Goodbye-onara

That's all folks!

Well, not quite.

Our last week in Japan was every bit as hectic as expected; we had farewells, goodbye speeches and the obligatory last minute rush to get everything done. I always imagine all the final loose ends will be perfectly tied by closing time,  that I'll finish everything perfectly and go "right, that's that", but that's only how it works in my pointy little head. I've probably forgotten a bunch of things, my farewell speeches could have been better, I could have met up with more people, I could have said nicer things to the ones I did; at the end of the day I think you just have to let go of everything and move on. It didn't even seem like we were properly leaving until today - the goodbyes were so unnatural that one of my coworkers said it still felt like I was just going to rock up on Monday even though I was shuffling out with my desk packin's and farewell presents.

I tottered out of the office with my armfuls of loot and met Mel and Adam for shabu-shabu which, being the last time, was bittersweet (but the sesame sauce helped). After that we wandered over and had some dessert at a separate place, then it was time to say goodbye. Our final final farewell was on Saturday where a flattering number of people joined us for far too much beer, far too much chicken and far too much shameless gossip in between. Plenty of people seem to think I've made a real difference to their professional lives here which either means I'm very effective or they're very good at buttering me up. In any case it was nice to catch up and I'm sad to be leaving them all behind.

Apart from all that, the blog is finished and nearly published, the apartment is about as clean as it's going to get and everything's been settled up for the changeover. We were significantly overweight when we finished packing (the suitcases, not us), so we had to send a couple of emergency boxes in between frantically getting things ready for the final inspection; we're still a bit over but hopefully my charming smile will get us through excess baggage-free.

So here we are. We're up up and away at dawn tomorrow morning and then this part of our lives draws to a close; I feel like we're stepping back out of Narnia. Last time we did this I did a big theatrical count on how many words I blogged that year but this time around I think I'm going to find looking back on my old posts more interesting than a number with a lot of zeroes. I think we've both changed even more significantly than we did on JET and I bet Perth has too - the question is whether living there will still work for us. It'll be nice in a lot of ways but we've invested so much in our Japan experience that I'm not sure how well we're going to deal with going back for real. The whole thing is terrifying, but then again so was coming here and needless to say that worked out pretty well.

The past two years have been an amazing journey and I hope you enjoyed sharing them with me through the highs, the lows and the in-betweens. Whether I'm coming home to you or leaving you behind, dear reader, I hope we'll be able to catch up again soon. Thank you and goodbye for now.