Another year over, 35 days after it started

Exam time has now officially started in chilly Kobe (and the rest of Japan, for that matter), which means it's a month of no classes followed by end-of-year holidays. I've just had Aussie summer holidays and my natural rhythm had me primed and prepped for another full year, which makes things very confusing. I started the marathon 200m from the finish line and now I'm staring at my winner's trophy with a very strange expression on my face.

What makes things even weirder is that all my coworkers have run the full race and are understandably exhausted. It's only just starting to dawn on me why noone seemed nearly as enthusiastic as I was when I arrived. I think if someone from Japan arrived in week 6 of term 4 and started excitedly going on about email exchanges and school trips, I would release my desperate grip on my coffee cup just long enough to pitch it at them. In short, their long awaited and much welcomed break is my restless and anxious wait for things to start happening again. I think I need to quietly find myself some projects to work on before I cop a mug to the head.

I've picked up my alien card on Friday which means I'm now an officially government sanctioned extraterrestrial and don't have to jam my passport into my pocket every day. Picking it up wasn't exactly a full day's work, so Lisa and I spent the rest of the day bouncing from food place to food place and ended up buying a surprising amount of shoes. I probably needed a pair more than she did - the mere suggestion of a puddle was enough to soak my socks and I amused the other guy from Perth at one of my schools to no end when I said "I've got something stuck in my shoe" and pulled out most of the sole.

Saturday was the graduation ceremony at one of my schools which was quite sweet. Like a lot of things in Japan, it was fiercely traditional in some ways and warm and sentimental in others. Each speaker bowed to everyone before they started and announced their place in the historical proceedings (their name and part in the "35th Graduation Ceremony of Kita Suma High School") when they finished. Once all that was dealt with however, each class had a chance to scream farewells to their teachers, tearfully hold up signs and do little skits as they left the building. We were given bento boxes for lunch which contained a mixture some things that were quite nice and others that I don't want to see near my plate ever again.

The principal was kind enough to let us leave straight after lunch, so I caught up with Lisa and we headed over to Harbourland which is the dock district of Kobe (similar to Fremantle or Docklands in Melbourne, maybe). It has a lot of good shops and restaurants but far more importantly, plenty of UFO catchers (claw machines/skill testers/whatever). Lisa took a photo of the day's plunder before we ate most of it: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lisa_joy/4392005104/. I think I might be getting my knack back.

Long weekend next weekend that we still haven't worked out. One of the options was Tokyo but I think we'll save that until people come over to visit. It also costs about infinity dollars to spend a weekend there so it's probably not a good thing to do for just an impromptu trip. When people who routinely carry more than $1000 in cash in their wallets say something is expensive, you better take note. Nara maybe... or Hiroshima. It's weird to think that going to another capital city on the other side of the country is less of a big deal than taking the train to Mandurah. In any case, I'll make sure to take some photos of things. And us standing in front of things. Fat things that make us look thin by comparison.

I've finally managed to get my presents for people divvied up, so I'm off to nervously hand them out to the teachers now. I hope they like calendars and stubby holders.