End of Term

Well, it's only Tuesday, and I've already had my last class for the week. My last class for this school year, in fact. Yes, it's a busy time for the ALT with no responsibilities. I'm attempting to put it to good use -- studying a little Japanese here, surfing the internet there, updating my resume and applying for jobs in Canada. Yeah, it's starting to sink in that I might want to have something to do when I get home. Starting to anyways...

Tomorrow is a holiday for the vernal equinox -- a holiday I think is designed to make people living in the north feel crappy about the fact that spring won't really be here for another month and a half. So in the best of snowbound traditions, I'm going skiing in a nearby town.

Speaking of which, I should go pack.

white out

Contrary to the fact that next week marks the beginning of spring, it has been snowing here for the last two days. Looking out the window today, all I can see is white. Ah, Hokkaido.

Even funnier, this week is graduation time at school. Yesterday was the Junior High School graduation ceremony -- a very serious occasion with long speeches and precision marching. And group singing. My favorite class graduated this year, and many of them are going on to high schools out of town. I'm really excited for them that many of them are moving on, but at the same time, I'll miss that crazy genki class. Things will be really different around here next semester. For one thing, nobody will be making me fake nipples.

"sotsugyou" graduation

Anyways, graduation time in Japan is associated with cherry blossoms and spring. And because people like to do things the same way everywhere in Japan, here in Hokkaido cherry blossoms are popular decoration for graduation ceremonies. Even if there's still a meter of snow on the ground, and we won't see sakura for at least another month and a half. If the calendar says it's spring, then it's spring dammit!