Mt. Fuji, Graduation Ceremony, Toyota Motors, etc.

Ok. On Saturday I didn't do much. I did purikura with my host mom and host sister, and in the evening I speant time with my host mom's friend's daughter again (her name is Saki). There was this small festival in the evening, so I wore my yukata. There was food and music, and I saw more people wearing a yukata at once than I ever did before. Well, I only speant about five minutes there though. Saki and I went to a park to meet her friends and light sparklers. That's when the yukata got more inconvenient, because first of all it was hot and it was a bit tricky for me to walk, but then I had to worry about keeping it clean. It also seemed a bit awkward for me to be wearing a yukata around a bunch of Japanese teenagers. So I met at least ten people from Saki's class or school or whatever, though we hardly talked. Saki and I had fun with the sparklers, and I met one of her good friends who joined us and was really nice. Time flew by. I have plans to go to the movies with Saki today.



Sunday was a long day because my host family and I drove all the way to Mount Fuji. We drove up part of the mountain to a parking area. The air seemed very fresh and there were clouds and fog. We must have been pretty high up, because when I looked down the mountain all I could see were trees and then a layer of clouds below me. The most wonderful thing about being there was the temperature. It was high enough to be cold. It reminded me of late fall or maybe even winter, and it was so refreshing. I think that if anyone plans to go to Japan when it's summer they should just stay on Mount Fuji. Honestly though, the temperature was getting close to 100 degress Fahrenheit last week, and there's also humidity.
I did take pictures, but I didn't get a big scenic one of the entire mountain.






Monday was our last day at the language school. We had a ceremony, to which I wore my yukata. We had our speeches and group presentations prepared. I was totally nervous about it in the morning, but as the day progressed I started to feel better.
We held the ceremony at a big room in a hotel.
First, I believe, the teachers talked to the audience (students and host families) for a while. Then they had all of the students sing a song that we had heard in class on Friday, but it didn't go very well. After sitting down again, each student's name was read because we had to go up and accept a certificate. This was the graduation ceremony part.
Finally it was time for the individual speeches. I went fourth out of my class, and I think I did all right. After all 23 speeches it was time for the group presentations. The first group did a skit about Japanese food, the second group's theme was Japanese culture, and the group I was in was the festival group. We focused on the bon festival, so we also did a dance.
Like I've said, it was the last time all 23 Nagoya summer program students were together.
I knew that day would come but I wasn't particularly sad after all. Later on I did feel a bit quiet though.

AFS arranged for all of the Nagoya students to go to Toyota Motors on either Tuesday or Wednesday this week. Two of the classes went on Tuesday while the third class went on Wednesday, but some people couldn't come and others switched days because of other plans.
I went on Tuesday. After an hour and a half ride, we arrived at a small Toyota museum area. There were mostly just cars and things about Toyota's goals and achievements. After we had some time to look around there, it was time for the tour to start. We took a tour in English so we were part of a large group. All of us boarded a bus and went on a ride to a Toyota factory. We basically saw welding lines and car doors that weren't attached yet and lots of car frames that were being worked on. Cameras were forbidden in the factory. It was interesting but also fairly long. I became tired after a while.

Finally the tour was over and we were brought back to the little museum area. The AFS students got back on the AFS vans and we went to a restaurant for lunch. Afterward, most of us were driven back to Nagoya station while some of the others were brought to another station because of the area they live in. I became very sad on the car ride. I felt lonely.
The students from Bulgaria leave Nagoya on August 1 and the students from Italy and Sweden leave Nagoya to go to the airport on August 3 and the students from the U.S. and Hong Kong leave Nagoya to go to the airport on August 4. I honestly think everyone would be a lot happier if we all left on the same day so we could see each other again. But our flights are at different times and whatever.

Anyway, these last few days have been hard. I spent the first few days of this week keeping track of who I was seeing for the last time. Sometimes I become sad that I won't be able to see people again, and that our time in Japan is almost up. But I think my biggest regret is that I couldn't become better friends with more people. I'm sad about saying goodbye to people, but I also have the feeling that nobody's really going to miss me, which makes me sadder. I just wish that some things could have worked out differently.
Sometimes I wish we had another week here or something, but on the other hand I know that the time has simply come to wrap things up. It's the way it is. Everything has an end eventually.
That said, I'm not dwelling on the fact that I have to leave next week. Maybe it still has to sink in, or maybe it's because I've already been here for so long, but in a way it also doesn't quite feel like I won't be here anymore in a week. I don't know. I become very sad at times, and I regret some things now that it's too late, but I don't let the fact that I have less than one week here get in my way of trying to enjoy the time I have left.