Abra In Exile

I was almost positive I was supposed to meet my supervisor at the office at two this afternoon to turn some forms in, pay some bills and go cancel accounts, but now it is almost 4 and there is still no sign of him.  I am confused.   But seeing as though this is the last time I will ever sit at my desk in this office for any meaningful period of time,  I don't mind that much, although being here is making me sad.  A little bit ago, the superintendent, who is really great and I will definitely miss, presented me with a cash gift from everyone in the office, and then I gave him the framed picture of Portland scenes my parents sent.  I think everyone was realy excited to get it as they all crowded around it to have a look and to ask questions about the four watercolor minis in the frame.  I was happy they liked the gift, but it was all very sad too.  They are just so nice. 
Last night Meagan and I went to our final taiko party and practice.  There ended up being no practice, just party, and we got to eat junk food, get presents (really great ones, especially the videos and pics of performances they gave us) and play my favorite song, Hiyashi (or something like that) one last time as a group.  As almost everything I do these days is, the event was pretty sad.  But there was no mention of returning our hapis and other taiko gear,  so it looks like I will get to be a sexy taiko player for Halloween after all (if I am not a geisha in my new yukata). 
I am wondering if I should just leave the office and go try and do my errands myself, a very novel idea.  Too bad I don't know exactly what these errands are.  Ok, I am going. 

Well, I was told Cruel Intention would be on my movie channel at 1:30 and I could zone out to some trash as I went through papers in need of trashing, but instead The Curse of the Jade Scorpion is on and because of that I simply cannot work on packing and cleaning. I don't do well when my plans go awry. Actually, the packing is going well and I probably only have one more box to send. The cleaning, however, is another story. In the office on Monday, Ogata sensei, the retired English teacher who works in social education asked me if I had ever heard a certain Japanese proverb, and when I said no, he rattled off some words, and then translated to English: A young bird must always clean his nest before he learns to fly, or something along those lines. Apparently, I am the bird, my nest is the apartment, and learning to fly is equivalent to busting out of Mine. I don't mind cleaning, but doing it in my steamy apartment might prove to be difficult. I think I will wait until the weekend.
This morning was spent on a death hike to "downtown" Mine to pick up Toby, who I had to abandon last night after bowing to peer pressure and getting trashed with my adult English class at my going away party. I didn't want to drink because I didn't feel so good and had popped some sinus meds a little before going. But it seemed almost rude not to, so after a couple beers and a delicious lime chu-hi, I was having trouble focusing on much of anything and my head was pounding. I guess this is what happens when one self-medicates, then chugs beers. Oops. So although was the dinner was hugely entertaining (Mr. Okanofuji, 75, and my favorite student decided he needed to go into detail about all the animals he had seen when he went to Africa, and with his broken English was hilarious. Will definitely miss that man), I recognized pretty early on that I was going to be sick if I continued drinking and fought through the cloudy maze that was my drugged mind until I found my voice and heard myself say no more. At least I didn't start hallucinating like I did last year at Rosita's after downing some codeine enhanced cough syrup borrowed from Carrie and knocking back a few drinks. Tonight Meagan and I have our final taiko practice and party. So after today I guess I will no longer be the multi-talented musician I have become here and Japan, but simpy a mediocre rapper loyal to Snoop and Dre. It could be worse I suppose.

I think I am finally starting to realize that I am leaving for good in less tha a week. The main reason that this is finally getting into my head is probably the fact that all the clothes that aren't coming with me on my travels are no in cardboard boxes en route to Portland, and I now have to wera the same outfit everyday. Ok, so maybe it isn't that bad (especially since I spend most of the day in old tank tops and boxers prostrate by the fan), but not having a full closet is definitely an important clue that one is about to move on. It has been sad these past few days; when I am out and with people, I am fine, but at night, all alone in my little apartment, I find myself getting sad wondering if the people of Mine really know how much I will miss them and how much I appreciated everything this year, thinking about my friends here, and trying to figure out what my life will be like back in Portland. It is a alot for poor Abra to have to deal with. So in the end, I don't really. Deal with it that it. That will come later, once i am back home. Instead, I try to think about my exciting upcoming trip, my last few parties, dinners, nights out with my friends and take multiple showers a day to keep my body sweat free and smelling shower fresh.
Anyway, yesterday, one of the women from the Soroptomist club, who I met last December took me out for a good bye lunch to one of the very fancy onsen hotels in Nagato. This woman is really sweet--when she found out my mom was coming and that she had been a soroptomist, she insisted on taking her out when I was working and has just been really friendly and helpful to me. She also speaks excellent English, has been to Portland, her husband was Mine's previous mayor and she has traveled extensively. In fact, she is going to Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Norway in September. She is also in her 70s. So the lunch was excellent. She told me she could't decide is we should have American or Japanese food, so she settled on french. After making my way through the five courses, and wondering why I hadn't paid a bit more attention at the ettiquette dinnerback at Whitman when I was a bit puzzled over which of the 5 zillion forks I should use with each
plate, I was thoroughly stuffed.
Later, I had my last lesson and meal with the family from Spain. And since it was my last time, I was again treated to a special meal--okonomiyake with a bunch of seafood. It is a good thing I am getting treated to all these special meals as I have given up on cooking and now eat only instant ramen, fruit, potato salad and gyoza. In other words, cheap, pre-packaged food that can be easily picked up at Fuji.
Time to put on my one outfit so I ca venture out for my adult English class good bye party at the Mine Grand. Another blog that I shall someday create a link to, but can't be bothered at the moment (you know--because of the heat).
www.iloveunko.blogspot.com

Today is my last day in the office ever!  Well, except for monday when I have to some in to say bye bye to the mayor and get more presents.  Tonight is the big Farewell Abra party at the Mine Grand Hotel.  Parties at the Mine Grand are always, well, grand and this one will be even more so since it is for me!  I really do love partying with the Japanese.  My favorite thing is how everyone goes around with big bottles of beer pouring and chatting with people seated at other tables.  I want to bring this tradition to the US.  Like have people walk around with 40s of Hurricane Ice flitting around the party pouring into the keg cups of their fellow guests.  Anyway, the only tow things about this party that make me a bit apprehensive are the fact that I have to wear my new yukata and that I have to give a speech.  and I am afraid I might show weakness by crying or doing something silly like that.  I will report back this weekend. 
I know I created to links to other sites on this thing once, but I am too stressed out brainstorming ways to be all stoic tonight at the party.  Anyway, here are some blogs that people should read:
www.whatwouldjolinado.blogspot.com (even though she has not updated in forever!)
www.theislandfolk.blogspot.com
www.smallface.blogspot.com
www.theessexfiles.blogspot.com 

Before coming to Japan, I set a number of goals that I hoped to achieve over the course of the year. There was the plan to save $15,000 and the dream of learning Japanese. I also thought I would be able to lose 10 pounds and and hoped to try Kobe beef, in Kobe, at least once. A year after setting these goals, no one has been realized. But I am not really disappointed. I mean, I saved some money, picked up a little Japanese with very little studying, didn't gain any weight and found myself addicted to some new culinary delights other than beef. Besides, there is one goal that I am very proud to announce was reached this very evening, on the shinkansen back from Fukuoka. Very early on in my year in exile, I quickly surmised that I would have quite a bit of time to catch up on all the reading I never got to do at Whitman. Quite a bit of time. So I decided that I needed to set one more goal for my year in Japan: I would read 75 books over the course of the year. And I did it. Now, this may not be very interesting to some of you, but please humor me as I have been planning this moment of triumph for quite some time. Here is a list of all 75 books read by me since coming to Japan. One asterik denotes a good book. Two, and excellent book. The list is in semi-chronological order.

Into Thin Air**
I Know This Much is True**
Angels
Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason**
Echoes
Harry Potter #2*
Leaving Patrick
Harry Potter #3*
Forrest Gump
Firefly Summer
Confessions of a Shopaholic
Shanghai Baby
Rachel's Holiday**
Shopaholic Ties the Knot
Cathedral
Bookends**
Sex and the City
The Boy Next door
Shopaholic Abroad
Sushi For Beginners*
The Bachelor
The Lovely Bones*
Angry White Pajamas*
A Married Man*
Gone With The Wind**
The Traveling Pants
The Westies*
Naked**
July, July**
About a Boy**
Evening Class*
100 Years of Solitude**
Tourist Trap*
Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married*
Forget You Had A Daughter*
The Siege**
Perfect Strangers
Last Chance Saloon*
Watermelon
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring*
Good in Bed**
In Her Shoes*
Jemima J.*
Wild Swans**
Geisha of Gion
The Little Friend*
Rescuing Rose*
Life and Death in Shanghai**
Sunset in St. Tropez
The Bronze Horseman**
The Bridge to Holy Cross**
Reefer Madness**
Spellbound
Something to Talk About
How to be Good**
The Book of Illusions**
How to Meet Cute Boys
P.S. I Love You*
Bully*
A Rumor of War**
A People's History of the United States of America**
The Gold Coast*
Notes on a Scandal**
Les Miserables**
A False Sense of Well-Being
The Mermaids Singing*
Cause Celeb*
Atonement**
Never Far From Nowhere*
The Blind Assassin**
Hokkaido Highway Blues**
Falling Angels*
A Friend of the Family*
The Da Vinci Code**
The Lion's Game*
The Time of Our Singing**

Hey, I think this is actually 76! So I reached my goal awhile ago as the last book, The Tiem of Our Singing took awhile. Hmm..Oh well. Please feel free to ask me any questions about any books that you may have.

So today was my next to last day at the ol BOE and a boring day it was. Luckily though, I only had to make it through the morning because I was to be an integral part of the BOE soft volleyball team competing in the All Mine Teachers, Administrators and Everyone Else Remotely Connected to the Educational System in the Fossil City Tournament. Of course, being a life time hater of volleyball (it hurts the wrists!) I found myself wishing we were playing a different sport, like perhaps almost anything else, but you would be surprised how little they consider the white girl's opinions are considered these days in Mine. At the tournament, I sweated excessively (the usual) and considered fainting so I might be taken somewhere with a little thing I like to call a breeze, but I couldn't let my team down. And in the end, even though the team finished solidly in the middle of the pack and every time I walked around the gym, I slipped in puddles of sweat left by people sitting between games, I had a pretty good time. It turns out people from my office feel comfortable talking to me in two different social situations: when they are wasted or when they are playing sports. Who knew? Anyway better get ready for my Wednesday Nonno Dinner. I was taken there yesterday for lunch by one of the women from the BOE and discovered that I can get "Banana Juice" (smoothie) as well as the best Spaghetti in all of Japan at this gem of a restaurant! Might have to test the combination tonight.

So I have exactly two weeks to go until I leave Japan.  I somehow seem to think that I actually have two months, so so far have not really started to stress out about anything yet, although maybe it would be better if I was.  As I am taking only my backpack with me on my travels, I have to figure out a way to get all my stuff that shouldn't go to SE Asia or that won't fit in my backpack home.  This may prove to be tricky.  But anyway, why worry about that today when you can worry about it tomorrow, that's what I always say.  I have much more important things to do than pack, as this weekend proved.  It was the final three day weekend of my year in Japan and I made sure almost every second of it was jam-packed with food, friends and fuel (by fuel I mean booze, but I needed an f word).  After being locked out of her apartment by a certain island folk Friday night, I had a quiet evening at home following an 8 pm run during which I sweated like it was 2pm and got smacked in the face by a giant brown bug.  Since I sweated out pretty much everything in my body, I got home and passed out by about 10:30.  This was a good thing though.  I would need my strength in the days to come. 
Saturday morning I headed out at the bright and early hour of 9 am to meet Selene and one of her eikaiwa students at New Zealand Village, one of Yamaguchi ken's premiere attractions.  After a ride on the swan paddle boat (Selene and I had to do the paddling), a breakfast ice cream float and a lot of sweating, we headed off to look at the animals.  Selene posed with some sheep, as New Zealanders do, and she answered all my questions about whether this or that could actually be found in New Zealand (monkeys, it turns out, cannot, but don't tell the Japanese).   There were a ton of animals at New Zealand World, but the only ones that seemed to be particularly well-cared for and enjoying themselves were the two sheep dogs.  The cows were especially disturbing to both Selene and myself.  They were so skinny you could see all their bones and looked so unstable that a single push would probably have left them on the ground, a mound of skin and bones.  I remember when I was in Peru, on a bus that passed through many rural villages, and outside some of the shacks there would be some of the skinniest, most sickly looking animals I had ever seen.  Since then I have always associated such horribly skeletal cows with the kind of poverty one finds in places like rural Peru.  Now I will also associate them with theme parks in one of the world's wealthier nations.  There is no excuse. 
After discovering the many wonders of New Zealand, I headed to Asa, where I sold Toby to a recontracting ALT (my replacement wouldn't pay up and now I fear for her survival in Mine.  I tried to warn her and bargain with her, but I am only one person, you know?  Can't save them all).   That evening, Meagan and I played in our final taiko show, at my neighborhood's festival.  I definitely was nervous to play in front of so many people, and it didn't help that the two leader guys made me play this song that I don't actually know but always pretend to know at practice.  But in the end it was all good, because almost as soon as the show was over, we were whisked off to the food stands were the festival's organizers were practically falling all over themselves to serve the two white girls free beer.  We retired with our beers to two chairs under a tent, where we contemplated setting up a White Girl's Booth, where eagar Japanese could pay 100 yen to say hi to us, and maybe for another 100, tell us what their names are.  However, without paper to make a sign advertising our services and with mosquitos nipping at our ankles, we decided a better idea would be to wander down to beautiful downtown Mine and get trashed. 
I have never had  a proper night out in Mine, probably because it is, well, Mine.   But I have wanted to hit up the bars here for awhile, and as Meagan and I pulled into our parking spot on the main drag, I could barely contain myself.  And, as luck would have it, just as we were getting out of the car, our friends Sugi and Matsu and their friend Mr. Car Seat Maker pulled and up and it was quickly decided we would all hit the bars together. 
As we entered the first bar, we were greeted with a ton of stares and one woman even whipped out her keitai and exclaimed into it that Abura Sensei had just walked into the bar!  I had never seen this woman before in my life and started to remember why I had yet to make a night of it in Mine.  But as soon as the chu his were flowing, Meagan and I settled back into our comfort zone.  The boys were very keen on discussing cultural differences,  with Sugi, who speaks good English having been an exchange student for  a year back in high school, translating.  We reassured Matsu that no, making the peace sign in Hawaii will not get you arrested and neither would saying a bad word.  Upon hearing that the American police would not send him to the chair for saying "shit", a very worried looking Matsu, along with the others suddenly took an interest in learning as many dirty English words as possible.  Two hours, many chu-his and a tequila shot that almost came up later, we are in a new bar full of Japanese men who may or may not have greeted Meagan and me by calling us dogs, had been joined by Sugi's friend from high school, The Entertainer and Matsu was on the phone telling Jo "I am Cunt Matsu" and "I am pissing" (he meant pussy).  Oops.  The night got crazier.  We started playing truth or dare, and soon all the boys were kissing each other.  I decided that I should sell Meagan to one of our male friends for 20,000 yen and then split the profits with her, and spent the rest of the night playing auctioneer.  I learned some new Japanese vocab--"Cherryboy" (male virgin)-- and when I wasn't auctioneering, spent my time on the phone with Meagan's special Japanese friend E Manu in Fukuoka, demanding to know if he was a cherryboy.  "Emanu wa cherryboy desu ka?"  The Entertainer spent his time telling us he was either a cherryboy or a gay man and that his Chinese girlfriend in Kobe was cheating on him, or simply repeating every English word we said.  Finally, we were all kicked out of the bar, and Meagan and I were deposited in a taxi with Mr. Car Seat Maker.  We got out about five blocks from my house, I peed on a tree and Meagan took pictures.  We finally stumbled into my apartment and got into our futons.  But the fun did not end there.  I decided we had to call Jo, and when we got her on the phone proceeded to tell her that we were in some brothel in Mine and that Meagan was in a cage.  Jo, drunk in Hiroshima and very worried about the possibility of Meagan being bought for less that 20,000 yen, told me that I needed to get Meagan out of the cage and leave the brothel immediately.  I told her I wasn't sure I could and we didn't know where we were, and suddenly found myself close to tears.  All of the sudden the phone call was over and I realized Meagan was not lying in her futon correctly.  I spent about five minutes yelling at her to "get on the fluffy!" before passing out.  At some point later that night, Jo called and a half asleep Meagan convinced her she was out of the cage and we were safe. 
The next day was spent recovering on Kokura.  By recovering I mean getting $50 haircuts and buying presents for our Japanese colleagues with Shelli.  We stopping in Shimonoseki for sushi with Jo on the way home.  Jo had somehow lost her voice and communicated with us through note writing and gestures.  It was the perfect post-Mine Night Out day.
Because I hadn't done much volunteer work lately,  Monday was spent in Ube at the movies with everyone's favorite mute girl, Jo.  Spider Man 2 was better than the first, but the highlights of the day were taking Jo to the pharmacy and, as we were unable to communicate Jo's medical condition to the pharmacist, making her squawk for a proper diagnosis and trying to decide who had it worse--The Little Mermaid's voiceless Ariel or Shimonoseki's white mute Josephine.  So yes, all in all a great weekend.  Only have two more of them to go.  How are the plans for my welcome home party coming (Brian)?

It is all over.  The pain, the misery, the choking, the gagging, I am free from it all for the rest of my life.  Yes, you may have guessed it.  I just consumed my final school lunch.  Maybe slightly more importantly, however, I have also taught my final lesson as an assistant English teacher.  Because I am having a really difficult time getting it through my head that I will not be coming back to Japan in September to face another year with Mine fun-loving, irresistable rug rats, and because I was having difficulty walking due to the extra water weight I was carrying in the form of my soaking wet khakis, I was not as sad as I thought I would be as I wandered the halls of Toko Elementary for the final time.  I have this fear that I will be all happy come August 3rd, the day I leave Japan, not really realizing that I will be flying to Portland from Thailand and not Fukuoka, and that is when the tears will start to fall (only if I allow myself to be that weak and shameless of course).  Anyway, in honor of my last day of teaching, I wanted to post lists a la Namsie's of the reasons why I am sad to leave Japan, and the reasons I am happy to be going.  But I think what I will do instead is list all the things I have come to appreciate after just about a year in Mine, and you can decide to what country they are compimentary.
 
Things I Appreciate After Being in Japan for One Year
Salmon cheese sushi
Central heating
Whoever was responsible for deciding Portland Public Schools would not operate in the summer
Toby
Having friends who can help in the cultivation of my British accent
Island folk
Beds
my supervisor, Kochi sensei
most of my English teachers
feeding carp and turtles
Nonno
toll free highways
Shinkansen
Students who aren't afraid to try
The bilingual button on Japanese remote controls
Vending machines that sell food
500 yen coins
Public holidays
Rugby
gyms
dryers
People who aren't afraid to express an opinion
Leningrad
#1 Travel in Fukuoka
All you can drink party passes
Western men who do more in Japan than stalk Japanese girls
Manga porn (just kidding...at least probably)
Beer in pitchers
Moscow mules
Choosing my own lunch and portion sizes
 
Also, for those who care, both Meagan and I ate five plates of the salmon cheese sushi at the best sushi retaurant ever in Shimonoseki last night.  In fact our table managed to put away 18 plates of that magical concoction, a treat so special it rarely is put on the conveyer belt and has to be special ordered.  I can pretty much guarantee that since we girls have been coming to that restaurant, its rate of salmon and cheese sushi production has increased tenfold.  It is at this sushi restaurant where I wil eat my last meal in exile, with Josephine.  Hopefully they won't laugh when we order 10 plates each of salmon and cheese because it will happen.  Mark my words.
 

First of all, I just have to share with you the funniest thing I have read in a long time. Sadly, it was not something I wrote, but was printed in the latest issue of ZenZen, a magazine published by Yamaguchi JETs for Yamaguchi JETs (which also featured an article by our very own Jo "Josephine" Randell this past issue). A friend of a Yamaguchi ALT who works in another prefecture wrote the following, based on the New Horizon English textbooks we use and its dialogues and characters, and I am sure you will agree with me that it is pure genius:

New Horizon pg. 34
Second Grade

Mark: What's this?
Demi: I don't know. Is it an animal?
Mark: Yes, it is. It's my phallus.
Demi: Really?

Mark: What's this?
Demi: It's your mum on crack.
Mark: That's right.

New Horizon pg.26
Third Grade

Miss Green: Yumi, have you ever been to Bangladesh?
Yumi: Blanglawhatthefuck?
Miss Green: Bangladesh.
Yumi: No, I haven't. I've never been there. I like the cleanliness and security Japan has to offer.
Miss Green: Then, why don't you join this study tour and see how the poor people live and then laugh at them?
Yumi: Because I am Japanese and you are not. Piss off and get someone from JTB with a JAL flight and a package bus tour with a maximum of 5 minutes per location for photos and I will think about it.

Yumi is kidnapped.

Josna: Have you finished your work yet, Yumi?
Yumi: Fuck you, you poor little beggar ho. I never signed up for this crap.
Josna: I'll help you. All people in Asia who aren't Japanese get their food and drink from cows. They are poor like me.
Yumi: Too right. Get some fucking wash toilets. I had to wipe my ass with my hand, you poor piece of turd. Wiping my ass with my hand is not easy.
Josna: I've just finished milking the cow.
Yumi: I'm gonna milk you if you don't get your sorry little poor ass out of here.



Mark: Are you interested in porno vids?
Yumi: Yes, very much.
Mark: Do you know this one, bitch?
Yumi: Of course, dumbass. Salarymen wank to it all over Japan now. Can I borrow it?
Mark: If you suck my cock.


Hahaha. So funny. Especially if you have been stuck repeating sentences regarding the adventures of the Canadian Miss Green, the young Australian expat Mark and little Yumi, along with the rest of the friends practically everyday for a year. My persoanl favorite is the Bangladesh exchange because that particular page in the book has been bugging me all year. I mean, on one page, Miss Green is like, "Yumi, you should go to Bangladesh" and on the next page, there she is, in some Bangladeshi village happily milking a cow. I can pretty much guarantee that there are not many 14 year old Japanese girls who would happily fly off to Bangladesh to live in a poor village and milk cows at a moment's notice. Anyway, I spent most of Saturday night taking my copy of ZenZen from person to person and forcing them to laugh along with me at this revision of the New Horizon text.

Today was my last day ever teaching a Japanese junior high. I finished at the one I started at, Atsu. However, one of the English teachers was sick, so two of my classes were cancelled, and right after lunch the hustled me out, after making me give a little speech first of course, so they could get on with the kind of business of which the help of the whitey is not need. So it was kind of an anti-climatic ending to my year as a junior high teacher, but what can you do? I have to go to elementary schools (read sweat lodges) tomorrow and Friday and then I am done. Also, everyone should wish Christine a happy birthday as she is finally the big 2-3 today.

I just found out that for my going away gift, the city of Mine is going to get me a yukata, which is like a lightweight summer kimono! They offered me cash instead, but I am really excited to have the yukata. The office just measured my feet for the wooden sandals that one wears with the yukata (called gota maybe?) and later I get to pick out the fabric and colors. I am very excited to wear my yukata at home, and make all you Portlanders think you have a real life geisha in your midst. And if it gets dirty, I can just switch to my taiko hapi. Even though my job as cultural ambassador will be officially over at that point, I will continue bearing the torch, bringing a little bit of Japan to the US. Aren't I thoughtful?

Here are a short list of things that I consider to be OK about Japan:
Sushi
Shinkansen
Festivals
My shower
Cute little children
Sushi
Melon Soda
Sushi

Here is an even shorter list of things that one finds in Japan that are simply not OK:
Schools in session in July without airconditioning or fans

I have never sweated as much as I have in the past two days at school in my life from doing something not in anyway exercise related. I must have lost like 10 pounds in water weight from just hanging out in the staff rooms at Isa and Omine (Just had new diet idea for the book--The Teaching In A Sauna/Japanese Junior High in July Diet). But really the sweating is only a small part of what I have been doing the past two days at school, namely saying good bye to students and other teachers I will in all likelihood never see again. In some ways it is easier than I thought it would be. I think this has to do with the heat. For example, after teaching 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and then auditioning students for a speech contest yesterday at Omine, all I could think about was getting home and out of my water saturated clothing. But while the heat does make it harder for me to be sad, it doesn't make it impossible. At Isa today, I was yet again struck by just how thoughtful the Japanese people can be. The staff started the morning with a short ceremony where they wished me luck in the future and gave me a pair of geisha shoes and a geisha bag (obviously these are the correct Japanese names for these items) and only told me once or twice that they hoped the shoes fit as they were the largest size they could find (they did, but just barely). All the students, even ones who had done all they could to avoid me for the majority of the year, wanted to talk to me, shake my hand, ask me all the questions they were too shy to before. After 5th period, the whole school assembled in the gym for a farewell ceremony, where I was presented with a beautiful bouquet of flowers, and students and staff spoke about how they loved me and about my beautiful English. They really did. At Omine, which I lovingly have referred to as the "Thug School" for most of my tenure here, the day proceeded similarly. One of the English teachers there, Watari Sensei, I have been close to all year and would almost definitely have displayed weakness and cried while saying good bye to her if I hadn't know for a fact I would be seeing her next week at my good bye party. The same thing kept my cheeks dry (well, except for the sweat) at Isa today with Hayashi Sensei. I never really worry too much about not seeing good friends for long periods of time. I am old enough to figure out which friendships and relationships will continue well into the future, regardless of where we might be located, and those that won't. When I came to Japan, I knew those friends I left behind in the US would still be my friends whenever I chose to come back home (or they would pay). I feel the same away about my friends here. What I do worry about and what causes me the most grief is leaving those who I wasn't exceptionally close with, but who have stll touched my life in some way. Those that, in all honsesty, I will probably not see again. I am talking about my students, my teachers, people I have met in Mine and the people in the Mine Board of Eduacation office, especially my supervisor. I absolutely hate not knowing what will happen to them or where they might find themselves in three years time. Even if I visited Mine again within a year, it is unlikely, given the Japanese Way of moving government employees around as much as possible, that all of them would be here. Since there will be no way to tell them after August 3rd, I am trying to think of some way to express how much this town and all of them have meant to me over the course of this year, but I am thinking, what with the language barrier, time constraints, cultural differences and a variety of other obstacles to surmount, that that mission might prove to be even more difficult than figuring out how I am going to get all my crap home. But it might also be the most important.

It has been a busy week and a half or so for Coopsie. What with Brian here and trying to squeeze in all the fun stuff (drinking) I can before leaving, I have turned into one active assistant English teacher, as well as embraced my inner-binge drinker in a way I haven't since the trip to Thailand. I have definitely been having a good time though. Having Brian here was great. His trip forced me to do some of the things I have wanted to do since practically the month I arrived here, such as visit the giant Akiyoshi Cave (where we were possibly infected with some bat disease contracted while slogging through their bat pee) and eat in an okonomiyake restaurant where we had to fight with chickens and cats for our food, and that also served as a bar for high school boys still in uniform. Brian also enlightened me on the intricacies of nintendo gaming, for which I am forever grateful. All in all, it was a great visit.
The day after Brian left, Saturday, Meagan, Jo, Selene, Mary, Jocelyn, Rei and I all headed out for what will probably be our last night out all together in Fukuoka. At 10, we were some of the first costumers at the Happy Cock, and at 5:15, we were some of the last at Sam and Dave's. Despite the heat, it was one of the best nights out we have had this year. Yet at the end of the night (or really at the beginning of the next morning), as I lay on my stomach on the floor of the bus center, waiting for the 6:20 bus to Shimonoseki, I found myself pondering a question that has bothered me for the past 11 months: What is up with some of the westen men in this country? I have wondered this same thing many times before, but this time my thoughts did not focus on how it was possible that some of the most uninteresting, average looking guys morphed into super heroes upon setting foot on Japanese soil, but why so many of them, though not all of course, cease to act in a normal manner? Two examples from my night in Fukuoka. To protect them, and because I was really drunk and maybe can't really remember, I will not use their real names.
Case #1: At Sam and Dave's, on my way to the bar, I met a Canadian, who in greeting simply handed me a beer ad encouraged me to chug. At first, I thought this was nice. I mean, free beer, right? But after my third or fourth trip to his little perch next to the bar, as he handed me his beer yet again and tried to get me to down it all in one gulp, he also proceeded to start poking me all over my body. Sure, random groping is not necessarily weird, but he was not poking me in any sort of sexual way. He was just poking me, on my arms, my face, my stomach, etc. The face poking made it very difficult to drink and after about thirty seconds of that nonsense, I decided free beer was not worth the poking and for the rest of the night circumnavigated the bar using its other entrances.
Case #2: While taking a break with Jo on one of the benches at Sam and Dave's later in the night, I found myself seated next to an attractive guy, mid-twenties. I am not sure we had exchanged more than a glance and a smile, before he was pouring his drink down my throat, and when I moved away, down the right side of my body. The guy jumped up, kind of glared at me, and then let me yell at him for about a minute before grabbing my hand and pulling me toward he dance floor. He immediately started doing some sort of bizarre two-step and every fifteen seconds clapping his hands twice and kind of twirling around. After asking me reapeatedly "Hey, are you dancing or what?" and continuing to clap and twirl in a manner eeriely similar to the Hokey Pokey, he leaves me on the floor, returning to the bench and proceeds to watch me. Finally, cuirous about where this is going, I follow and sit by him on the bench. For the next five minutes we barely talk. Then all the sudden he demands to know what I want to drink and returns with a drink for me, but sits down on the other side of the bench. I drink, and then all of the sudden this guy is standing in front of me, pointing to the door and saying something about a taxi. He stands there for a minute, and then pauses again at the door, before realizing I wasn't coming.
See, weird? Although I will admit that with the amount of alcohol the people out last Saturday were consuming I could be judging these guys more on their level of intoxication than their stangeness due to prolonged exposure to Japan.
Anyway, I have less than a month left of my year in exile. This week I will attend two of my five schools for the last time, and then finish up next week. It hasn't really set in that I will be leaving Mine so soon, which is in someways a good thing and in others not so good. I probably wont't get it through my head that I no longer live in Japan until I touch down in Portland.