My first day back at Tahara was not what I expected, leaving it bittersweet.

It was good seeing the kids again and they were happy to see me. I literally smiled on my way in the genkan. But I remembered, the new school year means that students move up a grade level. It also means that they do not have the same homeroom and are, therefore, scattered. Homeroom 2-2 is no more, and I have to find out where I might want to eat lunch now. I need to find my place again amongst the kids.

I made that sound like I am the one in school, too.

This was a minor detail when Abe-sensei pointed out that Aiko-sensei, my 2-nensei JTE (Japanese Teacher of English) was transferring to another school. And so was Nakano-sensei, our social studies teacher. There were farewell speeches in the staff room in addition to welcome speeches from new, incoming teachers about an hour later. Ceremonies in the gym followed for the students.

It was only a half day, with kocho-sensei letting me leave at lunch. Morizono-sensei is too nice. "I will negotiate with kocho-sensei for you," she said on her own will.

I took the train from Shimosone station to Kokura and had some Ichiran ramen. And then went home.

It might be too early, but I've been thinking about shipping stuff back home now. More so now. I have roughly four whole months until I leave Japan. It's short when I think about it. It's going to fly by. I've got to enjoy it as much as I can and prepare for my return.

When Aiko-sensei told me what school she was transferring to, I looked up my schedule and found that it belonged to Alex. I skymailed him and said "You're really lucky." He had been running into a lot of JTE's who weren't flexible. Now that he will work with her, things will be better.

He keitai mailed me back an hour or so later: "She's really nice!"