Final Finales

Well at last it seems the leaving dos are over. It was getting a bit much there for a while, but at last my liver can take a well earned break. Almost. I've still got one week left in this town and at least 2 karaoke dates to go to, so who knows where it will all end up, but for now the official leaving parties are finished.

Last week really was the peak for me as well. On Monday I met up with Adam to go running in the afternoon and take in the inaka highlands of Yoshikawa, and later Gretchen-Maria, Danielle and I had a final sayonara with Adam in Takahashi where we started at kaiten sushi before heading to JoyFull for their delicious desserts.

Tuesday was a more sedate night where, after having last classes at school I went to Jeremy's for dinner which was actually cooked by Christine. And what with her being half Italian I had high expectations which were more than met.

The week's rain continued with gusto when approximately 260mm of rain fell over 24 hours between Tuesday and Wednesday. This caused havic across the country and meant the kids couldn't come to school as landslides were happening everywhere and the local trains are about as sturdy as a pensioner on an ice-rink. It also meant that there was no closing ceremony at school and I never got to officially say goodbye to the kids, but we still had my staff leaving do in the evening which was sad and fun, and of course ended in... karaoke! The karaoke bar was funny. Performance on each song was rated, and if you scored 89 you won a bottle of whisky. So I had 2 tries. I scored 88 on the first go and 90 on the second. So the hostess gave me a bottle of wine anyway. Thank you! And thanks to the staff at school for a lovely leaving and 2 years of warm friendly greetings!

Thursday night saw another big drinking do when I met with members of the young businessman's group for whom I'd done a teaching session in March. We ate at a gorgeous fish restaurant before ending up in... karaoke.

Friday night was a slightly more sober night where Gretchen-Maria met in Ochiai Joyfull (except we almost didn't because, aside from the expressway, ALL the local roads between her home and mine had been blocked by landslides. Damn this never ending rainy season!). Deciding to express our true Ghetto-ality we spent 4 hours in Joyfull making the most of the drinks bar and not leaving till half past midnight.

The hardest sayonara came on Saturday with Nao-chan's party. Chad came from Onomichi and we started with a trip to Kanba no taki, the waterfall with the swarms of monkeys in Katsuyama. Except the swarms of monkeys had all gone away leaving only 1 slighlty raggedy effort that had a big clump of hair missing from his back. Ouch. Even the salamander was gone. It was rather bizarre.

Nao chan's party started at 7 and the usual culprits were there- Kiyoe chan, Kayo chan, Minoru san, Sachiko chan and her kids (who I teach) and Yumiko chan and her kids (who I teach). Plus Kanae san, Papa san and of course Oji san. We were all drunk in about 45 minutes. Except of course for the children who didn't bat an eyelid. Drinking is such a major part of life here that no-one seems too worried. Indeed, we all went out and lit fireworks while we were a bit trolleyed. All the ladies brought a dish with them, so food was plentiful and we had more than enough to drink and it all became very teary at one point. Thanks Nao chan and everyone for being such good friends!

Sunday was not so much a day of rest as a day of non-functioning. But it's been 5 days since my last drink (it's probably only 1 until my next), so my head's a little clearer. For now...