week 50

With time whizzing by, my blogg entries are getting quicker and less detailed which is frustrating but at least i am keeping up -kinda.

Monday was Melanies bday so after tennis, a group of us were by the asuwa river in fukui for a bbq and some dangerous fireworks thanks to Mr. Hart. It was a nice evening for it and good to see people. Everytime i see people at the moment it feels like i am syaing goodbye for the last time. i cant really describe this feeling. It really doesnt feel like i am leaving.

On tuesday i had my last tea ceremony. I made a chocolate cake for the occassion and found great delight in watching these petite japanese ladies devour huge pieces of extremely rich cake!! im suprised no-one chundered!! It was horrible saying goodbye as it is quite obvious that i will never see or speak to most people again, which is sad considering how kind they have been to me and how important they have been to the experiences i have had in Japan.

Wednseday i ran and then played taiko before we all went out to an italian restaraunt for a sayonara dinner. The food was amazing, and Jordana and i received some really sweet gifts from the people we played with. I bought them a few presents which i think they were happy about, i really wanted to let people here know how much i appreciate all the hospitality they have shown me.

Thursday was my last eikiwa. Nothing special happened at it because we are having a party next week, but again everytime i looked at places and people, it started to dawn that this would be the last time i could see these things and people. In a few weeks everyone else would be carrying on with their lives here in japan, but i will be in england, rediscovering my life there.

Friday was the closing ceremony in Fukui. It turned out to be a big waste of sodding time. We arrived at 2.30, and apart from a bowing practice we did nothing for over two hours. It was a short ceremony to end our contracts in japan, and we received a scroll and a box- with nothing inside much to james francoms's disgust!! As soon as the ceremony was over James and i made a run for it-missing the banquet. We were doing so, so that we could get on the road and head out for our weekend of camping and frisbeeing. We were off to Tajima which is 5hrs from fukui, to play in a frisbee tournament. Sounds fun you might say. Not when you hear a weather warning about an approaching typhoon. Playing frisbee and camping in a typhoon, are you joking. No actually. Well to tell the truth although it rained basically non stop for the weekend, it wasnt as bad as we expected and the typhoon got de-categorized into a tropical storm, but still, it was VERY wet and mucky. The drive down was fun with a testicled filled car of James, Matt and Jon. After ridiculing James for a while, we decided to be educational and listen to Matt's pod casts on ancient egypt! funny but true!

It turned out to be an awesome weekend (except for having a fever on the first day). Our team (the fukui rhinestone space apes) lost all our matches on the first day but had a lot of fun, and i think we were the most fun team there! After frisbeeing, i conquered my fear and got naked in the onsen!!! My first time in Japan. An onsen is a public spa where people go to relax and clean. I had avoided such places before but with no shower facilities at the camp site, and a body absolutely covered in mud and grit, i had to face the music! and to be honest it wasnt that awful- yay me! That evening we met up with all the other players for a korean style bbq and lots of drinks. It was cool chatting to different people and hanging out with my other team mates. i had a good evening!

The next day was similar to the first. Rain, frisbee, space apes, chris' arse, mud, frollicks, onsen, but there was one major difference, we won a game!!! yay! it was our last game and it was a close one. We were at a 7-7 score at the end but played extra time to decide on a winner. In the extra time Jon made a great catch to win the game. It was awesome and well deserved. We had not been slaughtered in all our matches, and in fact we probably should have won some of the others, but it was great to end on a high. The day was also topped off by a fab mud fight (which may or may not have been started by yours truly). Andy got his butt whipped, all boobies were well and truly grabbed, and there wasnt a clean inch of skin on anyone. Awesome!