Off to Japan...I hope!!!

With some girls at a new IZAKAYA in Philly


Ahh...weird Japanese-English on my English student's shirt. MUST HURRY A QUIET STREAM OF TIME COMPLETES MY GRACIOUS AND ELEGANT METAMORPHOSIS


With Yume and Taro

It's been an eventful few weeks. It is looking as though I might be going to Japan at the end of March or beginning of April. Needless to say, I am excited to be able to go. I have a lot to do. It snowed today so I took the day off from work and I'm working on Japan-related things. I have so much to do before I go. I have to figure out what to pack and ship to Japan, work on my visa, contact the people who are supporting me to go to Japan, etc. I have a LOT of people I want to see before I go and need to make a list of everyone I want to see in the next five weeks. I will also have to travel to New York City to try and get my visa.
Yetserday I allowed myself to indulge in some fun memories...I went over in my mind all the wonderful places that used to be so special to me in Sendai. Some of my favorite places were downtown Sendai with the many colorful shops and sights, the rice patties of Natori, the mountains on a road to Sumiyoshidai...I will not be going back to Sendai but to Nagoya, Japan. It will be a totally different place to live, but I hope to be able to at least visit Sendai and see my old friends and former English students.
I was watching my one of my favorite Japanese movies last night. It is called "sekachuu" in Japanese and the English transation of the title is so awful I won't bother. I've seen it so many times I have it memorized, I think. I am looking forward to being able to speak Japanese day in and day out. I really love Japanese. I didn't when I lived in Japan, though. I haven't been using it so much lately. Until last June I was using it almost every day since I had Japanese lessons for several hours a week and was meeting Japanese friends for language exhanges almost every day. I think I am going to be a little rusty for the first few days but I hope I am able to remember what I've lost quickly.
Work this week has been very difficult. My supervisor at St. Joe's was arrested over the weekend for 116 counts of drug possession and a possible link to a September 2006murder and several other horrible crimes. It is very upsetting to me because he was a nice, old man with a family. It is big news in the Philadelphia area. When I saw his mug shot on the local news web site, my heart sank. Tears filled my eyes - he looked like a broken shell of a man. I am still feeling awful about it, because he was a very nice boss and kind to everyone, including me.