Last day; even more gifts, last meal, airport farewells.

Last grocery store run.  If you're gonna go, go big.

More omiyage.  Nice, nice folks.

Pretty kick-ass shirt from the BOE.

"Juvenile Delinquent" indeed.

[Mostly] empty apartment.

Living off three bags for the foreseeable future.

Last meal in Japan.

Great bosses.

Airport sendoff.

Students = best thing about 5 years in Japan.

Final, final, final omiyage.  Put in my hands on the way to the plane...

Intermittent online access this month... onwards.

Lucky me.  Enjoy it while I gots it.

For reals now - offline/hiatus/later.

It has yet to find me. Bastards.

Tip - running your iPod shuffle through the washer does not improve its performance. Also, you get to feel like a fucking idiot. Dammit.

Ah, broken tech. Off to Amazon. Thinking Sansa.

Edited to note - the headphones still work, despite the spin cycle. Praise be to simple tech.

Short hiatus, clearly; jackin' unsecured wireless signal in the apt bldg for my last day in Japan.

You gotta love those less security conscious.  Praise be to their laziness/optimism.

Hiatus/Offline/Moving Continents/Etc. See ya.

Random Coolness

"I shall return." - quoting MacArthur.
Japan, you've been warned.

Next
Best Job Ever. Japan, bitches.

Farewell Letters; my students were awesome.

Far too many great notes to try and post them all up.  So here's the album.

You're leaving Japan, but we have some wonderful parting gifts for you.

Just breaking my heart.










One of my old students gave me some Rocawear - which is cool - but I hope he didn't blow a lot of his money on it.  That stuff's expensive.  Maybe it's secondhand/handmedown.  Me and this kid used to exchange hiphop CDs all the time...And then, this might be my favorite gift.  From one of my students who'd graduated.  Super nice kid, though English was never her strong point.  Ran into her a couple times since graduation, as she's big on taiko and gave performances at different school festivals.  She never fails to ask, as do a buncha my kids, "Oboiteru?" [Do you remember me?]  Never sure if it's an esteem thing or not... but my answer is always "Of course I remember you."  I'm gonna be 60 years old and still remember these kids.
But I really like this because I don't think she planned on giving me anything.  But we chatted and engaged and interacted, and then all of sudden she felt connected and wanted me to have something to remember her by.  That's pretty damn special.

Sobetsukai VIII - Jr High Teachers/The Last One.

Fukuma Beach/Pantai Bagus

Good food.




Rockin'


English Teachers Rock.

Face Off!

VP from my first year back for a good time.


Nijikai=Karaoke.

Sobetsukai VII - graduates come by one more time.

This was very cool.  Graduates from previous years, now in HS, come back to say 'bye.'  I was really very, very touched.  This is most of the kids, except a few who had to head out early.  So awesome.