Breaking the News

With just four weeks to go, things are moving at a million miles an hour. In the few moments I have to stop and think, my brain is crammed with a hundred questions: Have I made the right decision? How can I leave my students? What does my life hold after this chapter comes to an end? Of course, I know I've made the right decision, and I'm really excited about this year, but there are times when even that is little consolation.

I started telling students the news. So far I've been met with every possible reaction. There have been some funny comments - one little boy, after I explained that I had to go back to Australia to see my family, pondered, "So... your parents are Australian too?" Another girl asked, "Are you going back to Australia on the shinkansen?"

One of my last daytrips was to a famous hot spring/ski resort town called Nozawa Onsen. It's a tiny town, with narrow roads sprawling up the base of the mountain. As you'd imagine, there are hot springs everywhere - Michie and I went to one of the free foot hotsprings by the side of the road. It's still strange to me, sticking my bare feet in hot, murky water that a bunch of other people have stuck their feet in before me. But what got to me was when a man leaned over, filled his plastic bottle with the water (a dull yellow, with floaties, mind you) and told his friend how he was going to drink it when he got home. I checked with Michie to see if I'd just understood his Japanese correctly - yep. It turns out some people drink hot spring water because of the minerals etc. it has in it. You know, you couldn't pay me all the money in the world to drink that stuff. It was bad enough sinking my feet in it.


My non-stop task of catching up with people led me back to the ice rink today. Always a good day, made better by the fact that my friends and I bumped into one of our school's students, a girl named Yurika. Often when we see kids outside work they get shy - well, not Yurika. She spent a lot of the day skating with us, occasionally trying to push us over. I reckon her parents, watching from the sidelines, had their hearts in their throats as they watched us engage in a pushing war with their daughter as we skidded past on ice-skates.


Travel plans for April-May are looking solid! This time next month, Kym and I are gonna be in Vietnam... :D