Sushi: Last few weeks: Sukiyaki, Sue, and the farewell parties

The past few weeks have been really busy. The day after we got back from Fuji san we had a "sukiyaki party" with the local ramen chef and his girlfriend. Sukiyaki is a delicious Japanese beef dish that you cook at you table with soy sauce, veggies, tofu... We went out to a local onsen(hot spring) with the two of them and then back to the ramen shop for sukiyaki. It was a Monday, which is his one day off, and it was just the four of us. It was wonderful.

Charlie prepping for dinner. (The first time we met him, he told us we could call him Charlie)

Charlie and his girlfriend.

We had a few more days of school to make it through until Sue's arrival. Then on Thursday night we headed to Kansai Airport and happily met her there. We had a great week with her. We spent a lot of the time in Kyoto, but were able to do some new things too. We went to Himeji and Himeji castle, Kobe, Kurama Onsen(awesome), and had a lot of relaxing time. It was great to hang out with Sue and she was here to celebrate our third anniversary!

Sue and I at Himeji castle.

Sue and Dan eating Okonomyaki and Yakisoba.

Dan and I on our 3rd anniversary.

After Sue left, we had the boating club farewell party, one week left of school, and then a farewell party from the board of education on the last day. For those of you who haven't stayed on top of our day to day happenings, we have gone sailing with a group of old men this year five or six times and spent extensive time with one of them. So they threw us a party at a nice platform restaurant in Kyoto. The restaurant has a back deck that extends out over part of the Kamogawa River. Along the downtown portion of this river it is lined with restaurants like this, but we were told they we expensive, so hadn't tried one yet. It was really nice.

Platform dinning in Kyoto

Me, Dan, Toshio, and Matsuda san

We then had a week of school to finish up. The students were really great and came and told us many thank yous. I even had one boy manage to tell me he would be "a little sad" when we leave. So, Friday night we had the Board of Ed. farewell party. It was much more formal than we had anticipated. When we arrived(on time) everyone was already there and seated. We were lead to our seats up at the head table with the superintendent, the principals, and three unknown but very important people who later gave speeches. A few peoeple spoke, Dan and I spoke, and then we were presented with a gift from the city, a beautiful ceramic platter. All of our teacher buddies were seated over at another table. I was surrounded by people who didn't speak English, but were unphased by the fact I spoke very little Japanese. This was funny, because 5 feet away was a table of bilingual friends. Anyway- the party was nice. It was held at a local restaurant, which we were happy about, because we like the owners. There was a formal Kanpai(toast), and many small meet, vegetable, and fish dishes served. After dinner, teachers from each school gave us a gift, we had a group photo, and then I noticed everyone was standing up looking at us. I recieved a quick nod at our belongings from Attarashi sensei and asked Dan if we should leave. He was quickly told by Nambu sensei that it was the Japanese way and that he would follow us. So everyone was standing there waiting for us to leave, but we didn't know it. Very funny!

Farewell party

Us with some principals and teachers

Formal picture with owl

After the party, we went out with Nambu sensei and met Kinoshita sensei and some other teachers for karaokeing in Kusatsu. It was our first time and we liked it better than American karaoke. Here you rent a room and can order food and drinks by phone to the room, where you sit around with a small group of friends and do casual karaoke. Dan and I lead it off with the Bangles' Eternal Flame(there was a small English selection). We then realized everyone else was really good- really really good. After a few drinks, we were getting requests for Disney songs. We quickly shot those down, but were somehow tricked into singing a Beauty in the Beast duet. They loved it. I can't believe it took us all year to try this!