Just dropped my friends Machiko, Hiroko, Akko, and Miyata off at the train station. We all went to school together at Kaichi in Wakayama when I was an exchange student- and they came to spend the night and hang out. Its the first time we've been together (all five of us) since I left Japan the first time! We had a blast and I did my best as a Azumino & Matsumoto tour guide. Fortunately, having done the same thing for Mom & Dad this time last year- I knew the ropes!

Also added some photos from graduation. To see them and the pics of the Wakayama gang, click on the photo link, or right here.

Headed to Shanghai at the crack of dawn tomorrow- just heard from Ms. Kaida that my passport cum visa has arrived back in their office- so barring a total collapse of the Japanese railway system tomorrow morning (hell- with me nothing's impossible)- I should be all right!

Writing is supposed to be cathartic, right?

Let me tell you how lucky I am: In preparation for my trip to Shanghai this coming weekend, I need a Chinese visa. When I purchased the tickets, the travel agent asked me how I planned to get one. Tom had told me that its possible to get a visa when you arrive in Shanghai, so I relayed this plan to her. She sounded very doubtful and asked me to contact the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo. I, feeling secure in my right-ness, said sure and left it at that.

The following day I tried to find information on the Shanghai airport visas but the information on the Tokyo Chinese Embassy page was in a) Chinese or b) Japanese. The Washington D.C. Embassy website provided more information describing the type of visa I needed, but nothing about the availability (or lack thereof) of visas in Shanghai. So- I decided that since I would be in Tokyo this weekend, I would just go directly to the Chinese Embassy to get my visa, which is what I told the travel agent, Ms. Kaida, who called me again to check on my progress. Later last week, I decided I ought to try calling the Embassy to make sure this was a feasible plan. Silly me- the Chinese embassy is only open to the public from 8am to 12pm and I called at 1:30pm so they weren't answering their phones. I began to doubt the sanity behind trusting these folks with my passport.

On to plan B. I called Ms. Kaida and asked her if perhaps they could secure my visa for me. They'd originally offered to do it for 8000 yen ($80) but I'd turned them down- now that I was a week away from departure it would cost 15000 yen ($150ish). So, swallowing my pride, I agreed to skip trying to track down the Chinese Embassy and instead to drop my passport at their Shinjuku office on Monday morning.

Fast forward to Sunday evening: Tom and I are on the train out to Narita Airport- he's flying out to Shanghai in about two hours and I'm hanging out in Tokyo waiting for a job meeting Monday morning and for the all important passport exchange. Out of nowhere, my jaw drops, I look at Tom, and I exclaim "I'm totally screwed!" (not lady-like language, I agree but as an amateur writer I like to practice accuracy..blah blah blah). He looks at me waiting for the follow up. Grandpa Richard- you'd better sit down for this next line. "I forgot my passport!". Ah yes, the line that is destined to follow me for the rest of my life, the line that my family hasn't allowed me forget from a horrible 7 year old mistake, the line that is bound to be engraved on my tombstone. Yes indeed, my passport was back in Misato in the drawer I keep it in so I can always find it... and never have it when I need it. Damn.

We sat in silence. I could tell he was so dumbfounded at my pure stupidity that he couldn't even figure out what to say. I didn't know what to do. I considered jumping on a train to home right that minute so I could grab the passport and come right back (round trip 6 hours/9000 yen). I considered just giving up. I decided I was just going to have to lie. Lie and hope the travel agency had some loopholes. Meanwhile, as a Plan C Tom and I re-thought about the visa in the Shanghai Airport scheme. He'd be there in a few hours and would check it out and call me to report on the situation.

He called late at night saying there was indeed a booth set up for visa-making and it appeared that it was possible to fly there and get a visa on arrival. I was still a bit nervous whether I would be allowed out of this country without the correct documention though...

...So on Monday morning, after my meeting I called Ms. Kaida. I couldn't bare the shame of even strangers knowing that I am passport challenged, so (like predicted) I lied. "Um, I had an important business meeting this weekend and I could not go to Tokyo" I said while sipping a latte in a Shinjuku (Tokyo) Starbucks (Liar! Liar!). "If I overnight my passport to you, could you still process the visa in time?". Well, of course she can... no problems... and she promised to fax the paperwork to my office-where I of course was NOT... but I could get on a bus immediately and be home by 3 pm, plenty of time to grab the forms from the office and overnight them and my trouble-making passport . (I also tried again to call the Embassy to verify the airport visa scheme, but apparently their disinterest in answering their phones has no relation to business hours- They just don't care.)

That all decided, I got on a bus. Hm- not a good start- the bus was packed, it was pouring outside, and in front of me sat the two loudest Japanese toddlers with whom I've ever shared a narrow space. About halfway to Matsumoto the kids woke us all up to announce that "It's snow! It's snow!". This announcement followed previous hollers announcing Disneyland (in the middle of those rice fields, I think not), McDonalds (this is news?), and the need to poop (GO!). Of course this new announcement was a bit more pertinant (ooh foreshadowing!). We stopped at a rest-stop and all were soaked by the wet spring flakes floating down- hm, must be March. I hurried through the wet snow from the rest stop after a man randomly asked if we could speak English (this is not the post on which to describe how much this annoys me).

No more than 30 minutes later our bus rolled to a stop in the middle of the highway. I looked up and saw it. My stomach sunk so low that it bounced off the kid painting the floor beneath my feet with a wet sucker. Directly in front of our bus was a dark red jacknifed semi-trailer. I kidded myself for the next three hours that it could move "soon", but truthfully it was that first moment when I saw the truck when I knew that my mission was doomed. We sat, and sat, and sat. The man next to me turned around and revealed himself as the English stalker. The heat was cranked. I sighed and buried my nose in my not so interesting novel.

We reached Matsumoto 3 hours late, at 6 pm. I waited another 40 minutes for a train to take me the 15 minutes between Matsumoto and my home station. I (in dress clothes) dug Herby my trusty car out of 8 inches of the wettest, heaviest snow ever. We spun around corners and zoomed towards .... a very dark, locked school. Gah. Not one to totally give up (whatever) we turned next to home, where I called a teacher to meet me at school and grabbed that damn passport. After returning to school to claim the visa application, I hurried to fill it out and zoom (through the spring storm dumping snow) to 7-11 to see if they could still get my passport to Tokyo. And the verdict was.... nope, it aint gonna happen. They were nice enough to call around town to see if anyone could help but I was totally out of luck. (currently banging head on desk in rememberance).

Sigh. So-after that why am I so lucky? Let me count the ways:
1. Ms. Kaida (doubting my sanity and why I got stuck in a 3 hour traffic jam if I never left the office this weekend), will be able to process the documentation this week by receiving my paperwork partly by fax today and overnight mail tomorrow and have the passport/visa at her office for me to pick up on Saturday on the way to the airport. At least I won't be able to forget it at home!
2. I wasn't PART of the highway accident. Nor did I crash my car while zooming around town last night like a complete moron.
3. I'm going to Shanghai for a 5 day vacation with my fabulously patient, terribly amused boyfriend on Saturday. I hope.

Today was graduation. What a day. The ceremony was really formal and long, just like last year. Graduation here doesn't resemble American ceremonies in the slightest. They are more like a cross between a funeral and a religious service... especially in terms of somber-ness. Everyone wears black (besides the uniform-wearing students), and we listen to very long, very serious speeches... and no one smiles. There are lots of military-style commands to Stand, Bow, and Sit-Down. This is followed by very dramatic, sad, sappy songs sung by the underclassmen to the graduating students and vice versa. By the end of the last song (sung by the graduating class), half the students were crying.

To add to the "fun", tradition is that after the graduation ceremony, we have a ceremony to announce which teachers are leaving to go to other schools, retire, do other things, etc. So then the rest of the school was in tears- and this year we're only losing half as many staff as last year! This year's graduating class is so special: really, really good kids- it was so hard to say goodbye.

Now in a couple of hours, all of us teachers will go off to our party to drink, listen to more speeches, drink more, and say a formal goodbye to the departing teachers (who will be back tomorrow and the next day and the next til the last minute of their contract expires).

In a couple weeks we'll be back in the same suits with the same set up to welcome the new 1st grade.... that's The Circle of Life (music in the background.... wink wink).

Exciting thing today: I am covered head to toes in tiny, red, itchy dots. Sunday morning I woke up with this mysterious rash and spent hours scratching myself silly before heading to a pharmacy to grab some spray. It only helped a bit... and five or so days later I've got even more of the dots. We've got a sneaking suspiscion I might have a gin allergy since I drank it for the first time this month (the second time on Saturday night). Or perhaps I've finally developed a reaction to the amount of kerosene I breathe every day from all our horrible heaters, or maybe my house is finally just toooooo dusty, or.... I'm heading to the doc. after school because even an over the counter anti-histamine hasn't taken me back to normal. Weird.

I spent most of this week in Tokyo, commuting from Tom's place to a conference for returning JETs (i.e. quitting) in Yokohama. It was a fairly productive conference; even when the presenters weren't all that informative, they triggered things in my brain that got me thinking up new ways to be employed next year. It was good to hear how other JETs have found their way through the post-JET transition and that (as my parents would say) it isn't "supposed" to be easy!

We're going to attempt to ski this weekend, but the weather has turned very spring-y, so who knows what the snow will be like. I can see the tops of my tulips!

Man, I'm tired. Enjoyed a fantastic weekend of skiing up in Hakuba on Fri-Sunday. We (Danielle, Jaclyn & I) drove up Friday night and stayed in the Olympic Village, in a pension near Happo-One. Saturday was fabulous skiing-I was totally enjoying one of my "up" days on the roller coaster of "learning how to ski", until about an hour after lunch when I got my ski tips stuck together going down a narrow road, had a ski come off and then proceeded to land on the upturned edge of it with my butt. Can we say "OUCH!!!"? (Actually, that's not really what I said, but reality isn't appropriate for print). Anyhow- I now have a 6x3 inch dark purple bruise diagonally across the left side of my rear end. Yay. The rest of the day wasn't quite as fun with a throbbing butt. :(

Saturday night (after some advil) we went out for drinks and dancing- it was a nice little bar with tons of candles, incense and a guy playing Bongos. I've never before come home from the bar smelling better than when I left!

Sunday we woke up to really wet falling snow- loaded up our gear and got in our boots and headed to Happo in hopes of getting a few runs in before the snow turned to rain- no such luck. It was complete slush by the time we splashed into the parking lot. Decided $40 was a bit too much for a pathetic couple of runs and the predictable ride home soaking wet. Did a U-turn and headed back home for naps, mac & cheese, and movies.

This week I'm seriously busy at school- only two more full weeks left of the school year, and I'll be gone at a conference in Yokohama for three days next week. I'm working through all the final oral interviews for every-single-student-in-the-school, then will pretty much be finished and ready to enjoy the closing activities & graduation when I get back from the conference. At the same time, I am also trying to plow through my Econ course (correspondence with Indiana Univ. back home) and complete some cover letters to send out. AND trying to get excercising again- I know it would help my stress levels, but the spring wind here is KILLER... oh how I miss my Chicago gym!