Welcome New ALTs (June 09)

Welcome new ALTS!
It’s about this time of year that all of us leaving wish we were staying a 2nd, 3rd, or 4th year. After living here and making friends with fellow teachers, students, townsfolk, and ALTS, you will understand why it is so hard to leave! Beautiful scenery, hiking, boarding/skiing, cultural activities, drinking parties, tatami, and RICE!!! I will miss the tatami smell more than anything. When it first hits you, it will be strange and foreign, and have a slight fishy odor. You won’t like it. I didn’t. Soon, 6 months of cold weather, frozen olive oil, frozen toilets, skiing followed by onsen and heaping bowls of ramen. Hiding under the kotatsu. Ice and snow, but no plows!? 6 months of this. Snowy bliss and frozen time. The yin to the yang of Spring. Come May, you will come home one day and open your apartment door to find a slight smell of tatami. SUMMMER!!! You will think. You longed for it all winter but didn’t know you missed it. You can’t even seem to remember ever disliking the smell. It now smells like home and all the memories that Japan has brought to your life. The families you have joined and become a part of. The long and boring ceremonies. The crazy “bad boy” students who remain shirtless after gym class for just a little too long. The seemingly ridiculous cultural nuances that all make sense now. No speech before drinking?! Coworkers who leave work on-time?? Late trains!?! You can’t imagine life without your daily 5 minutes of space out time during the morning meetings. Ah, and one can’t forget the Japanese language and all the troubles and laughs that it brings to the table. I will dearly miss the ambiguousness of Japanese speech which allows you to play off stupid things you say and attribute them to the ‘language barrier’. At home, where will I be without this gaijin card?! I will be lost and foolish, but no longer special. Japan is home. I can’t seem to remember why I wanted to come here anymore, nor is it very clear why I ‘m leaving after such a short 2 years. But my purpose in being here is becoming clearer and clearer as the weeks slip by and turn into days closer to departure. I want time to stop. Japan will always be a home away from home. Time does not stop. Departure looms, and I sputter and try to pretend I’m not leaving. Every conversation in the staff room has a new sense of importance and preciousness attached. Every run along the fields is felt more deeply. Every bowl or ramen is attacked with a greater hunger. Every laugh with the students, joke with friends, and drink with mamas has a greater significance attached to it now. The smell of new tatami will never be the same again because of the memories I cannot remove from it. Don’t loose sight of why you’re here. I welcome you to the smell of fresh tatami!