Saying goodbye to Tsuchiyama Jr. High and Japanese class.

Friday was my last day at Tsuchiyama junior high. The teachers presented me with a gift (a yukata) during our morning meeting. Later around 9am I delivered a farewell speech in Japanese to the school. After my speech was over a young student came up to the stage and gave a speech in English telling me how happy he was that I taught him. He also said that he didn’t want to say goodbye but see you later and that he hopes I never forget Tsuchiyama junior high. I was really happy to hear this from him and got a little teary, I kept saying to myself “don’t cry, don’t cry”. After the closing ceremony was over I cleaned the school with the students and gave some of them my contact information (the ones I bonded with).
In the afternoon the principal took me to the Board of Education and I had to give a small speech to the superintendent in Japanese. He was very kind and said it was a good speech (I am sure I mutilated his language). The people at the BOE gave me a couple of really thoughtful gifts.
Later in the evening Joe and I went to our last Japanese class in Minakuchi. We had our last class and after the class there was a goodbye party. During our party/break time I asked my teacher if she wanted to take a picture with me. We posed for the camera then we hugged and she began to cry. Then for the first time I started crying, not just teary… I was crying. She told Joe (in Japanese) that I was really smart, kind and very helpful in class. She said she will miss me a lot and that she will try hard to learn English to keep in touch. I told her I would try to learn Japanese to keep in touch as well.
Overall Joe and I are sad we are leaving; we will miss Japan and all the wonderful people we met here. But we are happy to return to our home and our lives in Los Angeles. We still have a lot more to see in our remaining days in Japan, but we are looking forward to our return to our family and friends.