Sayonara Japan
07.05.2016
So, there I am in the car with Andrew... the same small, cheap and frankly slightly crap car that has taken us all over Japan - from Mt Fujii to Shikoku and so many other places. I owe a great debt to pleasure to that car and all that it's given me, everywhere it's taken me - and today is my last adventure in it. A last local run out just to see what lies on one of the many roads we haven't driven down before, ad what do we find? Well, a small alternative community with grand tee-pees and sandbag houses (one actually being built as we walk around).
Another beautiful village with thatched cottages nestled in the bend of a stream.
After five years this should all be so normal, it should be enough... but it isn't and it's so hard to let the sun go down on days that you know are ending something you don't want to end.
Of course my friends, my students, my colleagues too - they we're all so nice. The kind comments, the gifts the wonderful goodbye I got from everybody is something that will stay with me. In particular all the wonderful artwork and farewell messages the kids made for me which I will treasure.
Well that is it, the last entry from my time on the JET program in Japan. Five of the best years of my life, five years that now feels so short. Given the huge hiatus that I took on writing this blog, it's now pretty much two years since I actually left Japan and although I've been back twice since for visits it's not the same. I miss that time and place, I miss those people, those friends, I miss that life almost painfully almost everyday. I wish I could have had one more day, one more road to explore in that crappy little car....
