The reason we moved to Japan 18 years ago was for my job with the JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching) program. The goal of the program is/was to promote English-language education and cross-cultural opportunities. Basically, my job was to speak English and be American. I was lucky to work with many wonderful teachers and we were happily reunited with many of them one evening during our trip.
We took a stealth Sunday morning trip to the actual school when we were in Kanzaki. My goal was to see the school and NOT have to give a short speech at the tennis tournament going on at the school grounds.
When we lived in Kanzaki, Ms. Goto was my wonderful colleagues! As a young (like us), unmarried teacher, we often socialized with her and enjoyed some fun cultural events with her. She came through again by inviting us to her home and organizing a wonderful party with my former colleagues.
She is now married and has an adorable son who is in 1st grade. She warned us he was quite shy but he immediately befriended Doug. While Kayo (her first name) and I chatted, Doug and Eita did puzzles and played with some toys. Eita also gave us each the VIP tour of his room, showed us his various toys and sang several songs in English for us.
We were grateful that Kayo drove us to the party location as a) it was raining, b) it was way up in the mountains and c) it was REALLY raining. The farther we got into the mountains, the rainier it got!
Kayo currently teaches in this small mountain town which is well known for hot springs (onsen). She arranged for us to have dinner with many of my former colleagues at a really, really nice onsen hotel and for to stay overnight in one of the hot spring “cabins”. Please note: this is MY kind of cabin!!!
Our view over green tea and sweets after visiting the onsen
Visiting an onsen is a really Japanese experience so there are protocols, procedures and traditional dress to make the visit special. After we visited the hot springs, Eita changed into his special summer ‘yukatta’. Note the tatami floor and bamboo screen.
At the appointed hour, my other colleagues appeared. We all laughed and talked and mentioned how none of us had aged in 16 years. Since Japanese teachers work for the “county” (basically…), they are moved from school to school throughout their career. Although I worked with all of them at Kanzaki, most of them had not worked together since then so it was a master feat for Kayo to get everyone together!
The food was delicious and fresh (of course). The server told us the starter fish was caught by her father that morning.
Eita enjoyed his job as Chief Beer Pourer for Doug!
We had plenty of time to chat and laugh and eat.
At the end of the evening, we all posed for a group photo. Eita had passed the peak of fun and was napping in the lobby while we finished dinner. Kayo’s husband attempted to wake him for the photo with mixed results.
When we decided to go to Japan, it was one of my dreams to get together with the teachers that I worked with in Kanzaki. It was amazing that it happened and it was even better than I imagined!
We woke up to a rainy morning and enjoyed the view from our room before going to breakfast in the main dining room.
Being a traditional Japanese onsen in a traditional area of Japan, we had a very traditional breakfast. It was so traditional that we had never tasted several of these foods before.
THANK YOU to Kayo for planning such a great event!!
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