We had a goodbye luncheon for Ono sensei today. She is retiring to take care of her elderly parents. I had the privilege of teaching chu-ich (7th grade) English with her. Ono sensei is kind and gentle yet full of energy and life. It is sad to see her leave. Students obviously enjoyed her classes. I will miss her too! She was fun to teach with and easy to work with. And she often brought treats and gifts to the English Lounge for the foreign English teachers. She's one of the most thoughtful people I've met in Japan.

As a side note, once we got to the wonderful Italian restaurant, the process of figuring out who was going to sit where started. It took a good full ten minutes to figure this out. Where you sit at a table is very important. It shows your importance. The honored guest and principal sat in the middle of the table, so the importance of people goes out from there. Needless to say, the foreign English teachers sat at the end of the table.