Ok, people, I know you've all probably put your lives on hold while you wait for the rest of my story about my trip to Hokkaido and believe me when I say, I am working on it. It's just that I'm putting in a lot of detail so it's becoming quite long and I'd rather not put it up here in disjointed chunks. I already did that with the first day and don't like the fact that I did. Anyway, I add some day by day now so don't think I've forgotten about it.
I am also working on the story about my trip to sumo with an American friend and a whole group of Japanese people. So that will also be up eventually.
But meanwhile, life goes on.

At most of my high schools (I have five) I am now in the midst of seeing the third graders for the final time. A week ago I saw one of my classes at the academy for the last time, this last Monday I saw my third grade class at Minobusan (Buddhist school) for the final time, and yesterday I spent my last moments with two classes of girls at Yuda. It's all a bit sad, really. Makes me think that July is going to be an extremely hard month to get through. Like I've told a few people, in the States when I moved, it was always a sense of "see ya later." Here it's going to be "Farewell. Have a nice life."
But anyway, I had a good final time with one of my classes yesterday. The class is made up of about 18 girls and on our way to class the teacher told me, "The students have a gift for you today." I was a little surprised as I've never gotten anything from students before--besides the odd question now and then--and I wasn't sure what to expect.
So we got to the classroom and the students had a peculiar buzz about them. I wasn't sure exactly what was going on or how this final class would be spent, but it ended up being quite nice.
After they stood, bowed, and roll was taken, the teacher asked me if I would write a short note to each student. I said sure and so we began. Each girl pulled out whatever paper she wanted the note written on and then they came up one at a time, handed me the paper, said "Onigaishimas" (for which there is no real translation, it's kind of an extremely nice "please" but that really doesn't do it justice) and then I would write a few words and sign it. Mostly I wrote simple things along the lines of, "I had a great year in your class. I always enjoyed coming here. Good luck to you in the future." To two or three of the more outgoing girls I would add something about them being fun or missing their smiling face. This class really was a good one. The girls were always nice and very respectful. Sometimes they were a little too shy and quiet but a few jokes by me would usually loosen them up.
So after I had written to them all and my hand was "in class essay" sore we took a few pictures. I had asked the week before it if would be ok to bring my camera and they had all said it would be and that they would bring theirs too. I just figured we'd take a few group shots, and that is all I got on my camera, but some of the girls wanted it to be just the two of us. This was actually amazing to me considering how shy most of them always seemed. But anyway, one girl would hand her camera (or phone) to a friend and then come and stand by me so the picture could be taken. The first girl was one of the more outgoing girls, but even she tried standing a foot away from me, so I put my arm around her and pulled her closer, an action that received a bout of laughter and a lot of red faces. Out of about 18 girls I'd say at least 12 of them came up for these pictures and around every one them I'd put my arm and they'd either shake in excitment or freeze in terror. I sometimes wonder what I look like to them.
After those pics we took some group shots so I got two of those on my camera, one with me in it and one without. And after the group shots came my present.
For this, two girls came up and stood in front of me. One of them held the goods while the other read from a paper. The note, I don't have it, went something like this, "Thank you, Mr. Marcus for teaching us one year. We enjoyed your teaching and your pictures from Hokkaido. We will not forget you. Please remember us when you return America. And good luck with your girlfriend." That last part was hilarious to me. It really is amazing how much some of the girls in my classes focus in on the fact that I have a girlfriend. "Good luck with my girlfriend".....that's funny. You might also notice that the English is good. Not perfect but quite good.
So then the other gal handed me the presents. Turns out that they pooled their money, I guess, and got me two nice little candles, the scented kind. While those are nice, though, it was the other gift that I really liked. They had taken a picture of the class, attached it to a backboard sort of thing (I'll frame it when I get to Cali) and around it they each wrote a few words to me. On top it says, "Dear Marcus Frame, 2005.1.26, Memories with you are not forgotten. Thank you." A few examples of what each student wrote are as follows: "Mr Marcus's smiling face was nice. We shall meet again. Good luck." "Your lesson is very nice. Come to my house in Nagano." "You may study together for one year. You were loved." and the cryptic "Your lesson is beri good! Rive a happr life with your girlfriend!" So you see, if Amy ever dumps me, I've got a whole troop of young gals ready to take her spot.
Anyway, was a great class and I had to catch myself from showing my emotions a time or two. Gonna miss them.

In other news, I am not sure if I ever mentioned the five year old I am now tutoring. One day I was at the local liquor store when the owner told me, "I want to ask you something." "Ok," I said, quite surprised to hear such good and natural English out of this guy's mouth from whom I'd been buying beer and sake for the last year and several months. Up to then it had always just been a few words here and there, "Potato shochu....smell bad!" Shochu is a kind of alcohol.
Anyway, he ended up asking me if I might be able to teach his five year old son some English once a week. So I said that I probably could and that after the holidays we could discuss the details. Later, when I told Amy this story she laughed. She was imagining the guy talking to his friends about the American he'd hired to teach his son English.
"So...where'd you find this guy?"
"Oh, he frequently comes into my store to buy booze."
Would this happen in America? Probably not.
So anyway, I now teach this kid on Wednesday evenings for about 45 minutes. The kid knows his ABCs but only if he says them in order.
me--"What's this letter?"
Keichiro--"a-b-c-d........E!"
me--"Right. Good. Now, what's this one?"
Keichito--"a-b-c-d-e-f-g-h-i-j-k-l-m-n-o........P!"
me--"Ok, that's enough of that. So what's your opinion on the current state of affairs in the middle east?"
Ok, I made that last part up.
Yesterday, thanks to Amy, I had a whole thing to do with him regarding a few animals. Amy made flashcards for me and we played the memory game. I tried to make him say the name of each animal as he turned each card over in search of a match. It worked about thirty percent of the time. He has monkey, dog, cat, and chicken somewhat down, but really struggles with giraffe, horse, cow, and purple throated mountain gen hummingbird. In the end he beat me. Ok, I let him win but it was close and he seemed happy. He actually celebrated by throwing his hands up in victory. Last time I go easy on him. Little fart.
So I've been to his place twice and both times I've ended up going out drinking with dad afterwards. Last week I really had no idea this would happen and about four drinks into the night and stuffed on sushi and octopus I wondered to myself, "Hey....I thought I was teaching a kid tonight, not going out partying with his father." But he wants to treat me. He said that he thinks the 2000 yen I am chargins is not enough so "We will go out to eat and drink and maybe do kareoke sometimes." Ok, man, but I do have to work the next day, you know?
I also found out that the reason his English is pretty good is because about 20 years ago he lived in Utah for three years. Went to the univerity there and everything. Has good memories and I imagine that that experiece has a lot to do with him getting his son started early on English. I am glad to help. And the free food and drinks afterwards isn't bad either.