Goodbye Enkais

Consider the fragile cherry blossom-- how delicate, how uplifting, yet how short is its life. Truly, life is the same.

Sakura season is also when all the teachers get jerked around to new schools. Which of course means enkais abound. Before the SHS enkai, we had an assembly for the teachers who left. It's always kinda fun to place bets on which teacher will cry, or how long until the tears and snuffles overwhelm the speech. My first year saw the big, tough PE teacher sobbing like a baby, but this year's teachers were made of sterner stuff. Of course the ladies teared up, but they continued on through the tears. But the true heartbreaker was the students-- holding onto each other, eyes streaming as they mourned the leaving of their teacher/coach.

But the enkai is definately livelier. Lots of drinking, lots of jokes, and lots of food. Everyone mills around, chatting. I chatted up my departed VP and JTE, and had a decent time for an evening of social niceties.

And two days later we had our farewell enkai with our Conversation students. Three months early, as they wanted the sakura backdrop. We went out to a Buddhist temple with a restuarant attached. And we ate. and ate. We ate for a continuous two hours. I was actually tired of the act of eating! We dined on freshly grilled fish, soba, steak, wild plant tempura [includes dandelions!], sakura ice cream, and more I can't remember. Our musical student bullied us into serenading the restuarant with Spring songs, and we were rewarded with sashimi.



After our steady eating concluded, we were off to the Yakuno highlands to take in some sakura. We wandered the groves, took some pictures, and then... it was off to Lilac for ice cream! During our 6 hour outing, we gleaned many interesting things about our students-- but they're secrets, so I can't share!