Japanese schools have been closed for the
past two weeks, since the beginning of March. I still had to go to work and
look busy, but the atmosphere was generally much more relaxed than before. I’ve
probably made a hundred flashcards at the elementary schools. In general, my
life hasn’t been significantly affected. I did come close to running out of
tissues, but I got the last box on the shelf just before that happened.
Yesterday was the (winter term) closing
ceremony at my junior high school. It was bizarre. Because of the virus
infection prevention, we didn’t have it in the gym like normal. Instead,
students went to their home classrooms and the speeches were projected over the
school intercom. I thought I was going to be able to see some students, but I
only saw the handful that came to the teacher’s room. I guess this too is a
kind of infection prevention measure. Honestly I wasn’t really that sad. I did
see a student that I taught in Active when I first came over two years ago, so
that was nice.
In the morning it was sunny and relatively
warm, so I rode my bike to school. I had made plans to sell my bike after
riding it to the elementary school just a bit farther down the road, but as I
left school it was colder and had been snowing since mid-morning. Still I only
had to ride about 6 minutes, so I made it to the elementary school and sold my
bike. I’m not sure I’ve ever felt so attached to an inanimate object—I really
did feel a sense of loss as I walked home. I had to console myself by imagining
the bike’s future owner, a high-schooler, tearing down the street at high speed
and wowing all the girls with his cool red bike.
Today we had the graduation ceremony. The
seating was spaced, and every single person was wearing a mask, and only the teachers,
third graders, and one parent for each student were in attendance. I stood on
the stage with several other teachers as our leaving the school was announced.
It was nice to see the faces of the third graders one more time, or at least,
the third of their faces that weren’t covered up with masks.
As long as my flight change works out, I
will be leaving Japan on Friday. I was worried about whether I would be able to
get everything done in time, but yesterday I was very productive and packed
almost everything, and prepared a few things to give away. Today I’ll do some
heavy-duty cleaning, and if I work efficiently then I’ll just have a little
cleaning and a couple of errands to run on Thursday, so I might be able to go
to Matsumoto and pick up some souvenirs. I really have way too much stuff,
though. It’s painful to see the amount that I’m throwing away—I almost feel
sick looking at it.
