I'm really going to miss it here

I'm sad about leaving already.

The other day Pete and I were having our lunch down at the port and this old man walked up to us and introduced himself to us in English. He then began to give us a history about Kure during the war. It was so interesting. He told us about the building of the Yamato and how Kure used to be a secret area and was just a big white spot on the map, and about all the mines that were dropped in the waters and the local people from his island would go out and pick up the parachutes and make clothes out of them. He also shared with us that at the time of the war he was a child and his friend had just gotten into a junior high in Hiroshima but he hadn't gotten in himself, which turned out in his favor. His friend died when the bomb was dropped. He said that he and his wife give a kind of tour around the Kure area to foreigners...I think the ones that come to stay at the Navy base. It was a very interesting lunch, a wonderful meeting. He was a good storyteller. I wish we would have been able to stay longer.

I've decided that possible my very favorite thing about being in Japan is the bell at the temple behind my apartment. It is rung everyday at six o'clock in the evening. It's beautiful. I'm really going to miss it. And the best part about it is its a real bell. So there will be no disappointment like that time I found out those bells in Greenville are just on a cd. I can actually see the person ringing it from my balcony.

I woke up yesterday morning and I was overcome with sadness. It's like it just hit me, in 4 months this will not be my apartment or my futon or my yellow chair, it's all just going to go to someone else. I'm going to be a complete wreck my last week, leaving all of my students. I'm going to miss them so much.