So long, Farewell, Sayonara, Good Night

Today was the farewell party for the JETs who did not recontract. I had fallen asleep at about 10 last night because I was just so exhausted from traveling but the jet lag had me up at about 5 am. I unpacked and did a load of laundry and did some other things around the house before I passed out and took a long mid-day nap. The party was scheduled to start around 4 pm but it was pouring rain around then so I didn’t leave immediately when I woke up.

The rainy season in Japan was in full swing and it didn’t seem like the rain would ever stop. So eventually I braved the torrential downpour and arrived at Liz’s apartment looking a bit like a drowned rat. Thankfully I was not alone in this, and it seemed that most of the guests were borrowing Liz’s clothing while theirs dried off in the other room.

It was nice to have so many JETs together. Many of these people I hadn’t seen in months. I don’t know if it is because I am a CIR or because I am living in the safe bubble of Kameoka, surrounded by mountains and well populated with foreigners, but I don’t see other JETs often. Now that we are losing Liz, I may feel more of a pull to leave Kameoka and make deeper friendships elsewhere.

I have known for months that Liz would not be staying a second year, but as the day of her leaving draws nearer and nearer it is becoming more obvious what her leaving will mean. When the year started, there were 5 new JETs in Kameoka. Paulette was our only returnee. Since we all embarked on this adventure together and have struggled with the same things at similar times, and had so many great experiences together, our JET community has become very close. I have always known how lucky we are to be a group that gets along well. Like any group of friends we have our ups and downs, but we all genuinely like each other.
Now one of our group is leaving. Two new people are coming but we don’t know them yet. They are a couple and will therefore spend a lot of time with just each other and I don’t know how they will mesh into our group. I am excited to meet them but they will not be Liz. It adds emphasis to the thoughts already forming in my mind about whether or not I will recontract a second time. I wonder how much my happiness here will depend on the other JETs in town. Paulette probably will not extend her stay past 3 years and Laurel is on the fence. Phil will also probably want to start his tour of Europe while he is still in his early 20s.

How will I feel about Kameoka when my closest friends have moved on?

Anyway, the party itself was a lot of fun. I was very tired but we are a fun group and there were a of stories being told and reminiscing. True to American form (or maybe it is not so much American as it is youth) we wound up watching ridiculous videos on Youtube.

I also got to spend some time with Nelis and his girlfriend Minako. They actually met at the somewhat failed bbq I put on a few months ago. They apparently really hit it off and have been dating now for a couple of months. Apparently things moved very quickly and they became quite serious. Her English is fantastic, much better than my Japanese, so they can talk fairly easily. He did not recontract and is going back to South Africa in a few days. But she is planning to move there in a few months. That’s how serious they are. At first I was skeptical. Is that bad? Am I so jaded that I can’t believe that two people can become so close and so happy in such a short period of time? Well--yes. I am.

But seeing them together--they just seemed so natural. It was obvious that it worked. They convinced me.

Which made me extremely happy for them and not so happy for myself. Because it made me realize that I don’t have that. No matter how many times I say how well things are going with the boy--he and I don’t have the ease and comfort level that Minako and Nelis have. And that is something I need. So--it’s time to do some soul searching to find out if I was interested in the boy simply because of the novelty of it--because he was interested in me-- or if I really like him.

Ugh.