Hello again, for once not too long an absence! The past few weeks, as usual, have been busy in a good way :)
When I last wrote, I was about to go to a Rotary conference in Fukushima. I was initially concerned about traveling to Fukushima, the area hit with a terrible earthquake three years ago that caused radiation leakage, but the place I went was far inland and perfectly safe. My fellow exchange students and I with two Rotarians travelled there by Shinkansen and normal train, about five hours total. It was extremely unfortunate because one of the girls, Mika, missed the Shinkansen!! They had said, "don't be late, the tickets are pre-reserved so we can't wait for anyone," but these things never actually seem to happen. It turned out that she suddenly got really sick though and was glad she stayed behind, but it was still sad. On the way we met two other exchange students, from France and New Zealand, and at the conference I think we met nine new students total and a lot of great Rotex. One of the guys, Ryne from Indiana, I had met before coming to Japan so it was cool to see someone I knew! It was soo great meeting everyone, all long-term exchange students just seem to have this immediate bond and understanding with each other, and there's always a lot to talk about. It was really interesting hearing about everyone's totally different experiences, and realizing how lucky I am to live in Osaka. Here there are always places to go and I can easily meet friends and travel around independently by train, while the people in smaller towns are far from their friends, don't have much to do, and can't easily go out on their own. As for big cities, it's cheaper than Tokyo, and reportedly friendlier. There is so much luck involved in exchange, with location, families, school, Rotary club/district, and exchange student group, all of which can really impact an exchange, and I somehow managed to get on the lucky side of all of these!! It's amazing. Anyway, at the conference there were speeches with some visiting Austrian Rotarians, and we all had to work on presentations about the earthquake but it was very confusing so it was mostly left to the Rotex... We had a fun midnight bath (gender segregated), enjoying the outdoor area with a great view of the whole valley that the hotel looked out over, and it was perfect weather, just beautiful. It was a very late night/early morning—I love exchange students—but somehow we got up to give our presentations and say goodbye. It's so harsh, we meet people, bond, and then it's like, "goodbye, have a nice life!" since most of them live thousands of miles away and we'll probably never meet again. At least there's Facebook!
Shortly after my Fukushima trip, I picked up my parents from the Osaka airport for a ten-day visit. It was strange having my dad tower over me, I'm not used to being towered over. My host family was very generous and took my parents in for their full stay, in the grandparents' house. They enjoyed having them though, and were especially amused by all my dad's antics, like eating a whole umeboshi (very sour pickled plum) in one bite, which just isn't done. My parents were kept busy, going places with me when I was free and being taken around by my host family when I wasn't. I think they got a good taste of Japanese life, which is difficult without a home stay. I dropped them back at the airport just a month before my departure so it wasn't a terribly hard parting, except maybe for them having to leave this lovely Japanese lifestyle ;) It was a lovely visit, I was glad they came :)
Last weekend, I gave my final speeches for Rotary. On Sunday I had my last District meeting with the other exchange students and Monday was my last club meeting. Actually, my Indonesian friend Talitha's flight back was Sunday before the meeting, so we all gathered there to see her off. It was soo saddd, we just kept coming back to our favorite group huddle and it was so hard to break apart. Tears were mostly kept in control because I think it was just hard to comprehend what was happening, that our exchanges are finishing and if we see each other again, it may not be for years. It's too strange. So with our number sadly depleted, we hung around before the meeting and I finally got to ride the giant Ferris wheel by the airport, a goal since my first night here. Everyone's presentations at the meeting were good and all very different, it was really interesting. Mine was somewhat choppy because I had lacked the motivation to practice... There were definitely tears at the meeting though. Mika should actually be on her plane back to America as I write this, so after the meeting was our last time out with her too!! I can't believe it, it doesn't seem so long ago that we were at our first meeting introducing ourselves and finding out who our companions would be for the year. Although at the same time, it really was a long time ago and we have all changed and grown so much...
The next day, I skipped school for my performance at my club. They had asked me to show something I had learned on my exchange, either the tea ceremony or traditional dance. I had practiced neither for months and I had never been able to actually do the tea ceremony on my own yet, but I didn't particularly want to dance and my current host mom and grandma teach the tea ceremony to high schoolers, so I chose that and speed-learned it. But then I visited my first host family, the Takanos, with my parents, and they made me try my dance for them. It turned out I mostly remembered it, so they called my club and told them I would be dancing too :P So on Monday I wore a yukata, danced, gave my final presentation, and performed the tea ceremony with the help of my host mom and grandma, and I was actually pleased with all three of my performances. I'm incredibly lucky to be with a family that could do this and had all the materials and experience for serving tea to 25 people, that's uncommon. The Takanos said it was the most entertaining final exchange meeting they'd been too ;) I'm glad for these final presentations because they give me a sense of closure, having to summarize my year in one talk/slide show. If I hadn't had to prepare for them, leaving my life here would feel too abrupt.
My end is rushing up on me but I'm doing my best to pack the remaining time with fun things. Tomorrow is my school sports festival, I'm really excited!! It's a huge deal, I'll try to make a separate post about it. Until then!
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