happy if we can all get along even half as well as everyone did this year.

Tomorrow I leave for China. I'll be there for around 9 days. I'm going with my good friends Genevieve, Juan, and Phil. We are going to Shanghai, Beijing, and maybe Xian. We really haven't planned the trip out at all. The only things we know we want to do are to climb the Great Wall and visit the forbidden city. We are all very laid back travelers so we just decided to take things as they come. It's definitely going to be a very cheap trip. We are staying at $6.00 a night hostels and plan on spending as little money as possible (since none of us have that much money to begin with).

I return to Japan on Sunday, August 5th. As soon as we get back, I have to rush to catch the first train and get back to Ise by 6:30. After a quick shower, I'm going to meet the first group of new JETs at the train station and will take them to dinner. I guess China will kind of be the turning point where I feel like my new life in Japan starts. When I get back, so much will be different. The 2nd half of the new JETs arrive a few days later. I'm both excited and nervous to meet them. I'm sure I'll be writing more about that later.

Alright, I won't be able to update my blog from China, but expect lots of pictures and stories when I get back. Love you all!!!

Saying Goodbye

So it's almost time for many of my friends to leave Japan. For some reason, it hasn't really hit me until just recently. Although the Camp Inn was the last time I would see many people, I knew they would still be in Japan for another month. Now, the time is almost hear and saying goodbye is getting harder. Yesterday I went out for one last night of Karaoke with the Ise crew. There was only a small group of us, but we had a gret time. On the drive there, Kristine and I started talking about when we first arrived. I couldn't help but tear up. It is going to be hard to see so many of my friends leave. Unlike when I had to say goodbye to my friends back home, I'm not sure which of these friends I will see again. They are moving back to not only all over the US, but also England, Scottland, Canada, etc. I hope it will not be the last time I see them. The one nice thing about meeting people that live all over is that you always have an excuse to travel and see them! I hope after I leave Japan I will be able to do this.

Why I will write more...

Recently, Kelley started a blog of her own. It puts mine to shame. She updates it all the time, maybe even every day. Mine is so incredibly slack. For now at least, I am motivated to start updating mine more regularly. There are 2 reasons really. One is how connected I feel to Kelley when I read her blog. I remember my dad telling me after I first moved to Japan that reading my blog made me seem less far away. I had the same feeling when reading Kelley's blog. I want my friends and family to still be a large part of my life, no matter what corner of the Earth I am living in. The 2nd reason is because I want my blogs to be more detailed. When I wait so long to write, I have too many things to talk about so I just skim the surface of each topic, never really writing anything of substance. Not only do I want to share a more complete account of my experiences with you all, but I also want to use this blog as a journal. When I leave Japan, I want to look back at my blog and remember how I felt and not just what I saw. So...hopefully you will see a big change in my blog.

On to my latest adventures. After I wrote last, we had our huge Sayonara party. It was the first event that I had to work as part of my new responsibility as social chair for Mie JETs. The party was great, but it's definitely alot of work. Shun went with me and we had an amazing time dancing and hanging out with friends. Ok, so I know I just said that I was going to write more detailed blogs...but since it has been a while, I will just give a brief overview one last time, hopefully. The next weekend was the huge Camp Inn. Over 70 Jets and friends of Jets went to the south of Mie, Miyama. We had gorgeous cabins to stay in. I was able to share a cabin with Shun, Taylor, John, Kristine, Audrey, Tomohiro, and Tom (the Ise crowd). It was great to have a weekend with all of my Ise friends since they are all leaving at the end of the month. We got there on Friday night and spent the entire evening talking with everyone and dancing. When we woke up Saturday morning, it was raining! Even so, we went to the river, which was gorgeous. It was full of these enormous rocks that made getting to the river very difficult. There was a certain area of the river where the rocks met in the middle to form a small waterfall. Some of my friends were literally riding down the waterfall. It wouldn't have been as scary if there wasn't a huge rock facing the bottom of the waterfall. It took forever, but I was finally brave enough to go down it. It took 20 minutes of Phil holding me and promising not to let me go until I was ready...but I did it! That evening, we had a huge cookout, yakiniku style. It's where there is a grill and everyone puts individual meet and vegetables on it. That night, there was a Tanabata (star) festival. We had all written wishes on these colorful pieces of paper that were tied to small bamboo trees. The trees and wishes had been out for the previous week or two. At night, we went to a huge bridge in the middle of the mountains and watched the fireworks. While the fireworks were exploding overhead, there were what seemed like thousands of traditional Japanese lanterns floating down the river below us. I'm constantly in awe of the amazing sights presented to me in Japan. Later that night, we again hung out and danced the night away. It was the last time I will see many Jets who are moving back to their home countries. I will miss many of them so much. I hope the friendships will carry on beyond Japan.

This weekend was suppose to be the huge Hanabi (fireworks) in Ise. It's one of the biggest fireworks around. Sadly, we had a typhoon, so it was postponed until Sept 8th!! More on that to come. On Monday, however, they were able to have a matsuri (festival). It was great because it was a small local festival in the area where all of my students live. I was able to see over a hundred of them. The fireworks weren't huge, but very unique. We were standing on a traditional Japanese bridge (red...the kind you picture when you think of Japan) and the fireworks were coming from two tiny boats on the river below. They started from opposite directions and slowly moved towards us, passing several other bridges on the way. When they got to our bridge (the main one), they took turns shooting off fireworks. They also used gold fish fireworks, ones that move through the river. They got as close as only 10 yards from either side of the bridge. At the end, they both shot off fireworks at the same time. I don't know if I've explained it well enough, but it was a wonderful sight.

Friday is my last day of work for 5 weeks. I'll be busy all summer though and will do a better job of keeping you updated. I won't say I will write everyday, but I will try to write 2-4 times a week. As you probably noticed, I also added some more pics from the Philippines, soccer, etc. Hope you like them.

As always, I love and miss you all.