Spring Break/New school year 2018

Well, it's been a while since my last post, so I guess I should start with a very belated Happy new year （笑）.

With the new school year coming up soon, I should probably talk about my situation for this year. Fortunately, I am still staying in Chikusei. However, while I will be working at the same junior high school as last year, I will be working at a different elementary school this year... to my (and my previous elementary school's) disappointment. Some of my teachers at my previous elementary school expressed that they wanted me to stay on for the next school year, and I also wanted to stay on, as I enjoyed working at there: the teachers and the principal were friendly, the students were pretty good for the most part, and I had my own classroom with plenty of resources to use, including a computer and LCD TV, which were very useful for 5th and 6th graders.
The weird thing, was that I was only told about the change in my last week of the semester (while recovering from the flu, but I'll save that for another time), yet I had heard from other ALTs that they had found out about their school changes much earlier than I did. While I'm not mad at my employer for the change of school, I'm a little bit annoyed that they left it to the last second to let me  know, and as a result, I wasn't able to give a proper goodbye to the students. I was able to give a goodbye to the teachers during morning recess. In any case, I will be going to visit my new school on Thursday. I was told by teachers from my previous elementary school that this school I will be working at is also a good school, so hopefully there won't be too much to worry about there.

Also, my girlfriend recently moved to Tokyo to start her post-grad. It also means it will be a lot easier for us to see each other now, where it's now just a 2 hour train trip away, rather than a 2 hour train trip, plus 2 hours on the shinkansen. We had a chance to spend the day in Tokyo recently, where we went to Asakusa to have some monjyayaki, before we walked along Sumida Park to see the Sakura. Afterwards, we headed to Ueno to look at the National Museum of Nature and Science. There was quite a bit to see, including dinosaur exhibits, space technology, and how animals and the environment evolved over time. We eventually went to the rooftop, where the happened to be a small garden for people to sit around and relax, along with a small vendor for coffee and snacks. We had a bit of a rest and had the chance to take in the view of Ueno from high up, something I've never had the chance to do. After a brief break, we left the museum, and went to a cafe nearby for some cake, before heading to Ameyoko to look around. After about an hour, we decided to call it a day, and I headed back to Chikusei.

So yeah, not much has been happening lately, though I did have the chance to see my girlfriend. I am curious to see how things will turn out at my new elementary school, though I will probably get some idea on Thursday when I go to visit.