I met up with the other two guys Tuesday morning at Rokkomichi, and we set off again to catch the bus and head up to the college.

Today we were working in a different room, but mainly we had the some type of work. We wrote and performed speech after speech for the cameras. Today the professor and his assistant weren’t so interested in the content of the speech, only that data was being collected.

After an hour or so he kind of sensed that we were burning out a little bit, so we changed the format and did a “Crossfire” style debate. One guy would be the moderator and introduce the topic, and the other two would take opposing sides and go for the throat. Robert, the balding Scot who works at the college, was a little unfamiliar with the format, but once I dragged his parents into the argument, blaming them for his poor debating skills, well – he started to take notice.

It was fun to do the debates, and take these fictional roles and arguments. Sometimes you would be arguing for something you personally against – you never knew how it would work out. That made you really stretch your brain for justifications for your arguments.

After lunch we went back at our own impromptu speeches, and recorded about 30 more. Then the professor, Kato-sensei, let us go home a little bit early. We were pretty tired afterwards. The mental exercises you go through are pretty intense, but we were also physically exhausted.

I left Corey and Robert at the station and made my way to Sannomiya, then took the Portliner from there to Kobe Airport. From Kobe Airport I took a bus to the ferry terminal, and then a ferry across Osaka bay to the Internation Airport. From that ferry terminal I took another bus to get to the airport itself, and then finally I was there. It was a lot of changes, but it was pretty cheap because Kuniko had gotten some free tickets for us.

There wasn’t a whole lot to do at the airport. I studied Japanese, used my handheld PC to surf the web and check my email, and just watched people walking by. I had some butaniku for dinner, and then went down to the arrival area to wait for the plane to show up.

It came in a few minutes early, and after everyone came out together as a group. I had to wait in the wings until everyone got organized. There were a couple of speeches and some pictures, and then finally Kuniko started looking around for me, so I walked over.

It was really good to see her. She looked tanned and tired, so I helped gather her gear and we eventually caught the bus to catch the ferry etc. etc. On the way home Kuniko told me all about the trip, and it sounds like they did have a good time. We didn’t get home until after midnight, but we were both too tired to get into the souvenirs, so we went straight to bed. It was a school night for me and Kuniko – she needs to go into work tomorrow to solve a few issues that came up while she was on her trip.

Today I got up early and headed into Kobe to actually go to work. My staffing company had a little three day job at Kobe University that they needed people for, so I took it along with another guy I know.

I met up with Corey and a guy named Robert in Rokkomichi, which is just past Kobe towards Osaka. It was my first time to meet Robert, a 32 year old balding Scot with a good sense of humor. He has been working at the college as some kind of assistant, so he guided us there.

Once there we met the professor and learned a little more about his project. He is collecting videos of native speakers of English making speeches. He takes the videos and converts them to a digital format, then is making a database so that students can review the tapes and learn how to make a good presentation. In an interesting twist, we actually watched some student tapes and then redid some of their speeches. Hopefully they’ll get to watch us doing their speeches someday.

We did lots of different kinds of speeches and also interviews and introductions, in a variety of situations. It was a real challenge to take a topic and stand up and make a good speech about it for a couple of minutes into a camera. It was great practice, though, and I was really happy that somebody was paying us to do it.

At the end of the day we had made rougly 12 speeches each, with different topics and angles. They even gave us some homework to write some more for tomorrow. I’m not a big fan of homework, but the money for this job is so good that I really can’t complain.

Something else to look forward to tomorrow is the return of Kuniko from New Zealand. She will fly into the airport late in the evening, so I’ll be there to meet her and take her home. I’ll head over there after work tomorrow – it worked out that I’ll be in Kobe anyway.

I’ve got a little more studying to do before bed tonight. I had another taco dinner and there’s still lots of taco fixin’s to eat. I might be burned out on Mexican food by Friday. I never thought I’d say that in Japan.

I have to write up the taco party from Sunday night, not because it was a great party, just the opposite – it was a bust. Maybe I was in a bad mood or something, but it didn’t go well. I guess that’s what I get for throwing a party without Kuniko around.

On Sunday I prepared for the party by buying some supplies, stocking the fridge with wine and beer, and then cooking a double size portion of taco meat and beans. The guys said there would be four people coming, so that made five taco eaters. One of the guys said that he might bring his kids, too – so I bought some kiddie drinks and made sure there wasn’t anything too spicy for them.

Around six o’clock the doorbell rang, and the guys were there. The bad news – the other two people couldn’t make it. More bad news, he didn’t bring his kids. More bad news, they didn’t bring anything to the party. Even I know better than to show up at a party empty-handed, but here they were.

We made the best of it, and they ate a couple of tacos each. I ate three myself, and then we played some Wii in the living room for a couple of hours before they headed home.

I’m not Mr. Manners or anything, but it seemed a little weird to me. I cleaned the kitchen last night late after they left, and I was pretty grouchy from then until I went to bed. The good news is that I’ve got lots of taco leftovers. It might be taco week this week.

Note: Friday has been intentionally left blank. I didn’t leave the house except to take out the trash at six in the morning. I just studied and watched movies all day.

Saturday was a different story. I slept in a little bit, then jumped in the shower and got my hiking gear together. I also got a chance to talk with my folks before heading out the door.

My destination today was to hike Mt. Takamikura in northern Takasago. It has been a long time since I actually hiked to the top. The last time was about three years ago I took the train directly to Sone – it’s easier access now that we live on the JR line.

From Sone it was a longer walk to the mountain than I remember, maybe 20 minutes from the station to the base of the mountain. I had a little trouble finding the official path up the hill, but an old guy showed me a shortcut, literally some trampled grass behind a tiny mysterious shrine hidden in some trees. When he told me about it I couldn’t help thinking that it sounded like something out of an old samurai movie, but sure enough, there was a path behind the little shrine. I took the path and started up the hill.

Just after I started climbing, I noticed this weird smell. It took me a while to figure out what it reminded me of – kitty litter. Used kitty litter. At first I thought maybe I stepped in some old cat shit or something, but my boots were clean. I smelled it all the way up and down the mountain, so it must have been from some kind of plant. It wasn’t a pleasant smell, though, especially when you are gulping air as fast as you can to catch your breath.

Maybe it has been too long, maybe I’m not in shape anymore, but this was a steep path. When you are climbing the face of the mountain is right in front of you. You use your hands a lot to pull yourself up, too. A little steeper and you might need ropes. The nice thing about a steep path like that is that you climb fast, and it wasn’t long before I was sitting on a rock catching my breath with a great view of Sone.

The old guy had said that the path would join the main path about a quarter of the way up the mountain. When I followed the path and came out of the bushes onto a small clearing I shocked an older couple sitting on the rocks eating lunch. I smiled and said hello, but they were still too surprised to speak. From that point on I had a little more company climbing, as there were a few people heading down, and I passed a few people heading up.

Every time I passed older people they would laugh and complain that their legs were too short. I just smiled at them, mainly because I was too out of breath to speak.

I finally reached the top and got to sit down and rest even longer. The view was really nice depite slightly overcast weather. I rested for about 10 minutes, and then headed back down. Down was not as strenuous, but it was tough to find footing, so it took a little longer than I expected. It was nice to get away from the cat litter smell.

From the base of the mountain I traveled back to Sone and headed to the southern part to catch the Sanyo train line. I had never really been there before, but I had downloaded a map onto my pocket pc, and I figured if I headed south eventually I would find the train tracks and then it should be easy enough to find a station.

I did make a few wrong turns once I found the train tracks, and ended up walking through kind of a weird neighborhood. Everyone was watching me carefully, and I felt really out of place. Since I was just passing through I smiled and nodded at old people that stared, but they didn’t really react. Maybe this part of town had a bad foreigner experience or something. Near the end of the street a squad of little girls on bicycles rode by and each one of them said hello in English, so that was kind of nice.

I found Sone station, and I took the train through Takasago to Nishi Futami, and I was back in my old neighborhood. I looked around Ito Yokado a little bit, and then decided to head over to Denya yakitori for dinner. As I arrived the weather started to get a little worse, and rain drops were starting to fall. Talk about good timing.

Inside Denya it was empty – just the master waiting for customers. I sat down and we talked for a while to catch up. He asked about Kuniko and I told him that she was in New Zealand. He asked my job and I gave him the update. I asked about his family and everyone was doing well. Right then, Kimura-san, another yakitori regular came in. He was surprised to see me there, and sat down next to me to drink and eat. He was exhausted from a day of playing pachinko. He sent a message to Kazu who came over soon after. By then some other customers had shown up and the master had to start turning away people because all the seats were full. It was pretty rare for me to see it this full – but good news for the master.

We ate and drank and talked for a couple of hours. It was a really good chance for me to use Japanese. There aren’t many opportunities for me to use Japanese for a long time – just the occasional greetings at the store or with strangers. This was really fun. My repetoire is slowly getting bigger, and I tried out a few new expressions that I learned to see how they worked. These guys are really forgiving, though – sometimes I think they don’t understand but nod anyway.

They were talking about how much they enjoyed coming over for tacos, so I figured what the hell and invited them over for a taco dinner Sunday night. They were surprised, but they accepted. So now I’ll have a little Mexican party Sunday night. Good thing I already cleaned the house.

On my way home it was pouring rain. I stopped in at Ito Yokado and bought tortillas and meat for the taco party, and then caught the Sanyo line into Akashi and doubled back on the JR line to get to Okubo. That saved me some exposure to the rain, because I didn’t bring an umbrella today. In Okubo the rain wasn’t so bad, but a block from my house it really started coming down. I ran the rest of the way and wasn’t too soaked upon arrival. Tomorrow it’ll be taco time!

Instead of getting up at my usual time (five a.m.) this morning, I instead decided to sleep in and see what time I woke up. I ended up getting out of bed around 9:30, which is pretty good for me. I got organized and then hit the road heading north away from our house towards unexplored territory.

It took about a 35 minute walk to get to my destination, a shopping center at the edge of the main toll road crossing east to west through northern Okubo. Getting there was fun – there were a lot of things to see on the way. There was a huge array for apartment/mansions that looked really cheap – kind of like the teacher’s apartments that I used to live in. While my complex just had two buildings, this complex straddled several major streets and had around 20 monster sized buildings. Nearby I found an elementary school that I didn’t know was there, and also a pretty large water resevoir that was topped all the way up.

Upon arriving at the shopping center, I started at the home center. It was the largest one that I’ve ever visited in Japan. It was a lot like a higher-class Home Depot. There weren’t very many customers, and it was a little weird walking through such a huge store with just me and the employees.

Strangely, they had a pet section. In other home centers I’ve seen pet sections as well – I don’t know what the connection is. There were dogs and cats, but the really impressive section was the aquariums. There were lots of fishtanks filled with many different kinds of fish, both tropical and saltwater. I used to keep fish, so I enjoyed walking through. The fish in Japan are a little bit different from the selection back in America. They had a lot more fancy guppies, compared to maybe one tank full at an American pet store. The guppies were divided by type and sex, and there were about 16 tanks full. Also there were varieties of fish that I had never seen before in American stores. It was fun exploring, and I took my time and enjoyed the experience.

There was also a big furniture showcase, and a supermarket/shopping center that was a lot like Ito Yokado. After looking around for a while, I headed back home, and by the time I arrived I was sweating pretty good. It was a nice way to get exercise and see something new.

Not much else to report today. I made crab fried rice for dinner (not so healthy tonight) and watched the latest episode of Lost. I’m going to work on some more Japanese study tonight, and then hit the sack. Tomorrow is Friday, but that isn’t such a big deal anymore.

Next week, from Monday to Wednesday, I’ll be working at Kobe University doing a three day work project for my staffing company. The pay is good, and the work looks interesting. I’ve got to come up with some speech topics and bring them along, so tomorrow I’ll put on my creativity cap and see what happens.

Kuniko is back next Tuesday, so at least it won’t be quite so quiet around here. I’m looking forward to going back to cooking for two!

Wednesday was a really unproductive day for me. It’s a little tough coming to grips with having so much free time. I guess it would be a lot more difficult if I didn’t have a job waiting for me in April.

It reminds me of the time (beware of sentences starting like this) I was living in Scripps Ranch, San Diego with Haven in a tiny one bedroom apartment. For one reason or another, working at an internet real estate company didn’t work out, so one day I quit and came home. I spent about half of every day looking for work and doing interviews, and the other half climbing mountains with Haven. My grandfather even gave us the nickname “The Dudes Of Leisure”. Climbing mountains ended up being my therapy to get my mind off the reality of unemployment (and it was free!). In the end I was offered a job just as Haven was ready to drive across the country to Pittsburgh. I picked the trip across country over the job, and that turned out to be one of the best decisions in my life. I should write about that trip someday…

Anyway, in the here and now I’ve got small errands to run every day, and I study Japanese and cook myself lunch and dinner. Other than that, things are really quiet. I guess I should just enjoy it for the next few weeks.

The highlight of Wednesday absolutely was the phone call from Kuniko. She called from her hotel around 4:30 in the afternoon my time, which is about 8:30 in the evening her time. Her voice strange over the landline, and she seemed just a little tired. We talked a little about what she has been doing (a lot) and what I’ve been doing (see above), and she told me in a little more detail about all the exploits of her students. It sounds like overall it is a fun trip.

Before dinner (stir fried tofu and sprouts with momijioroshi) I took a long hot bath, and even sipped a cocktail while I was in there. If you are going to do the life of leisure, do it right.

Not much planned for tomorrow. I want to do some Japanese reading online, and I also want to do a city hike across Okubo to explore an area I haven’t really seen much of yet. We’ll see how it pans out…

The last time I went to the Akashi license center to get a driver’s license I was shot down, but not before dragging Kuniko into it and holding up the entire office while they tried to figure out what the heck was going on with my situation. Today I went back, and ended up with pretty much the same result, except Kuniko was safely in New Zealand and able to avoid the whole thing.

To boil it all down, I need the be able to prove that I had my license and used it in America for 90 days after the issue date. Unfortunately I renewed my license 46 days before coming to Japan, and the DMV in California apparently destroys their old records and replaces the information with the new. So, I couldn’t show when my license was issued, and so I was unable to get a license.

The good news is that with all the trips back to America I’ve taken since 2003, I finally have 90 days in America under my belt. I went in today with all this information, and was first in line in the morning.

The guy called me in around 9:30, and I presented all my paperwork after some polite chit-chat. He was the only guy in the office at first, but after a few minutes another guy came in and took the second person in line.

As my guy was working on my paperwork, every person that came up to the desk had to be helped, and since my guy was nearest the front desk he stopped work on my application, went and helped everyone, and then came back and tried to figure out where he left off. That led to a lot of confusion on his part, and I had to bite back a comment about how nice it would have been if I was second in line instead of first.

They are a lot better about saving records at the Japanese DMV – they pulled up the paperwork from last summer when I didn’t have enough days on my license. They referred to the old paperwork and that saved a lot of time. The guy got sidetracked a couple of times, and for a while he thought that I didn’t need to worry about the days at all. Sometimes he took me at my word, other times he insisted on proof. The other guy peeked in now and then and we started the paperwork over twice. He checked the dates three times, and had the other guy check once. And finally, after two hours, he said that I was OK and I could attempt the test.

In my mind I imagined that I would go downstairs and take the test right away. If I failed I could come back every day this week until I passed. I’ve got the free time now. Unfortunately, the first driving test available was March 22nd, so I’ll have to wait until then. I was able to take the vision and the written test, and both of them were really easy.

After all of that I was mentally drained from speaking in Japanese (intensely) for two hours. I rode the bus back to Akashi and decided to not waste the opportunity to stroll through the park. I ended up sitting on the wall of Akashi castle and enjoying the view – today it was really clear. I could see all the way from the edge of Kobe and beyond to Osaka, the Akashi bridge and Awaji Island, even Shikoku extending to the southwest. It was beautiful.

Back home it was study and laundry, and I ran some errands around Okubo until the evening. I watched a little bit of TV and played a little Wii, then fried up some vegetables and used some Thai seasonings that were stored away in the cupboard.

Tomorrow should be really quiet – in fact, the rest of the week and the weekend will be pretty mellow. I’ve got a couple of small things to take care of and some paperwork to fill out, but after that I’m all clear. I expected to spend all this time at the driver’s license center. Maybe I’ll use some of the time to study up.

Late last night I checked the weather report for today, and brought in all the laundry just before bed. I’m glad I did – there was some serious gale force winds in the middle of the night that woke me up, and heavy rain when I got up in the morning.

I got an early start this morning, sticking to my regular morning routine despite the fact that I didn’t have to go to work. Instead I showered, had breakfast, put away the bedding, studied kanji, and I waited as long as I could before I left for Akashi.

Today my big adventure was to go to the city tax office and pay my taxes. Luckily, I can pay there and it has me covered all the way to the federal government. The taxes work pretty much the same here as they do in America – your employer withholds, and if there is any big discrepancy you pay it or receive it as a refund. The deadline here is on March 15th, and so I have just a week or so left to get it done.

I went to Akashi, taking advantage of a short break in the rain. When I got there I went to the city tax office, and they looked at me like I was from another planet and sent me 20 minutes down the road to the City Citizen’s Tax Payment Office, which I guess is the correct place to go. There were lots more people there, so I knew I was in the right place this time.

They had lots of people working, and they were really friendly and helpful (as long as you spoke Japanese). They shuttled me upstairs where they had about 35 laptop computers running a program that fills out the forms for you. They had people around the computers to guide you through the process, which turned out to be very good news for me. A lady started helping me, but about two steps in she left and a guy took over. I looked at the guy and did a double take – it was one of my ex-students from Takasago Minami. I was really surprised. He was one of my first students back in 2003. He helped me through the whole procedure and really saved me lots of time. See, it pays to be a teacher sometimes.

My taxes are really quite simple, despite the fact that I am a foreigner. I did have to fill out a special sheet to keep the office updated on my status. Nobody checked the information, however, so I think it’s just a paper trail to know where I am.

I wrapped everything up in under 30 minutes, and then walked back to the station and came back home. In the afternoon the rain and wind were really blowing, and I lost Troy, my trusty portable umbrella. The winds just gusted and bent one of the wires backwards. I’ve carried that one around a long time, but these winds were just too much for the little guy.

Today I wrapped up the cleaning of the bedroom, and now it’s just detail work that is left to do. I’ve got a couple piles of papers and a bag or two that I need to find a home for in there somewhere. Hmm…

Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be nicer (although still windy). My adventure tomorrow is to take a shot at getting a driver’s license. The first time I lost out to a paperwork technicality, but I think I’ve got that one covered now. I still need to pass the driving test, a written test, and an eye test. All of them will be tricky, and I’m told that I should expect to fail the driving test 3-4 times before I pass. So, I’m already feeling depressed about it in advance.

We’ll see how it goes…

I woke up just a little sore from hiking, but luckily without a hangover from Saturday’s exploits. I was actually not sore from the Wii, just the hiking. I don’t know if that is a good sign or not.

Sunday I dedicated to cleaning and rearranging our bedroom. I started off by moving lots of stuff out, and then cleaning and moving furniture, and then slowly moving stuff back in.

Midstream I realized that we could use another storage box for all the books that we have, so I made a lunchtime walk to Nitori. It’s a fairly long walk, so when I came back I was feeling pretty refreshed. For lunch I used Kuniko’s new mini-food processor to make a banana pineapple smoothie. Then it was back into the bedroom for more work.

I finally stopped work on the bedroom with just a little bit of work left. I like the new setup, but it remains to be seen whether Kuniko will like it or not. Hopefully it will get the stamp of approval.

For dinner it was tacos, because I had cheese and avocados that needed to be eaten. I sorted through some papers, and I think I’m ready to challenge the Japanese tax office on Monday morning in Akashi. I’ve got to do my taxes by hand, but I’m not sure about the process. I’ll go in tomorrow with my papers and be the dumb foreigner who doesn’t know any better. That should be fun.

With all the work that I did today I forgot to do my daily vocabulary, so I stayed up late knocking those out before heading to bed. I’ll have to be a little more careful tomorrow.

A Kuniko update – she made it safely to the town where they are staying after her long journey on the plane. They spent a busy day Saturday, and Sunday she had a day to relax while the students spent time with their host families. Monday the students will start school, so I imagine she’ll be a little more busy. I’m in touch with her only by e-mail, so it’s hard to get a read on her mental condition, but I think she’s hanging in there.

Well, being unemployed you’d think I’d have lots of time to update the site, but I was a little busy this weekend. I should be a little less busy this week, though. I’ll try to update a little more.

Friday night Yasu came over after a concert that he saw in Tarumi, and so we played Wii and talked and drank into the night. He finally left around two in the morning and headed home.

That left me a little tired out on Saturday morning, but I still got up reasonably early and headed into Suma to meet Antoine. He was looking for a chance to go hiking, so we climbed up Suma mountain together and then looped back around into town.

On the hike we chatted and wandered through the forest following the kanji on the signs so that we wouldn’t get lost. Antoine was apparently going through another rough spot in his relationship, so we talked through that and also talked about his new job coming up next term.

In Suma we caught a late lunch at a donburi place, and then decided that because of threatening weather it was better to head back to my place and relax instead of trying another mountain.

We came back to Okubo and spent the afternoon playing Wii and watching a movie (Best in Show), and in the evening went to the local yakitori that I like. The guy remembered me despite my not going there for almost six months. We ate big and drank lots of beer, and still got out of there cheaply. The highlight of the meal was fried corn on the cob pieces – they were in another yakitori league.

Charged up with beer and food we came back and played some more Wii. I let Antoine loose on boxing and he worked out a lot of aggressions. I think he really liked it – I know it’s my favorite game of the bunch.

Around eleven he headed home, so I straightened up a bit and went to bed.

Today we got up around five in the morning and gathered all Kuniko’s gear for her trip. She doesn’t have all that much, actually, and the suitcase was really light. We caught an early train from the station, and on the train ride over Kuniko was starting to get a little apprehensive. I did my best to keep her nerves calm.

We were running a bit late so we caught the bus from Sannomiya, instead of taking the ferry across the Osaka bay. The city donated some tickets for us to use, but since we were short one one-way ticket it worked out well enough to ride the bus. There were a couple of Kuniko’s students on the bus, but we sat in the back away from them and tried to relax.

The airport was packed – I’ve never seen it so busy. All the action was in the departures area, and the lines were the longest I’ve seen. Kuniko and I ended up with a little extra time, so we bought some New Zealand dollars, and had a Starbucks breakfast.

Then it was time to head to the meeting area. There was a big commotion when we arrived because I came along, and so I tried to keep as low a profile as I could. Kuniko was busy right away organizing things with the other teacher that is going on the trip, so I stepped out of the way and talked with a family that I had met at the airport before. Their daughter was in college studying English, so we had a long conversation in English that went really well – I was surprised how smoothly she spoke.

Finally it was time for them to head out, so Kuniko said goodbye and they marched off as a group to check in and get on the plane. Kuniko looked a little overwhelmed as she left, and I have my fingers crossed hoping that everything goes OK.

From there I caught a shuttle bus to the ferry terminal, and caught a surprisingly luxurious high speed boat that raced across the Osaka bay in 25 minutes. Inside the seats were comfortable, the cabin was heated, I had a hot coffee and enjoyed the scenery.

I got home and did some shopping, and also had some good phone conversations with Nancy and Lynn and my father (who is down in San Diego right now working on projects with Lynn), and I also talked with my mom in Glen Ellen.

It’s been a relaxing afternoon. I took care of some laundry and cleaned the house for Yasu, who is coming over late tonight to hang out and play some Wii. Tomorrow I’m going to meet up with Antoine in Suma for a hike, and hopefully the weather will hold up.

From here on out it’s about 12 days on my own with no wife and no job. It should be fun, but it’ll be a little lonely, too. Thinking back to when we first moved in together, there have been only one or two nights where we’ve been apart. This will be an interesting experience, I think…

Thursday was my first day of temporary unemployment, but I got up at the same time as Kuniko and had breakfast with her, and then said goodbye at the door. She had only a short meeting to attend today, and then she could come home and get packing for her trip.

For my part I did laundry and organized the house a little bit, feeling just a bit strange to not be working today. A couple of times I would look at the time and think about what my students and co-workers were doing right then. I had a snack for lunch, and soon after that Kuniko was back from work.

She did a little bit of packing, but she found that she needed quite a bit of travel supplies so we went over to Saty and Vivre for some shopping. To our surprise, we spent almost two hours shopping, and by the time we got home it was about time to head to Kuniko’s parents’ house for dinner.

Kuniko had some papers for them to sign, and we had a big dinner of sushi and a stir fried pork dish that was really good. We wrapped up dinner pretty quick and started to head home so Kuniko could finish off packing. Her parents are starting to think more about the Hawaii trip this summer, and we had a good talk about that. They also invited me to come over while Kuniko was gone and let Kuniko’s mom do some cooking for me. It was really nice of them to offer, so I may take them up on it.

Kuniko and I stayed up late getting everything ready for her trip, and we didn’t get to bed until after midnight. Tomorrow we’re getting up early to head to the airport!

Today was the last day of my contract, and the last day at my school. If you look at my posts from the past it’s pretty apparent that I’m really fond of Hamawaki Jr. High, from the students all the way to the principal everyone is really nice and has a good attitude. With this in mind I got up and headed to school ready to make lots of speeches and say lots of goodbyes.

Kuniko had to leave for her school really early, so I went to school alone. There was strange weather on the walk to school – it was a beautiful sunny day, but occasionally rain would fall out of the blue, and occasionally wind gusts would almost blow you off the sidewalk.

The first order of business at school was getting ready for my classes today. I had a full schedule of four classes, so I got in touch with the teachers for those classes and did a final check that we were ready. Just before the morning meeting the principal pulled me into his office to chat with me, and then he brought me out to say farewell to everyone.

I hate farewell speeches. I did mine in Japanese, but I didn’t have much to say since the principal kind of stole my thunder and told everyone what I was going to do next. He did say that he wished there was a way for me to stay a lot longer, but because of the school board system their hands were tied. I thanked everyone for taking care of me, and said goodbye. Out of the blue a couple of teachers gave me some presents – Takagi sensei gave me a present from all the English teachers, and Higuchi sensei gave me a chocolate cake that she had baked for me. Then the first year teachers presented me with a gift, a big box full of cakes and chocolates. I was totally overwhelmed.

I had the first period free, so I used the time to pack up some of my stuff and give my contact information to some teachers. I exchanged contact information with everyone that I enjoyed working with, so at least in the future we can keep in touch.

My classes were really fun, since everyone knew it was my last day and their last class with me. My last class was the last of the day, and it was with Kuroda sensei and her homeroom class. She had prepared them well – after we finished our activities they all shouted “We love you! Goodbye!” at the same time in English. They presented me with a stack of cards – each card was a message written by one of the students. They also gave me three leaves from their class houseplant – if you plant the leaves then they grow into a plant themselves. I was really touched. Kuroda sensei was my favorite teacher at Hamawaki, and I was really glad that my last class was with her and her homeroom class.

In between classes I had lots of visitors, and I collected some more love notes, chocolates, and a huge card wrapped in a red bow with messages from the students from the 2-5 class. Finally, after school we did a closing ceremony on video. They broadcasted the video to all the classrooms, and everyone watched it on their classroom TV. I had prepared a long speech, but the third year students didn’t get back to their class until late, and I severely abbreviated it. A student presented me with a huge bouquet of flowers, and he made a really nice speech in English thanking me for teaching there. Then it was over.

I got a late start home because various students came by to say goodbye, have me autograph their books, or take pictures with them. Finally I got organized and loaded up all my loot and walked home. I was really surprised what everyone did for me, and it made me wish I could work there more. The situation was really good there, except for the fact that it was a temporary situation.

Lastly, on the way home I shipped off my textbooks, timesheets, and my health insurance card to my staffing company, officially ending my contract. I’ll be doing a short job for them at Kobe University in the middle of March, but that should be it for W5 Staffing.

I managed to get all my stuff back home safely, and after having a glass of wine and resting up a bit, I got started reading cards, opening presents and sorting through everything. There was a lot of stuff to go through, but it really made me happy to read through all the messages.

When Kuniko got home I made ham, cheese and avocado sandwiches, and we had Higuchi sensei’s chocolate cake for dessert. Kuniko had a maddening day at work today – for every high point that I had, it seemed like she had a low one.

The big bummer was that the tour guide that is joining them on their trip to New Zealand really rubbed Kuniko the wrong way. Kuniko said she is all about money and business, rather than the experience that the students have. She also sprung a surprise on Kuniko and the students – their flight to New Zealand has an extra stopover in Taipei. Originally they had just one stopover in Hong Kong. One stopover is bad enough – two makes the trip way too long.

They’ll be in the air a total of 30 hours or so to go to New Zealand, compared to the 20 hours we were in the air to get all the way to France. The travel agent waited until a few days before the trip to tell them about the second stopover, ensuring that there is no way they can change companies or plans. That sounded pretty underhanded – I feel for Kuniko. Travel agencies make a ton of money off school trips – they overcharge for everything (a major theme in Japanese travel).

There were a couple of other things that pissed off Kuniko today, so she was happy to drink a couple glasses of red wine and eat a chocolate cake with me. I think seeing all the goodies I got helped cheer her up a little bit. We did a little late night laundry, and then went to bed around 11:30 – kind of a late night for us.

When the train arrived at Okubo station Tuesday morning, Kuniko and I were second in line. The doors opened, and as we started filing in some guy came walking in from the side and cut in. I was a little surprised – cutting into the line whenever you want is usually a privilege exercised by the elderly in Japan. Still, I didn’t think much about it until we lined up for the super rapid train in Nishi Akashi.

This time we were about fifth in line, which is normal for us. As the train doors opened, the same guy came walking over to the front. On the way he dropped his cigarette on the ground and the cut in front of everyone and went in. This time I paid a little more attention to see if he was retarded or something – what was his problem? He seemed normal enough. He was wearing a fur-lined jacket, a little taller than your normal Japanese guy. Maybe 35 years old, with dark skin that was starting to get potchy from all the tobacco he inhales. I wanted to give him some dirty looks, but he stood all the way on the other side of the train.

Kuniko got off in Kobe, and I went on to Sannomiya and changed trains at the Hanshin station. To my shock the guy came walking down the steps and started to look for a line just as my train was showing up. I geared myself up to block the guy out, but he picked a line down the platform a ways. I couldn’t tell if he cut into that line or not.

It didn’t really piss me off that much, but it made for some excitement on an otherwise very quiet commute. People in Japan generally follow the rules as much as possible, so when somebody does that it really stands out.

Today was the last day of exams, and once they wrapped up the students were really relieved. They ran around the school, did their sports clubs for the first time in a long time, and visited the staffroom to say hello to me and some of the other teachers. Three girls gave me love letters and chocolates – kind of like a leftover from Valentine’s Day and also a thank you for helping them pass their high school entrance exams.

The letters were cute – they usually wrote in English, sometimes with Japanese. Nothing in there too heavy, but I was a little surprised how some of them felt about me. They were harboring these crushes pretty well, because I had no clue whatsoever.

After school I went back home to Okubo, and Kuniko got off early so that we could go to Futami and get an eye exam. With the conclusion of my contract I won’t have a health plan for a little while, at least until Kuniko gets me set up on hers. I thought it would be a good time to pick up some contact lenses. Kuniko was also complaining of some problems seeing in one eye, so we both took the exams. Mine went just fine, and Kuniko’s vision turned out normal. As she put it, there are people with a lot worse vision than hers, and she’s not ready for contacts yet.

We also went to Ito Yokado afterwards, and bumped into Miyake sensei there. She said that she had a sore shoulder from playing Wii the other night. She looked really happy about it, though.

Finally we came home and had some cheap sushi for dinner from IY. We were both really tired from packing so much into these last few days of work. I have my last day at work tomorrow, and Kuniko leaves for New Zealand on Friday. It’s down to the wire for both of us. I was lucky enough to be able to go to sleep, but Kuniko stayed up and had to mark exams. Ick.

On Monday I went into work, enjoying the idea of no classes all day. I also had in the forefront of my mind the fact that they sprung me loose early on Friday because there were no classes, so I was considering the possibility that I might get another chance to bail out early.

As it worked out, though, I was at school all day. The principal walked by a couple times, but other than talking with me about this and that he didn’t feel the need to let me go. It was fine with me, though. I got a ton of studying and flashcards done.

A little before lunch the office manager Sato-san came over to my desk and said hello. She is going to be gone for the next three days, so she wanted to say goodbye to me now. I asked her why she was going to be gone, and she said that since she has worked for the school for 30 years, she gets three days paid time off. For thirty years you ought to get a gold watch or something – three days off seems a little weak to me. But in the Japanese work-all-the-time-and-forgo-vacations philosophy, maybe that’s a big deal. Enjoy your three days, Sato-san.

At four o’clock I headed home to straighten up the house a little since we were having some friends over. Yuri, a former ALT in Himeji, was back in Japan to visit her friends. She came over along with Tamura sensei and her boyfriend, Takuma. Originally we had offered to meet them at a restaurant of their choice, since we were tired out from entertaining the other night. Tamura sensei kind of invited everyone over to our house, so we had to think of something easy to make in an hour for five people. Kuniko did some pre-work Sunday night and made bruschetta, and I put together a big pot of spaghetti with a couple of different sauces and a simple salad.

It was an enjoyable night. We caught up with Yuri – she’s working in a bank in Little Tokyo in Los Angeles. She’s dating a Mexican guy, and really enjoying life back in the United States.

Tamura sensei and Takuma were doing pretty well. We ate a lot of food and drank beer and wine while playing the Wii. Takuma is a young guy, just 21 years old, so I played boxing with him. He was pretty good, but soon he was covered in sweat. It is a really good workout using the Wii, especially if you’re not used to it.

Finally around eleven we walked them back to the station and said goodbye. We were totally exhausted heading home, and we didn’t have the energy to wash the big pile of dishes that was left after the party. We went straight to bed and conked out.