Minokamo. You
were only a name. But I had to get my life back on track. An eight month ordeal with cancer left
me with close to no money and few choices. And so it was I left Tokyo to work in a new town.
The month was
January, a cold and bleak time. I knew no one. The memories of the past haunted
me. Emotionally and financially, I was a broken man.
Work became the
one thing in which I could lose myself. The faces of the children. The laughter
and random zaniness that flowed from lesson to lesson. I went with it and did my best to teach
English. The months passed. I met a few others. Wendy, Vicky and Ice from the
same company. And there was lovely Boris. We formed a small circle. It was the first
of many, me moving through them as the people changed. Permanence is far from
the norm for foreigners in Japan, and good friends left to be replaced by
others.
With the advance
of time, I made money. Some of it went towards travel. Life is too short and
precious to keep from doing the things you enjoy, I had decided. So I visited
Egypt, India, Mongolia, China, Vietnam, Laos, Australia, the Philippines and
Myanmar. The world turned into something more tangible and my views shifted.
There was beauty to behold everywhere. I wanted to see as much as possible.
Photography became a part of this drive. To capture a time and place was to
preserve a piece of the past.
Other money paid for my tuition for an online Master's course in
Applied Linguistics. About the same time I started studying again, I switched
from teaching at elementary school to junior high school. Many of my students
graduated and moved up with me. School was much more demanding at this point. I
did what I could to help them better learn English.
4 years and three months have passed since I first arrived in
Minokamo. That was time enough to rebuild my life, and in that regard this town
has been good to me. Of course I've also gotten older, and with age has come
new lessons and a bit of wisdom. I think I understand how to enjoy my days more
now than before. Perhaps the reason is because I appreciate what in the past I
took for granted.
As March draws to an end, my thoughts focus on the future. Next
month I will be in a new town at new schools. I look forward to the experiences
that await me. But at the same time it is difficult to leave my old schools.
Today, I said goodbye to everyone in class and was fine. I've been with them
too long, I thought. It will be good for a new English teacher to come. However, as I left the front door of
the school a part of me did not want it to be over. I had seen so many of the
kids grow. I had watched as they played in the hallways, panicked before tests,
cried on each other's arms, and formed friendships that will last a lifetime. But no more. All I have now are
memories and some pictures to remind me of the life I had here.
Next is Toba. Toba by the sea. Unlike with Minokamo this next town
is of my choosing. What I hope to accomplish there I am not certain of. I
simply want to breathe and feel as I move forward. This is the way it must be.
To be in one place for too long has always made me restless. The path closes in
around me and I find I can't move. So Toba is the town that shall set me free.
