Kill Bill But Save Dave

My last post writing from Japan! Tomorrow afternoon, Naoni and I get on a plane headed back to Boston! Second long flight of my life, not sure whether I'm ready yet.

The past week has been such a whirlwind that I don't really know how to do it justice here, so I'll just describe some of my favorite moments and then end with my thoughts about the month overall.

Nara and Hanabi

This week I stayed with a host family that lives in Ikoma City, Nara Prefecture. My past two host families were students at the high schools we taught at but this week I actually stayed with a teacher who helps with tech stuff in the English classes at the high school. She was super cool: she studied in California and Texas for high school-graduate school, and she has a master's in Pipe Organ Performance. Since she was fluent in English, I got to have some really good, surprisingly deep conversations with her. I had a really good time with this host family. I did hot yoga with my host mother, went cycling with her son around their city, played with their very friendly fluffy dog, and ate at my host father's Italian restaurant one night.

I mentioned over a month ago that I was really excited to go to Nara and it did not disappoint. One day we went to Nara City (the oooold capital of Japan) and I got to try takoyaki, a food that's famous in the Kansai region. I hadn't tried it yet so I was really excited and it was so good, except I totally burnt my mouth on it since it was really hot. Apparently there's a method of circulating the air in your mouth so it doesn't burn you, but I definitely did not have that figured out my first time trying it. But I have no regrets, even if my mouth hurt a little the next day.

I also went to see Hanabi/fireworks with another host family one night. It was maybe the most incredible fireworks I've ever seen, even compared to the Fourth of July in Boston. The only downside was that we weren't sure the best place to stand to watch them and we ended up behind a fence that partially blocked our view, so I don't have any very good pictures of the fireworks. But they had ones shaped like frogs' faces and watermelon and ones that were so big and colorful, it was really incredible and I'm so glad I got to see them!

Kyoto

On Saturday my host family went with another host family to Kyoto to see the famous sights. We went to Kinkakuji (Gold Temple), Kodaiji - which is famous for it's rock garden - and Fushimi Inari - which is really famous for its thousand red gates. Every place was so beautiful and I got to try a lot of special foods that are known in Kyoto, like yatsuhashi, dango, a lot of matcha-flavored things, and some good pickled vegetables.

O

h no! I'm powerless to stop the passage of time!

After we came home from Kyoto my host mom and brother took me to my host dad's restaurant. He's a chef in an Italian restaurant that his parents started and he actually studied cooking for four years in Italy. I had some really amazing pasta and then after eating, they brought out birthday cake for me and wished me a happy birthday. I was really touched because I hadn't really mentioned that it was going to be my birthday but they said that they wanted to celebrate with me since I was going to be leaving on my actual birthday, which was the next day. Leaving this host family was really hard.

Shin-Okubo

On my actual birthday I reunited with Naoni Rosemond (alias unknown) in Tokyo and we hit up Shin-Okubo, which is known as Tokyo's Koreatown! It's mostly kpop merch stores and restaurants with a couple cosmetics shops. The loop stores were really fun because they sold a lot of merchandise that I thought was pretty corny but it was still cool to browse and I found some fun stickers :-) and then we went to eat at this Korean restaurant and had really good bibimbap and I had my first legal drink in Japan! Peach-flavored soju, magically delicious.

The Reflection

I'm not going to talk too much about what I did today, but I had a really fun last day in Tokyo. I didn't see everything and there's a lot more I want to see in this city, as well as Japan as a country of course, so I really hope that I can come back some time again. I really loved being here, even though it was scary to be somewhere where I couldn't speak the language.

This month has been a truly unforgettable experience for me. I've learned so much about myself and what kind of person I want to be and what I want to work on. I decided I really loved working with the students, and now I want to learn more about teaching. It's really hard for me, and I didn't feel very good at it all the time, but it was still so incredible and rewarding. I'm so grateful for all the great students I met and the facilitators I had and the other group leaders I worked with who were so cool.

My last school was a favorite for most of the other group leaders but was actually my least favorite for a lot of the week. Maybe I was a little burnt out from all the travelling I thought, but I felt like I was struggling to connect with the students or like I wasn't doing a very good job. But then on the last day, one student who I hadn't even gotten a chance to work with during the week, said that she liked my group leader speech because I talked about being shy in it and she felt like it wasn't a bad thing to be shy. I was really touched and surprised that she said that and it made me feel like even if this is hard for me, I want to work harder so I can be a better teacher.

When I say I want to be a better teacher, I'm honestly not really sure what "teacher" means. I just know that I want to do some type of work where I get to interact with people and help explain something to them. I talked in my speech each week about how I used to feel like I was limited in what I could do because I was shy and awkward and things don't come easily for me, but over time I realized that being shy is a part of who I am, but it doesn't have to hold me back from doing what I want to do. I feel that more now than ever.

This is a very unclear reflection, maybe I need more time to think about it. But this was undoubtedly one of the best things I've ever done. All the bumps in the road were a learning experience and I'm starting to see the person I want to be in the distance, maybe now I figure out a way to actually get to her. It'll be hard, I believe in myself.