I'll write shortly, probably tomorrow, about this month in Canada. I just have to get it off my chest: I just learned from Daniel that one of my 2nd year students at Nichu has died of a heart attack. He can't have been older than 14. I don't even know who it was yet, all I can think about is all the kids I taught, who I watched play, and that one of them isn't playing anymore.

I'm pretty upset, and I imagine all of Nichu is as well. Happier news tomorrow I hope.

This is it: Today is our last day in Natori. We've spent our last night in this apartment, everything is ready to go, and in an hour my supervisor will come and check things over and take the house key. We're really going to miss this place... this town has treated us wonderfully these last couple years. At least we can leave with the happy knowledge that we'll be back some day soon.

For the last week or so there has been a small earthquake every day. We were just hit by another big one, as strong as the one about a month ago that killed a few people in the Naruko area. No damage down here, I'll pass on any further information as events warrant.

Jen and I are now the only couple I know to have had a surprise wedding party.

Tonight was our farewell party with Shinji Saito and his merry band. Jen's friend Meg also came, which was excellent... she is basically, as far as I can tell, a slightly older Japanese version of Jen. As one might guess, I approve of that quite well. Anyway, being the wacky sorts they are, Shinji and Konno (the owner of the house we had the party at) and cohorts did not give us a very clear inclination to what manner of party it was going to be. All we knew, in fact, was that it was a farewell party and that we were expected to wear kimono at the beginning, for photographs.

First off, I was going to make this a long post about the events of the last several days, but Jen has beaten me to it and done a better job than I could!

Last month I bid a tough and lump-throated farewell to Icchu; it was very hard to get through, but made easier by the knowledge that i had this month to go back from time to time, which I have. Today I gave my final farewell not just to Nichu,but to the Japanese Junior High School system. To make matters worse, I forgot to print up my speech! In the long run that turned out to be all right. I'd written so many farewell letters that the words came easily enough, and I think the impact was better for my occasional mistake.