Can you believe summer is more than halfway over? Well, for those in America, summer is halfway over. Here in Japan summer is just beginning (insert cheering crowd)! Students are free to do as they please and we teachers are sitting in the teachers room doing work.. taunted by the sounds of cheering and laughter of the playing children. Oh freedom.. so close.. but so far. But in my case, I’ll probably me making new games for the year. Which means I’ll basically be doing arts and crafts for a month.
This summer feels more like the Japanese summer I remember as a child. It’s hot, it’s humid, and there are so many bugs! We’ve got big bugs, small bugs, round bugs, but mostly, we have long bugs. Multiple times a day I find myself asking “is it a bee? is it a dragonfly? WHAT IS THAT THING?! Where’s the hefty bug killer spray?!” I’m telling ya, if you’re not a bug person, Japanese summer is not for you!
Life at school is basically the same. Everyone must be used to me because there are moments where the students forget I’m from America. I get asked “where are you from?” almost as much as “Do you know Japanese?” Which they don’t believe my answers for either question (America and no). Opposite of the winter where schools are colder inside than outside, parts of my school are much warmer inside than it is outside. Which is awful when it’s 85 degrees outside with 85% humidity. When the AC is on, the teachers are always finding reason go to the teachers room. And at the end of the day, all the teachers (minus the three that stay in the teacher’s room all day) come back to the teachers room with a look of exhaustion and defeat from the heat. After 2 minutes of staring into oblivion wishing ice cold drinks were the size of a bath tub, we all return to work (“work”). Luckily for both my schools though, next summer won’t be like that because WE’RE GETTING AC!!! By ‘we’ I mean, ALL THE ROOMS BUT MY ROOM?.
So far this summer I have a trip to Disney planned and a teacher’s trip to Tokyo which I will keep all you updated on. Last year I posted about the professional soccer game and as much as I wish I could relive that trip, I won’t be. After those Tokyo trips I’ll be going somewhere a little farther. But, I’ll reveal that trip when the date gets closer. I will tell you that I’m staying in the country this time and will hopefully be eating really good food. Oh where oh where could I be going?!?!
Once the traveling is finished, it’ll be time for me to buckle down and be serious. The end of summer means I have a month to decide whether or not to stay or go. I always thought the decision to stay or go would be an easy one; and if anyone asked me a month ago whether I’d be staying or leaving I would have had a solid answer. But now, this feels like one of the hardest decisions of my life. I’m started to really enjoy my life here and I’ve made some incredible friends here. However, I do miss my friends and family back home and am a little anxious to go home. I like this country and it makes me sad to think that once I leave, I’m probably never going to see majority of these people ever again. The clock is ticking, and it’s louder than any real clock.
