I came home yesterday and found a big manila envelope with my address hand-written in large letters across it. Upon closer inspection, after dumping my bags (shoulder and gym), I did not see an actual sender name, but I did realize that the envelope came from my junior high in Japan!
Upon opening it, I found a clear folder with about 12 hand-written notes from my girls (er, former students–it’s still so easy to say “my kids”), with photos attached, and a pretty postcard with a handwritten note on the back from Mayumi, my JTE. As part of the “Sentaku Eigo” (Advanced/Concentrated English, as opposed to the clothes-washing “sentaku”…it took me months to figure that out when I first heard her say it) class, she had the students write me notes, and she mailed them all to me!
If I have time, I would love to reply to each of them and mail them off on Saturday. Of course, at this point, I could just bring the replies with me and deliver them in person, but it’s much more fun and exciting to receive international mail.
I’m so freaking psyched for this trip. I rented a cellphone earlier this week that I can pick up and then drop off at Kansai Airport. I have e-mails to return to Shizuko and Yaemi, inviting me to stay with them (as did Terumi) and already suggesting things we can do, and I received a letter on Monday from Mitaka, suggesting we go bowling and eat udon again. I laughed a lot at that. Udon, oh yes. Bowling, absolutely not. Besides graduation and the musical, everything else is still totally up in the air. I can’t wait to see what happens.