Two nights in Nagasaki.

Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Musuem & Peace Park
I’ve been told by many that this is the much better experience compared to Hiroshima, which I’m yet to visit. I really appreciated being to take all the information in without hordes of people, and learn so much about the lesser-known of the two cities that suffered from such a horrific ordeal.

Kohei told me that one of the tour guides was speaking like he’d experienced it all first-hand. His spirit never seemed to waver during the time we were there, despite us being able to see the cataracts and keloid scars on one side of his face. It was solemn, but truly humbling.

Glover Garden
Another famous spot in Nagasaki. Within the grounds are two secret heart stones, that if found, legend says they will grant happiness to those who found them together. Happy to say we found them, and so did Pooh Bear. I’ve been forgetting to take him on little day trips I make lately, purely because they’re so impromptu, so I think he enjoyed the outing.

Mt. Inasa 

We headed up to Mt. Inasa after sunset on Saturday evening to visit Fuyu no yu, a place which most definitely didn’t disappoint. There’s something slightly special about relaxing in an onsen, accompanied by good friends, with the view overlooking the twinkling lights of Nagasaki. I fully recommend the salt sauna, however, I don't advise scrubbing your body raw and returning to 42 degree water afterwards.

Megane Bashi
Hands down my favourite place in Nagasaki so far was the so-called Spectacle Bridge.  Early on Sunday morning, Kohei and I took a stroll along the river, frolicked on the stepping stones (by that I mean I almost tripped and fell in about 4 times), and found yet another heart stone set in the wall. 

In the afternoon, we returned with manju in hand and sat on the riverbank to watch the koi swim by.

I also made a group of little friends, something which was a theme on this trip; on the ferry from Kumamoto I fell in love with a 2 year old who played peek-a-boo with me, clung to me like a koala, and refused to let go until I’d walked her to her family’s car.

Nearby was a cute little spot where I tasted my first Castella (カステラ), a light sponge cake which is a delicacy in Nagasaki. However, I think the novelty of the cute portion sized boxes outweighed the actual cake. 

All in all, although it was a fleeting visit, I’m looking forward to going back for a day trip with my parents on their upcoming trip. I wouldn’t have chosen a better bunch of people to sing along to Destiny’s Child in the car with (I'm looking at you, Clare and Sheridan), even if I did want to vom on the ferry.

Strawberry picking & saying goodbyes.

It’s finally edging towards spring in Kumamoto (despite pleas from my delicate pale skin), which means its strawberry galore. Thanks to Clare’s host mum, both Sheridan and I were invited along for an afternoon of strawberry picking in nearby Ueki.

Despite not being what I imagined (inside little greenhouses rather than immense fields of strawberries), it was a great day out and I’m looking forward to even more fruit picking in the future. The highlight for me was befriending some of the cutest children I’ve ever seen, who had picked some strawberries bigger than they were.

Fruit in Japan is one of the things that can sometimes be ridiculously expensive; just yesterday I saw a watermelon going for almost ¥8,000 (about £55). To put that into perspective, my day ticket to Tokyo DisneyLand costs less. However, I’ve never eaten such flavourful strawberries in my life, and I’m definitely a convert. I’m even branching out in my baking; this week I made a white chocolate matcha cake in my rice cooker for Sheridan’s birthday, topped with said strawberries, which was rather yummy if I do say so myself.

As the title suggests, I had some goodbyes to make this week too. I attended my first junior high school graduation ceremony, and although I’ve only taught my 3^rd graders for just over 6 months, it was actually pretty sad. So many little personalities I’ve grown to love will no longer brighten my day. To name a few:

• The kid who always showed me his socks because it stressed me out when he insisted on wearing knee high ones in summer.
• The kid who told me he loved me every day, proposed to me one lunchtime, told me the service was at 6am the next day and now we’re married.
• The kid who insisted I called him Goripanman (Gorilla + Anpanman) and it took me months to learn his actual name.
• The kid who was equally as clumsy as me during cleaning time, and we’d bond cleaning up our messes and whispering about Hello Kitty and K-pop.
• The kid that warmed to me when he learnt I listen to ONE OK ROCK, then spent ages talking about the new album and how he was studying English harder to understand it all.
• The wonderful bright soul who would always be beaming from ear to ear, who wrote me a beautiful goodbye note and never failed to energise me with her infectious smile.
• The kid I didn’t know cared so much, but came to me after graduation tearful, gave me a hug, and helped me get all of these pictures with students that I would have never seen again otherwise.

What I realised was just how much I love my 2^nd graders, and how much of a mess I’ll be when they graduate next year. God help me if I stay here for the full 5 years; kids I started teaching in elementary school this year will be graduating junior high… I’ll probably feel like I’ve lost about 180 of my own children.