“Happy New Year!” I greet each of my mom students as they arrive, fresh-faced and ready to take on English conversation again. We talk about our holidays: it turns out they all went somewhere. Fumiko went to Disneyland with her family, Mami spent the holidays with her parents in Kumamoto, and Miyoko went to Todaiji in Nara. Everyone breaks out boxes of goodies they bought to share in class today. Great timing, because I could use the sugar-based “second breakfast,” but the box of maple cookies my family left for each of them gets the biggest reaction.

“Oh! Speaking of your mother …” Miyoko tests out a new phrase to all of our admiration. “I wanted to give you these to share with your mother and your sisters. But maybe, they are already back in Canada, so … I guess … only, for Cybelle-sensei!”

“Aw, Miyoko-san! Thank you.” I find myself holding a small box of tea with a cartoon deer on it, and a larger box with deer squeezing their eyes as globular brown balls fall from their tails.

“This is Yamato-cha — green tea, very famous,” Miyoko explains. “And this is … um …” Fumiko and Mami are doubling over, laughing. “No, no, NOT deer unchi! It’s choco dango.” They nod and make sympathetic “ahhh” sounds, but they still wipe away tears of laughter.

“I knew, when I saw them, I said, ‘Ah, Cybelle-sensei, will like,’” she adds. The moms all resume laughing.

“I have trained you well, my young Padawans,” I cheer.

“Oh! Star Wars! I remember!” says Mami. We laugh some more.

“Did you have fun with your family?” Fumiko asks. “Did they like Zozo?”

“Yeah, we had a good time … eventually,” I say. “We didn’t really travel anywhere far. We stayed in town for Christmas, but then my sisters got bored of Nishibe, so I took them to Osaka. It was nice to spend time with them again.”

“If you will go home in spring, you must be very excited,” Mami says. “May I ask, when you go, what will you miss in Japan?”

Eating.

Huh. That was a weird thought.

“The food, mostly,” I say, which makes everyone nod and laugh. “And, of course, I would miss all of you!” We all have an “aww” moment there. “But don’t worry, you still have me as your teacher for at least a few more months.” It’s not a complete lie. All of them seem to be expecting me to say whether or not I’ll leave, but I’ve been good about keeping it secret for the past few months. “Oh! I can tell you what I won’t miss.”

“Manager?” Miyoko offers. We burst out laughing.