Entries this day: Ashtray_shoes Clearing_the_rooms Last Port-view_of_departure Snap_back_to_reality Whose_home back_in_Shibuya

Ashtray shoes

6:45am JST Tuesday 30 August 2005

Last night I offered up my beloved (well worn) boat shoes up to anyone who might want them. I couldn't bear to throw them away, so I put them on the Emergency Escape Breathing Device (which I don't know how to use) near my room. This morning I found two cigarettes crushed out into the shoes, so I guess someone decided they were trash. I felt a bit sad, but I offered them up as a gift to the universe, and if that's how they were to be treated, so be it.

Clearing the rooms

6:55am JST Tuesday 30 August 2005

Ah shit; I forgot we have to clean out our carry-on bags before we meet at 7, so I am packing that now. Getting the cash out of my safe and stuffing my pockets with my final tape (I'm about to finish #32 now) and ready to head up soon.

7:15am JST Tuesday 30 August 2005

Some people are crying. I so far have not, although I dropped the sideboard of my bed on my foot. Ow.

I gotta turn in the proof that I turned in everything and get my passport and then I'll be ready to get off.

11:15am JST Tuesday 30 August 2005

I got Francois back! Christine washed him!

We've been lugging luggage off the ship: different teams of staff/crew/GET-T combinations are systematically going to different rooms where the passengers are supposed to be waiting (to let us in and tell us what to take) with their bags packed. They are mostly all ready.

Last

11:55am JST Tuesday 30 August 2005

It's interesting to run down the steps to Topaz for the last time. Going to eat on the boat for the last time.

Where is my hat?

12:45pm JST Tuesday 30 August 2005

I am in the port. They were like, "okay, we have to get off the boat RIGHT NOW."

1:30pm JST Tuesday 30 August 2005

I just talked to Hitomi; it was undramatic, and I'm glad about that.

Port view of departure

1:55pm JST Tuesday 30 August 2005

Up on the port deck now watching the rest of the passengers yell over the rail before they leave and get one more day of food and fun on the ship.

I got my stuff takubined to Kellie's house, though they wouldn't guarantee what day it will arrive, much less what time. But it was cheap.

Kuni asked me to throw something to the ship: a bag of nuts attached to a sturdy ribbon of plastic. I was like, "aight," figuring I can whirl it around my head and release at the right time to send it on its way.

I am *sure* it would have made it, but one of Kuni's friends stepped on the inside of the ribbon, so it got stuck on his leg and just stopped in mid-trajectory and fell.

Tetsuya, the cruise director saw me from the bridge deck and gave me a big batsu (X shape with his forearms). I hope I haven't mucked my chances to sail again..

Snap back to reality

2:08pm JST Tuesday 30 August 2005

The ship is basically gone. Too late to get on now. People were screeching screaming goodbyes.

3pm JST Tuesday 30 August 2005

I'm in the stage of not wanting to leave and not wanting to get back into reality and not wanting to get stuck into my old life.

The only people left on the port are those who don't have anything to do, like the last stragglers at the end of a rally.

Whose home

4pm JST Tuesday 30 August 2005

Oh man; that was weird to be in a convenience store and have this feeling of home like, "ah, this is natural." Fuck! it's fuckin' Japan! This isn't home to me!

On the train now, and there are other passengers from the ship. Girls across from me were singing the departure song as we left the station and some of their friends on the platform.

The voice on the train says stuff like, [next station, blahblahblah] and I feel this pang of being back in normality. And it's really tripping me out.

4:30pm JST Tuesday 30 August 2005

Woah. Really tired. I intended to be awake to watch (and tell the stories as) my old stations go by, but I completely missed Okurayama, Tsunashima, Hiyoshi, Motosumiyoshi. I woke up at Musashikosugi and again at Jiyugaoka.

back in Shibuya

8:11pm JST Tuesday 30 August 2005

Wow; has it really been 2 days since I changed my clock?

Katt and I have been wandering around Shibuya, starting with El Torito and then ice cream and now chillin' in a KFC during a rain storm.

We saw a passenger from the boat, and we saw Olivia randomly in Shibuya station! We talked to her about ten minutes and did a quick version of catchup.. Olivia is working hard and Jen is in Bali for a quick visa reset. I didn't ask about Tetsuya nor Dan...

Katt and I found a club called Christ On, which had a biblical motif and is probably a goth club. They had a door (and Katt said therefore a cover charge) so we didn't go in.

I fell asleep several times on the way from Nihonbashi to Shibuya despite my intention to tell Katt stories of the various stations... I didn't even budge for Tsunashima nor Motosumiyoshi.

It's so weird to see Japanese people and think "they must be from the ship!" but then realize, hey - everyone around us is Japanese!