I started off my first post-program trip by going further west—to Hiroshima. I felt that it was somewhere that I, as an American, needed to see.

It was also my first trip on the Shinkansen (or “Bullet Train” as we call it), and it was pretty exciting. There’s nothing quite like flying through the countryside at well over 100 MPH, and it reminded me of riding the EuroStar in France.

The first thing that came to my mind as I stepped off the train at Hiroshima station was that almost exactly 51 years ago, the place I’d just arrived at didn’t even exist. It was the world’s first atomically-created killing ground and nothing but rubble. This many years on, though, you’d never guess that it wasn’t just like any other city in Japan, by its appearance anyway. It just seemed strange.

I’d read about a reasonably priced hotel adjacent to the station, so I went there and booked a room. I couldn’t actually get in until after 3:00 PM, so I decided to immediately go and visit the nearby island of Miyajima to see the famous “Floating Torii” gate that is one of Japan’s most famous sights.

The trip didn’t disappoint, either. It was pretty exciting pulling in on the ferry and seeing the massive red gate sticking out of the sea. It was extremely easy to walk around all over the island (even though it too—like Nara—was chock full of more deer), and I spent a few hours there. I even lucked out and saw a newlywed couple dressed in traditional clothing getting their photos taken at the main shrine (by the official wedding photographer and the hundreds of tourists like me!). Later on, I went up to the Senjo-kaku shrine where in addition to a refreshing breeze blowing through the building, I got to enjoy a traditional Biwa concert (a sort of Japanese lute of Chinese origin)—it was really cool.

I took the ferry back to the mainland and to my hotel. I spent the rest of the evening in my room, other than a foray for what turned out to be a delicious sashimi dinner at the nearby Granvia Hotel.

Please check the Photos section for tons of pictures!

The LAST day of class. My oral final exam was at 11:30, and it went fairly well I guess—considering I still really lack confidence in my speaking ability. It ended up being less scary than yesterday’s dress rehearsal was.

Afterwards, I went to find Keiko at her classroom since I’d heard she was looking for me earlier. I then met Yasu and Aki for lunch at the Curry House—Risa came later. It seemed like just another day, though in the back of my mind lurked the somewhat depressing thought that this would be the last time.

I then went down to get my JR Rail Pass validated—I’m kicking off my vacation travels tomorrow morning with a trip to Hiroshima. It took forever, for reasons I can’t quite fathom, so I got back to the I-house a bit later than I should’ve, but the party hadn’t yet started. It soon got into full swing, though, and turned out to be a lot of fun. But again, there’s that nagging feeling in the pit of my stomach: it’s all over. We each took a turn giving a short thank you speech, and I was last once again. I managed to thank everyone in Japanese, then (like the rest of us) switched over to English. All I can remember getting out was that I ended up loving Japan even more than I thought I would—then I got choked up and couldn’t say anything more as I looked around the room at all these wonderful people who’d helped change my life. Who’d helped me, talked with me, had fun with me and not treated me like some old man. It was a very tough thing for me to go through…

But again, it ended up being a lot of fun. We finally all sang our song together, and I made a clever little insert lyric when the microphone was passed to me. We all received certificates of completion along with some very valuable gifts: video of the Sumire Kindergarten visit and our speeches, and a CD-ROM filled with photos from our time here.

The last thing I did was take my CPs and a couple of other friends out for dinner. It was kind of subdued but enjoyable. I really appreciate how much they did for me and the time we shared together—I wish them all the best. I’m going to do my best to stay in touch, and hope they will do the same. I’ll miss them, and always remember our time together…

[BTW—I’ll be gone over the weekend on my travels and not have access to the web. So you’ll just have to wait a couple days to see my travel photos and read Saturday & Sunday’s journal entries.]

Well, it’s hard to believe that today was our last class. We spent the morning just getting a very fast taste of the rather complicated Honorific Verb Forms—something that will take a long time of study before I can start to understand it.

At lunch, I met Keiko and Emi for the last time, and treated them to lunch at Sweet Pepper. I felt like that was the least I could do considering how kind and patient they’ve been with me. It was really hot in the restaurant, so we returned to the classroom for the rest of our time where it was cooler. We took some last pictures, and then something surprising happened: first Keiko, then Emi begain tearing up. That of course brought tears to my eyes, and we gave each other hugs and then they were gone. I never thought an old guy like me could have any such effect on people anymore. I was really touched, and will always remember them both—and I vow to stay in touch, what with email and everything. They made my time here special, even if I felt like an idiot most of the time.

The afternoon was first spent giving 3 minute impromptu speeches about our IJP experiences this past month. We then had a five-minute, rather scary “dress rehearsal” for our oral finals tomorrow—I think I still need to study more…

Our last event with the classroom CPs was to make Onigiri (Japanese rice balls), which was a lot of fun—not to mention delicious. I actually am absolutely no good at making them pretty, but they tasted great! I still have one left in my fridge for a late-night snack.

The last thing was meeting the postman to ship my three packages. Not really having any clue about the process, it luckily turned out to be rather painless. I managed to fill out the forms correctly, talk my way through any questions and off the went. Of course the real pain came when I got the final total: ¥25,100 for all three together—that’s just under $250.00! That should teach me to get a more lightweight hobby other than buying books! It was a good thing I had some extra cash stashed away in a book on my desk, or I’d have been up the creek. I sent two of them SAL (partial airmail), so that was possibly a bit unnecessarily pricey, but the really heavy one went by ship. I’ll be interested in seeing how long it takes for them to get to me.

So tomorrow my oral final is at 11:30, then I’ll meet Yasu for lunch for the last time. The rest of the day is free time until our farewell party begins at 3:00. It all happened just too quickly. Next week’s vacationing will be nice, and I can’t wait to see even more of the extraordinary sights in this beautiful country.

And then I suppose it’ll be back to my regularly scheduled life…

Today was the much anticipated—and much feared—speech delivery day. It wasn’t really a speech “contest”, but I can’t find a better word.

It really wasn’t as bad as I’d thought, although I don’t think I did that great of a job. I think people were most impressed by the automatic slide builds on my presentation slides than with anything I said. Still, I think I did okay, considering…

Everyone else did a great job too! It’s pretty tough giving an oral presentation in any foreign language to a roomful of native speakers. Luckily, all our CPs and teachers are the greatest and have a goodly amount of patience. Although I was sort of nervous, it was more of the “anticipatory” kind of nervous than the “fearful” kind.

That being completed, Kishi-sensei graciously helped setup my package pickup with the post office—there’s absolutely no way at all that I could have phoned them and done it myself. I took a quick trip to Kitaoji and the Vivere store to buy some wrapping paper and such so that I can get my presents ready.

Just two more days, then I’m off on my own…

[PS—check the Photos page for an album of pictures from the event.]

Also, not really much to say either. We’re on the last leg of classes, yet we keep pressing forward with new things and new topics. I’ve nearly given up on even hoping to remember new things, and instead have been concentrating on the particular tasks at hand.

This afternoon we had a rehearsal for our speeches, and it went okay. Through the luck of the draw and a convenient trade, I’m speaking in the anchor position. I don’t mind being last at all—in fact, it’s kind of nice. I’ve made up my Keynote slide presentation, have my speech rehearsed and printed out (though not totally memorized), and I think I’ll be fine.

In the evening, I began packing up my three boxes to ship home. The one that’s all books is pretty heavy, so it’ll be taking the slow boat—literally—so I won’t go broke.

So tomorrow are the speeches, then a day of review and practice and Friday is our 20-30 minute oral exam with the teachers. They gave us a list of about 30 topics/questions that we can use or that may be asked. Then it’s all finished, and a week’s vacation awaits!

Well, there is nothing special to report today, other than I got the best grade so far on last Friday’s test. But, that’s a “forced perspective” good grade—I’m still a big, fat idiot…

It’s hard to believe that this was the first day of our final week—the time has just flown by and while it seems like I’ve been here forever, it also seems like I just arrived. That’s the interesting thing about time—it may move along at a steady pace, but we humans interpret it differently based on our environment. We’ve had so much to do and have been so busy, that time has just zoomed.

We worked on our speeches by practicing with the CPs and teachers to work on the pronunciation and pauses. It really helped too—I can get a better sense of the rhythm of speaking Japanese. All these things, little by little, build on top of one another and in another 5 or 6 years I should be speaking this language like I know what I’m doing…

The other big task for me this week will be to pack and ship home various books, things I’ve bought and stuff I don’t want to carry with me. I’ll report on that as the story develops.

Once again, it’s Sunday and I had to fend for myself for dinner. I spent the first half of the day doing laundry, computer work and trying to figure out how to ship home several packages this next week of stuff I’ve bought and don’t want to lug around myself (not to mention that I haven’t got room anyway). After walking around through the usual spots looking for package shipping supplies (I was not successful), I wanted to have a nice meal. Since I was downtown near the Hankyu Department Store, I thought I’d give the 8th floor “Mosaic Dining” a try.

I found a wonderful restaurant with an excellent view and really good food. I had a set meal which was seven courses, almost all of them cold since it’s summertime. I don’t know if it officially qualifies as Kaiseki Ryori (the famous traditional-style cooking), but it sure was delicious and elegant. You can see my Tempura course (it was number four) above, and check out the photo album in my Photos section. It was really nice sitting there, relaxing and savoring each specially-prepared bite. It was quite peaceful since I ate a bit early, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

It was then back home for the night. Once I post this, I have to study, do my homework and practice up a little on my speech that I’ll be giving on Wednesday. The “semester” is almost over—I can’t believe it…