So, my birthday was coming up. And, my classmates know I’m getting better at Japanese – but I guess they still don’t believe I know as much as I do. The day before my birthday, I knew they were making me a big card and planning a birthday surprise. I smiled to myself all day and pretended not to know a single thing about it. It was so cute knowing how much effort they were putting into stuff! They kept asking me really obvious questions like, “what time are you coming to school tomorrow?” and such. I knew, and that made me really excited.
So, my birthday rolled around and I went to school and one of my best friends at school kept me outside in the hallway, even past when the bell rang. I totally knew what was up and played into it, it was so adorable! So when she finally said we should go to class, I walked in, on the chalkboard they wrote “HAPPY BIRTH DAY ASHLEIGH” and wrote all their names! Then they sang “Happy Birthday” in English! It was amazing! In Japanese, they pronounce birthday bas-day, it’s cute. By the way, “Happy Birthday” in Japanese is “Tanjouubi Omedetou” :) We took group pictures with the writing on the chalkboard. It was so cute of them to do that for me :)
Then time past, and it was lunch time. That’s when they showered me with gifts! People got me all kind of packaged treats, and many people made me cards with cute charcters (hand drawn) or with pictures of us of together. I could read all of what they wrote to me in the notes, which I find amazing. I would have had NO IDEA what so ever what they said 4 months ago! One girl even wrote to me in English. Of course, it’s broken English, but her message was so sweet. She said how I became one of her best friends, etc. That’s when I started to bawl and realize how great my classmates are! Then a boy from another class gave me chocolate, and a boy in my class came inside, and handed mea mini snowman – made of legit snow from outside. Basically the funniest thing ever! I brought my Nikon camera to school so we took a TON of pictures. My friends took the camera and took pictures of everything that went on. It was so much fun!
Then my classmates made it seem like it was over, but I still knew about the card. And at the end of the day when we were all about to leave, they said Ashleigh, turn around and we’ll blindfold you. When they re-turned me around and un-blindfolded me, they had put the giant card up on the chalkboard. It was absolutely amazing – they all had written notes to me next to their favourite character that they drew. It’s amazing and it’s something I’m going to keep forever!
In the evening, Rotary gave my host sister money for me to have a party and bring my exchange student friends out for dinner. We went to the arcade before hand and played with the “UFO catchers” – the claw machines. Since they’re kind of hard, I took advantage of it being my birthday and asked one of the guys working there for help. I ended up winning a huge hello kitty for only 200 yen, 2 dollars CAD. Pretty good gift to myself I would say! Then we went for dinner – we had Indian curry. It was delish! Then we went to another restaurant and had cake. They sell the cake in separate slices, but the store put it all together and pit candles on it and made me a birthday cake! It was so cute! Definitley had a great day!
But my happiness came to a halt because I had planned to go to the airport the next day and say goodbye to my friend Nick – who was going back to Australia – with all the other exchange students. I had asked my teacher, and she had to ask the principal. Because it was during school time and I wasn’t with an adult, they asked Rotary – and they said no – I couldn’t go. I cried and cried because I never got a proper goodbye with Nick who has been one of my best friends for the past 4 and a half months. I cried, and there was no way I could go because my school said no and my parents also knew I wasn’t allowed to go. But the thing that made it worse, was that every other exchange student got to go – it was just me. So, my plan was so wake up super early and go to school super early and cry to my teacher. She’s a sweetheart and it was a surprise that she told me that I couldn’t go. I toyed with the idea of just skipping school, but I was nervous my teacher would call my parents, who would then tell Rotary, and that would not be good – because they could get so mad about it that they would send me home. So I didn’t want to risk it. So, I set my alarm for 6 o’clock Friday morning. Because I was just so tired, I never even heard the alarm to actually get up. I woke up at 7 and just said to myself no, there’s not enough time now.. So I didn’t go and I just kept sleeping – and had dreams I was at the airport.. But then I woke up at 10 and went into school around 12 o’clock.
I walked into class and my friends asked if I had said goodbye to Nick – because that’s what they thought I was doing. That’s when the tear fell from my eyes because I was so sad that I didn’t get to go. I told all my friends how my school said no and my host family said no because the school said no. By that point I was so sad – and my friends told me to call him at the airport. I called him just in time – he was just going through the security check. I was crying on the phone, and all of my friends understood and they all started to cry because it was so sad. They all knew how hard it was for me not to say goodbye to a good friend. They were all so compassionate. I’ve never met so many compassionate people in my life – they are such amazing friends. Then, I guess two friends went and told my teacher about what happened and how I was still crying my eyes out. And then she called me to the teacher’s room. That’s when she and I sat down in a room while my friend patted my back, and my teacher explained how sorry she was that she had even asked the principal. She told me that she realized she should have just let me go in secret. She told me that that night, she was sleeping and it occurred to her that Australia is so far from Canada – I would have no idea when I would see Nick again. She said how she realized how close the airport is to the school and how I would have been just fine taking a bus and being able to say goodbye to my friend. She saw that I wasn’t there at school today, and said she was happy because she thought I had just went to the airport, and she told no one about the absence. The class told her at the beginning of the day how good of friends I was with Nick – how we always hung out and he was in so much of my purikura. When I showed up and 12 and she heard what happened, that's when we had this talk and I realized how amazing of a person she is. She shed tears as she was telling me how truly sorry she was about me not saying goodbye. That’s when she promised that she would let me go say goodbye to the next friends at the airport, and if there was no one to take me, she would. I was crying so much at this point because I was so thankful for her compassion and I realized how truly cared about I am at this school. I was the saddest I had ever been, and hearing what she said to me, and seeing my friends compassion and how much they comforted me – made my tears of pure heartfelt sadness, turn into tears of joy and happiness and love. This sounds so cheesy, but it’s absolutely true. It was hard not to be able to say goodbye to a close friend, but today I realized how many more friends I have right here, right now. They also explained how he would be my “zutto tomodachi” – meaning friend forever and how I could send him mail or e-mail. The emotional rollercoaster ended when I realized how much these people care about me and the words they said to comfort me. It was truly remarkable.
The day continued to be remarkable because my host dad picked me up from school and we went to the “Kimono Yasan” – meaning Kimono store. I got to try on three kimonos, because tomorrow – I am having a professional photo shoot in the kimono! AMAZING! I am also going to be a model for their kimono store with the pictures! That is absolutely amazing and I am so excited! I will definitely put the pictures up once it happens! Getting a kimono put on me for the first time was amazing, I felt so Japanese. I tried two purple kimonos and a greenish blue one. The light purple one was so pretty, but I ended up choosing the brighter and bolder greenish blue kimono with pink accents. I think it’s more bold, and the picture will look interesting that way. I’m really excited to see how it all turns out, and also, so have a professional photo shoot in Japan! Rotary is such an amazing organization; they put this all together for me to my surprise. Same with the birthday party too. It’s a great organization, being a Rotary exchange student is incredible.
Well, I have more things to say but I don’t want to bore you. I will update after I get to try on the kimono! So exciting!
Questions? Concerns? Let me know :)
