Saying Goodbye

I'm booked solid. I've got parities every day this week. Tonight I'll be having dinner with two teachers from school. Tomorrow night, I'm having my going away party, which all the teachers are invited to. The next night, I'll be having yaki nikku (grilled meat) with a few friends on Dejima Warf, and Friday, I leave for Fukuoka and my amazing South East Asian Adventure.

In between the parties, I've got to get a massive amount of cleaning done. I've pretty much gotten things at work taken care of, but I've been neglecting my apartment. That's gonna be grim.

Although I've been going to "last this and that" since last week, last night was the first time I felt that twinge of how much it sucks to have to leave friends and amazing people in a place without knowing when, if ever you'll see them again.

Yoshino and her friends had a dinner party for me and gave me a nice gift. Part of my stellar present was a set of collapsible chopsticks. They told me that I should pull them out like a sword (along with making the accompanying sound!) and yell "Eco-Life" when I use them in DU's cafeteria. We had a good time. Yoshino will be the most likely of all of my Nagasaki friends to visit me, so it feels a little bit better to know that I'll see her sometime within the next year or two.

Last weekend, Mrs. Yamamoto and Mrs. Hamoka took me out to lunch at a bistro overlooking the river and close to the famous "Megane Bashi" (spectacles bridge). The food was delicious and they also gave me a gift of Japanese pottery.

Last Thursday, the Language Club met for the final time. We had a party. I brought some snacks in from my last visit to the US. The kids like the cereal, but weren't too fond of the Twizzlers. They were pretty happy to be going on summer break, even if they still come to school and go to classes. Koshiro, the second boy from the left, is actually going to Geneva to give a speech on peace to the UN in August. Nishi kids are a pretty amazing crew.

Last weekend, I also had my last dinner party with some ALT friends. I'll miss that cozy little apartment above the gas stand in Shinchi.

I also had my last judo practice with the kids last week. Yoshida sensei wasn't able to come to practice that day, but Kanaya sensei was there (top right).
I've still got a goodbye trip planned for Ojika in late August. I'll flying home around the 25th of August. So after my trip, I'll be able to have a little more NIPPON. Woo Hoo!

Oh man!

I just looked up and was surprised to see that it was already 11AM. I was happy about that until I realized it's only 10AM. I hate it when that happens.

Rock and Roll

Some of the seniors at my school have put together a band that will preform at the school festival in September. Last week after one of our English lessons, Kotaro asked me to name their band. I told him they should be called "Kohei (the lead singer) and The Four Somethings". He asked me to come up with a "cooler" name. His exact words were: "Something more cool please." So, I returned to my desk, pulled out my dictionary and jotted down a list of random words--some tacked together. I came up with gems like: Box of Elbows, Loud Hysteria, and The Lunatics. As of yet, they haven't picked one. They did, however, invite me to a practice session at Honda Music because I won't be here to see their performance at the school. They were actually pretty darn good. They're doing an Oasis cover and a Mongolia 800 (Japanese punk band) cover. I told them they should stick it out as a band. They might actually hit it big.

Kumamoto

A typhoon rolled through Nagasaki prefecture last weekend, so my farewell trip to Ojika was postponed. I had planned on taking Tom with me when I went to visit for the last time. He has never been and we were going to celebrate his birthday there.

We took the car ferry over to Kumamoto instead.

We saw the castle.

We went to Suizenji park.

We went to the shrine at the park.

We had a good weekend even though it wasn't on Ojika. I'm going to make it out there in August when we get back from SE Asia. Tom won't be able to come because of work. I won't have to worry about that because I have less than a week left at my job!

Commuting

Last week I had the experience of commuting to work. I would rather have spent that half an hour in bed instead of on the train. The funny thing is: no matter where I am or how I get there, it always takes me a half and hour to get to school.

One Kick-Ass Wedding

I've returned safe and sound to my little corner of the world and my apartment was just how I left it (except for being even more humid and smelling even more strongly of tatami mats than when I left it). I always expect big surprises when I get back from traveling. I don't know what I think is going to be lurking behind my front door when I get home, but I've never found anything interesting enough to live up to the mysterious lumps of wriggling mass that my imagination thinks I'm going to find on the kitchen floor. The only semi-interesting thing I discovered on Tuesday night was a message on my machine from a random Japanese dude. I listened to it once and haven't bothered with it since.

The week went by fast. With all the wedding events and the 4th of July stuck in the middle, my time home passed like a flash. Amelia and Gustavo's wedding was a crazy-good time, just as was expected. Here, my friends, are some photos of the week:

Jodi and Pui planned an awesome batchelorette party for Amelia the weekend before the wedding. We started at Ceramics in the City where we had brunch and each painted a piece of pottery. (From left to right: Jodi, Pui, Amelia, Shelly and Tara)

Amelia, Me and Piper

After painting pottery, the crew moved onto a wine and cigar shop near 16th Street Mall to sample some of Colorado's reds and whites. Pui and Jodi presented us all with a bottle before our departure and the very friendly and wonderful owner of the establishment ran out and got Amelia a rose. (Actually, he ran out to get his wife a bouquet, but also included Amelia!)

Our next stop was the roof-top pool at the hotel.

After soaking up sun at the pool, we went to Wahoo's Fish Tacos for dinner and then hit a few night clubs in downtown Denver. We called it a night around 1 or 2 and headed back to the hotel--some of us in better shape than the others.

The middle of the wedding week was split down the middle by the 4th of July. Mom and Pop Carmin put together a BBQ in the backyard. Family and friends came over for that down-home, American cooking: hamburgers, hot dogs, brats and potato salad.

Mark (my cousin Sue's husband) and Uncle Tony.

Cousin Sue and Pop Carmin

Jodi, Tara and Amelia

Shelly and her mom

Gustavo (the groom) and Jeff, my brother

Me and Joe Murdock

After the 4th, we reverted back into wedding mode. The rest of the week was taken up with finding the appropriate undergarments for my bridesmaid dress, a bridal shower, rehearsal dinner, wedding reception prep and the wedding itself.

Amelia shows off her new undies and Las Vegas visor--a gift from her friend Marimed, a compatriot at med school.

Friday before the rehearsal dinner, Amelia got the flowers she ordered to the art gallery where the reception was to be held. We did preparations on the flowers that afternoon and moved onto the rehearsal dinner afterward.

The rehearsal dinner was held at Mori's, a Japanese restaurant near Coors Field. It's been a long-time hang-out and favorite New Year's Eve spot for our crew for years. Amelia asked everyone to dress in Japanese garb. Kristin (Amelia's mom) borrowed my kimono, and Amelia sported hers for the second time.

Gustavo and Amelia

Mori's bento. Sushi, tempura and steak. I took this picture to show people in Japan what "American" Japanese food looks like. It's basically the same thing. I lucked out by sitting across from Tara and Eric. Neither of them like sushi. I got extra.

And, in true Japanese style, after dinner we retreated to the bar for karaoke. Gustavo and Michael, Pui's husband, were some of the first to get up and croon.

Finally, the wedding day came. Amelia and Gustavo (hence forth known as "Melsavo") got hitched at the Denver Botanic Gardens, and had their reception at Gallery 1261 in downtown Denver. They were married on July 7th. That's right folks, probably one of the most popular days of the century to start a lifetime of wedded bliss: 07/07/07.

Wren and Amelia take a sip of tequila before the ceremony.

On the way to the ceremony.

The reception was great. We ate. We drank. We danced and we had a kick-ass time.