Brian’s Japan Adventure

March 11th, 2008

My last real day in Japan

That’s basically true. Tomorrow is a full workday, and I leave pretty early on Thursday. Today was my last day to do what I wanted.  I started off by cleaning up some last-minute trash, plastic bottles and metal cans to go in the proper recycle bags.  As I mentioned yesterday, I won’t be here on recycle day. Still, I cant leave that stuff in piles in the kitchen! 

Y-San drove by exactly on time at 9:30 and very quickly walked through the house. She asked if we had changed the air filters (she can’t reach them) an looked at the drain under the sink. Other than those two things, she didn’t really look at any of the stuff I spent so much time cleaning. Ah well.  She had me put the recycling stuff in the back of her car and we drove it up to the university and put it in their trash area. Problem solved! 

Aha! A Mystery No Longer!

While we were up there, we went to the office and the head of the department handed me my certificate of completion. It’s a nice little bilingual certificate in a folder. I asked if I could get a photo of Y-San, but she was really trying to avoid it. I did talk her into a photo with me and the director of the department. So there is only one photo of her, with the two of us on either side.  So what do you think? Is she secretly an international fugitive or undercover assassin?  They don’t like their pictures taken either. No, wait! I know! I HAVE finally seen a ninja in Japan. Y-san is secretly a ninja! That explains a lot, don’t you think?

While I was in the office, I posted yesterday’s blog and then left. It wasn’t even 10:00 and my day was done. I rode the bus downtown and wandered around a little bit. There really isn’t anything there that was any more interesting or photo-worthy than last week, so I stopped in and had lunch at Freshness Burger. I had the salsa burger, a cheese-dog, and fries. Not bad!  I stopped in at a little shop I walk by all the time and looked at their Shogi and Go sets.  I’d like to buy one, but they weigh a ton and shipping would be crazy.  And there really isn’t any point in spending more than $150 for a wooden board and then having no one to play with anyway.  So I walked to the station and rode the train home. Hmmm. It wasn’t even 1:30 yet.

A Day To Kill

 I decided to do all my laundry.  There wasn’t much, so that didn’t take long. I sat outside for an hour or so listening to podcasts. I came inside and loaded up my iPod and Palm Pilot full of stuff for the trip.  It’s not just the 18 hour flight that I have to sit through, but six hours of traveling and waiting before ever getting on a plane.  Thursday is going to be a looooong day.

That’s pretty much it.  It’s a relaxing day before the big trip. I plan to go to the Kamodoya Carryout for the last time in a little while, and then sit outside and listen to some more audio stuff.  I’m really just killing time today; how often do I really get an opportunity to do nothing, really nothing?  Not very often.

The End Is Near

Tomorrow, I will carry a few gift bags with me.  I don’t have any lessons prepared, so all I have are the gifts and a plastic bag with my slippers in it.  I have to change shoes to slippers for walking around in the kindergarten.  I usually have to wear slippers at the culture center too, but not tomorrow, since I won’t be in the classroom.  So after kindergarten, the slippers are gong in the trashcan. I have a second old pair of slippers that will hold me until I throw them away on Thursday morning. So I should be coming home tomorrow night empty-handed. At least that’s the plan.  There might be gifts involved with my later classes, but I kind of hope not, since it’ll be tough finding a place to pack them. A card or something would be good. I’ll figure it out if there is something. Tomorrow will be a long day like every Wednesday is, but it’ll be fun; I assume it will go a lot like the day before Christmas break.

Last week the computer room at the Culture Center was open.  I’ll check in there between my two classes.  If you read this post before the weekend, then you know the computer room was open; otherwise, I’ll post this one after I get home.

I’ll get home around ten pm tomorrow night and probably get right to bed.  Thursday morning I’ll get up, finish packing and wait for Y-San to drive me to the Okayama station, the first step in the long trip back.

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