Tokyo Disney Sea

Thats right... I went to Disney Sea during my last week in Japan with Rich.
Tokyo Disney was on my to do list before I left Japan.. It was a lot fun, and scary rides too ;)
Our tickets included 1st class (my first and last time in the ultimate 1st class on the Bullet Train / Shinkansen) on the 6.30 am bullet train.
The forecast was rain... but the afternoon was gorgeous, perfect weather. Due to the forecast, it wasn't that busy either. Overall, a super day!!

Cleaning

My successor is called Kyla, from the UK. She'll be the new JET replacing me, and I had 2 weeks to clean my apartment....

I have cleaned my apartment, and packed 5 boxes for home. Cleaning took a whole day, with the help of my Japanese host mother, Fujikura-san. I can't belived she cleaned my toilet!! Luckily I keep keep it clean.. :-p

Hpwever, the floor needed a good scrubbing... I wanted to keep so many sentimental things.. Fujikurasan wouldn't allow it, too many things she said, so things I couldn't decide about, she threw out or took home.
I also had great fun changing my souji paper, the sliding screen in front of the windows. I never knew you needed an iron!!!!???? I even took photos...









The apartment was cleaned and perfect by July 31st, ready for my successor to move in.

"When are you leaving?"

Final week at school
I gave my goodbye speech at my base school on July 28th. It was all in Japanese. I had been preparing the speech for over a month, but nothing prepared to the way I felt that day, saying goodbye to 800 students and 50 teachers, but I managed to save my tears until the end.
I received a bunch of flowers, presented by 2 student council members. It was all quite touching really. Rich actually came on this day. It was great having him there. Plus the students thought he was cute.
Later on I received letters and cards from students. A class photo that they all had signed. Some messages were; I love you Rita teacher: I will never forget you: I looked forward to your classes; You're classes were interesting;I love your cute smile.
A 3rd grade class had signed a book. Inside, one student, Rei, wrote me a little poem and part of his message was: I will try not to forget you. No, I will never never forget you.

That night was my leaving party, almost all the teachers attended, I had to give another speech. I kept it short. After other speeches, we finally ate. Or not in my case. I had person after person coming up to me to say goodbye, filled my glass with wine. Making it difficut to measure how much I actually drank. It's custom, what can you do.
Before leaving, I decided I would walk around the room saying goodbye to teachers that I hadn't spoken to yet. We had 2 hours in the hotel restaurant. 30 mins went towards speeches, and the rest flew by.
My next stop was a second party, at an Italian restaurant, with the English teachers.

Goodbyes
During my last 3 weeks in Japan, I met up with someone everyday to say goodbye. One day I met up with 3 friends. Breakfast was with Karen, and we spent some quality time talking til about 1 o'clock. Then I met up with Nobuko for sushi, we spent time together until 5pm, and then I met up with Mayumi for dinner. Mayumi says "Is there anything you would like to eat before you leave Japan?" without hesitation I said "unagi" (eel). So we had eel and rice. Delicious.
Goodbye was all getting too much. I figured I would see all the people I want to see over with and have my last week to myself.
And that just what I did.