Decluttering

I taught my final conversation class last Friday afternoon, and I've said goodbye to most of my schools now. The only ones left are Tsuda, Miyai and my junior high school, but those farewells will come soon, too. Tonight I'm heading out west to meet my new boss at the Happy Raft base. We've certainly got lots to talk about! And in three weeks today I'll be sitting in the school closing ceremony, then going to my apartment to have it officially checked before I move out, then having my last ever school staff party in the evening, before I jump on the bus to meet my brother in Osaka the next morning. It's all happening!

The process of moving out started a couple of weeks ago as I slowly got about cleaning up my room and decluttering. I've thrown a lot of stuff out and taken two suitcases full of clothes to the recycle shop already, but there's more to go! Now that the posters are off the walls, my books are boxed, the Playstation is packed and I have a nice little collection of wine and sake to give away, the room is looking a little bare and lonely. But I have to say, there is something therapeutic about getting rid of stuff you don't really need. It lightens the soul.

I've also been busy with preparations for our third AJET Games touch rugby tournament in mid-April. The first year we had 6 teams, then last year we had 10 teams. Now we're lining up for 16 teams and we've even had to knock one back - that's something like 230 people, it's stupendous! We've got round-robin and finals draws to sort out, referees to allocate, a huge BBQ to plan, and shirts and bags and prizes to design and order. Fingers crossed for good spring weather!

Speaking of touch footy, a pleasant surprise arrived in my inbox last week. I got a mail from an ex-JET who lived in Tokushima for a year and played a bit of footy with us. Apparently he's written an article about some of those experiences and it has appeared, replete with photos of yours truly, in the newsletter of the Victorian JET Alumni Association. It's a small world. :)

Other things on the radar in the near future are a graduation ceremony at my junior high school and then a farewell party with Tensui-ren this Saturday, after which I'll back up for some touch footy in Ehime on Sunday. Graduations tend to happen on the same day at every school in the prefecture, so this week I also sent off a few congratulatory notes to my old schools in Nishiiya, where students I taught continue to grow up and move on.

Thankfully, in lieu of Saturday's graduation, Monday is a holiday, and the next weekend is a long one, too - four days in the snow paradise of Hokkaido! I'm looking forward to what is possibly my last chance to carve it up in Japan, incidentally on a mountain that is very popular with Aussies, Niseko. Then of course I'll have but four days to fully move out of my apartment before school finishes and my brother arrives for two weeks' holiday.

So this is probably the last entry I'll make before I move and go on holiday and change jobs and all that, but if you want to contact me, I'll always have this email. Those of you who know my mobile phone number can always use that, too, it won't change, though I wonder if I should update my battered handset...

However you do it, please keep in touch and take care. :)

Love,

Dave