Graduation Day and a Thunderstorm

(For 26 April)

Today was our last day of lessons.  The two weeks have gone by so fast.  I feel like I’ve just nicely settled in, and it’s time to go.  During class, we had to show an interesting photo and discuss it with our classmates.  I chose a picture of our house and talked about that.  During my preparation, I looked up the word ‘valley’ in my Japanese dictionary.  The sample sentences included things like ‘the valley narrowed’, ‘the house was in the valley’, ‘a stream ran through the valley’ etc.  In addition, there was ‘Yuki has a push-up bra’.  Seems that valley and cleavage can be described with the same word!  Stands to reason really.

After our class, it was time for our Graduation Ceremony.  Our host families came along to watch and we were all presented with our certificates.  Our rendition of “Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree’ went down well.  My host mother later said that she was impressed with us doing it as a round.  That wasn’t exactly what she said, but that’s my interpretation of the conversation.

Class of 2013 - with teachers and host families

We all voted our most skilled student, Rebecca, to make a speech on our behalf and she did an amazing job.  The staff had also put together a DVD of photos which they showed as a slide show.  It was a bit sad seeing all of the great things we’d done and knowing that the whole thing is at an end.

After we had about 200 photos taken (all the cameras lined up in a row), we had iced tea and nibbles and chatted as best we could with our limited knowledge of each other’s languages.

One of the staff came around and took our certificates back and gave us new ones.  Apparently there was a mistake in one of the kanji characters, so they corrected and replaced them.  I’m not sure that too many people in my life would have noticed (including me), but I guess it’s nice to have it right.

As we were about to part company for the last time, 8 of us went out to have lunch together.  It was nice to sit, relax and chat before it was time to move on.  Ulla, Jasmine and I said our goodbyes to the rest of the group and set off for the Samurai House.

Finding the Samurai House proved to be a bit of a challenge as the maps are really not very clear.  We found the right area and took some photos along the way, then eventually we found the right house.  It was a very nice house and the garden was beautiful.

Around the Samurai District

Inside the Samurai House

 

Letter in the Samurai House

In the garden of the Samurai House

It was a beautiful garden - as so many Japanese gardens are

 

After that – surprise, surprise – Ulla wanted to go to Uniqlo to do some more shopping.  Good grief!  Jasmine and I headed for Starbucks instead and rested our legs in a civilised manner over coffee.  Once Ulla came back with her new clothes, we went looking for the place where visitors can have a ‘hands on’ Japanese craft session.  It started to rain and then the thunder and lightning started.  My little 350 yen ($3.50 umbrella) has served me well.  Again we had trouble finding our destination, but after asking at an Information Booth, we found the right place.  We had a good browse, but couldn’t go up to the second floor to do the ‘hands-on’ thing as that part closed at 4.00pm and we were too late.  Once we’d finished our browsing, we decided to get the bus back to the station, due to the thunderstorm.  As we walked out the front door, a bus arrived with “Kanazawa Station” written on the front so we hopped on.and travelled back in comfort.

Back at the station, it was time for some more browsing and Ulla bought a beautiful Mary Quant bag.

I then caught the bus home and felt a moment of sadness as I dropped my last ticket into the box as I left the bus.  When I got home, I walked in to a real treat.  We had sukiyaki for dinner.  I’d never had that before, and I enjoyed it very much.  We then had a beautiful piece of cake each.  My host family has really gone to a lot of trouble to give me a wonderful experience.

Dinner

On the spur of the moment, I asked if I could use the Internet and I phoned John using Skype and asked him to start the computer up to do a Skype video call.  After a few minutes he came on the air and he got to meet my host family, including Chocolat, the dog.  John couldn’t introduce our cat as she was outside having her little evening wander.  It was nice to have a chat together and my hosts were very impressed with the convenience of it all.

After we hung up, we chatted about Australian wildlife, our house and a few other things and then it was time for the moment I’ve been dreading – packing my bags.  It turned out to be not too bad, but I’ll have to careful with my purchases in Kyoto, Hamamatsu and Osaka.

As the station is likely to be crowded tomorrow due to the start of Golden Week, we are leaving at 9.00 am to catch the 9.53 train.  I’m very grateful that we don’t have to rush off any earlier.  I’m looking forward to a little sleep in.