Goodbye-onara

That's all folks!

Chop socky

Based on the assumption that our final few days here are going to be fairly subdued, this weekend was the last shot out of the cannon - two farewells followed by a big day trip out to the country to continue our love affair with dressing up as historical figures and playing silly buggers. With one week to go and counting, it's good to have things organised - we can officially tick off "send boxes", "tidy up" and "walk around a supermarket in a samurai costume".

And straight on till morning

We had the first of our farewells late last week, kicking off yet another long weekend and marking the official beginning of the end. Not a moment too soon, either - we've got two weeks left and still have an almost absurd number of things to think about. With most of the major stuff organised though, we're now down to the "using up stuff in the fridge" level of detail which is slightly more terrifying than it should be.

Over the worst of it

The conference has now wrapped up, taking with it the last of my workload for the year (touch wood). This seems to have ushered in a weird twilight at work, where half of the office just seem to not show up and those who do consider me part of the furniture. I'm half expecting to discover I was actually crushed under a pile of participant booklets on Wednesday and have since been haunting the office in an exceptionally uninteresting way. I've requested the last of my leave now so we'll see whether they approve it or just shiver and close the windows.

Pissup in a brewery

It's been a very boozy few days which I hope excuses my tardiness and the even-more-laboured-than-usual tone today. Work finished up on Friday and as I keep reminding people with relish, that kicked off a 16 day break that we've now eaten, drank and spent our way through the first 3 days of. We started at the cinema on Friday and ended up at a karaoke bar on Monday night so now it's just a matter of working out what happened in between. A typhoon is rattling the window panes at the moment so it seems as good a moment as any to sit down with a cup of coffee and untangle everything.

Putting the "grace" back in "disgraceful"

It was one of those weeks that seemed like 3, possibly due to a huge "business trip" I had to do on Friday; it was a school visit out to the guts of the prefecture and took 2 hours on the train each way. Being a sensible 28 year old now I shouldn't even dream of drunken silliness but when I crash landed on the couch that evening, the clock struck beer o'clock and the hands didn't move again until Sunday.

Yankee doodle

It's been a patriotic few days, with the celebrations of Canada Day (which exists, it turns out) on July 1st leading into American Independence Day and (far more importantly) my birthday on the 4th. The "Summer Timetable" has kicked off at work meaning that my day starts and finishes half an hour earlier now, so we had a nice early start to the weekend's festivities. A nice late end, too - I took a day off yesterday for birthday eats and shopping, but I spelled it wrong and accidentally wrote "personal business" instead.

It got worse

Beer garden season is officially upon us, which means you can sit atop a building, stare at the uninspiring skyline and eat chicken that's been reheated in a fryer no less than 4 times. At least the beer's good though - it's in an automatic pouring machine that has two separate nozzles for beer and head so I can't stay mad at them for too long. Fortunately the rainy season took a breath on Friday and spared turning our spot into a rooftop pool, so we ended up having a nice night under the stars. The rest of the weekend wasn't quite so successful, to say the least.

Washed out

The weather didn't mesh very well with our plans this weekend, in the same way that salt doesn't mesh very well with slugs. Originally we were supposed to join 200 JETs at a Hanshin Tigers baseball game, followed by celebratory or commiseratory drinks. Fate had other ideas, however - the heavens opened early in the morning and didn't let up until even the most optimistic people had given up hope of the game progressing as planned. Before the cancellation was officially announced, we asked our cab driver what he thought our chances were.
"Mate, you've got Buckley's," was the gist of it. Unfortunately he was spot on.

On the cusp of brilliance

It seems Newton was right - for every meal we've diligently cooked recently, there was an equal and opposite blowout this week. I counted four dinners and five lunches out out of seven and I'm not in the least bit remorseful about any of them (although my wallet seems to be losing as much weight as I'm gaining). At least now when someone asks what I did in Japan, I'll be able to give them a genuine account of all the amazing food and drink, rather than mumbling something about tupperware and leftovers.

Up to their old tricks

Everything seems to be gradually normalising now; the gloom seems to be passing with the first few rays of Spring sunshine. Enkai season has officially hit and while I don't have quite so many workplaces to go to parties for this year, there's still a remarkable amount of drinking to be done. Friday was our end of year party, last night we had an extra one for our section of the office and this Friday is the farewell. I wouldn't be at all surprised if a "new year" and "welcome" party came hot on their heels - anything worth doing is worth doing until you throw up, I suppose.

Cold comforts

With no small amount of relish, I picked one of the low hanging fruits of working in an office on Thursday, by deciding that I wanted Friday off and a couple of approvals later, it was so. Teachers generally can't do this - they don't get leave outside of school holidays and that annoying classroom bit of the job tends to get in the way of duvet days. So while I'm working longer hours and getting less official holidays, being able to kill a not-so-busy working week with laser-guided application of leave is delicious. As is haggis, incidentally.

Out with a whimper, in with a bang

Well, here we are - my last blog post for the year and not a moment too soon. The time for goodbyes is upon us and with each farewell party that comes by, I can feel my engine lugging more and more. I have no real reason to be exhausted because all in all it's a very gentle end to the year; having said that, I think you always end up with exactly the right amount of physical and mental energy to crawl over the finish line and not a drop more. That must be it - the endless parties, schizophrenic sleeping patterns and late night coffee binges have nothing to do with it, I'm sure.

Boys and their toys, girls and their pearls

It's hardly even a question any more what we're going to do on a public holiday. Like wolves anticipating a clear night we can feel the need building up in us; the wild impulse to go crashing through the undergrowth, leap out into the moonlight, throw our heads back and bay:
God, that's cheap. Do you reckon it'd go with my shoes?
It's hardly surprising, then, that we spent our Tuesday public holiday in the dark forests of Kobe, snuffling around at bargain tables. Mel and Lisa spent a lot of their time in shoe shops being extremely girly; Adam and I looked at shamelessly masculine things like portable hard drives and bean bags. The giant robot though, that was something everybody could enjoy.

Wit beyond measure

The Harry Potter costume reached its cymbal-crashing climax on Friday night, helped along in no small part by the enthusiasm arms race of the previous few days. It went from "sorting out our costumes" to "dinner and sorting out our costumes" and then kind of escalated from there.
"You have an oven?" said Len. "I'll bring cake." I can't think of too many things he didn't bring.

...BRILLIANT!

It's been quite an odd week, at least compared to the others of our extremely average existence - a variety of things seem to have stirred up the nest a bit. I don't know how I feel about this - on one level the ants in my pants seem to be enjoying the routine change but on another I just really want to be wasting time on my own terms. I should probably stop thinking every idea is a really good one.

...anybody got a Gryffindor tie I can borrow?

Ships passing in the night

Birthdays are a bit of a blessing I think - they hold some currency in people's increasingly crowded social lives and book you a spot to catch up with them properly. Like mine a couple of months ago (has it been that long?) and Lisa's on Friday, people seem to make room in their calendar and awfully nice nights come together. We're stuck on the wrong side of the summer holidays and kind of lost in the work wilderness now; it's starting to feel like December is hurtling towards us faster than we can finish the things we want to do. In what sounds like the plot of a very depressing movie, I'm finding myself heading out to work before Lis is up and coming home as she's leaving. It was nice to have an excuse to get dressed up and go out for a proper meal.

The plastic tablecloths, not so much.

Like the back of the Batmobile

After all my posturing, I actually managed to last an entire week of not eating or spending outrageously. Granted, I was helped along a bit by a bout of what I'm convinced was cholera and spending the better part of a week with literally 40 yen to my name, but credit where credit is due. Some would consider this a terrible way to spend the last days of your summer holiday but after the past few weeks, limitless guilt-free vegetation is just what the doctor ordered.

Well, that and some antibiotics maybe.

The dumpling king, a tale in 2 parts (Part 2)

We left off our tale "last week" with Dave having just arrived, me wondering how I was going to last the week without squeaking to a halt like an unoiled tin-man and you unsure as to what "the dumpling king" refers to. Now that the lads have finished their whirlwind trip (Dave having bid farewell and left for Tokyo this morning), I'm sitting in what now seems to be a very empty, lonely apartment; it seems like a good time to conclude the tale. Theirs weren't the only goodbyes this week, as you will see.

And then I ate a whole sheep

Having just finished a long weekend and my last official day of work, I find myself reflecting. It's a time of old ends and new beginnings; as the sun sets on my working life and rises over the holidays, I find myself turning my measured gaze to what the future holds. Should I put some pants on? Should I have another almond chocolate thing?

No. Yes.