Entries this day: Am_Zzzz pm_no_Zzzzz

Am Zzzz

6:41am ChST Thursday 30 March 2006 (day 13154)

5:41am JST Thursday 30 March 2006 (day 13154)

bed now. Up late with newspaper, though I slept on couches outside P-cen. Watched the slideshow for Ozako, the newspaper tanto; she's a hard workin' well loved boss. The morning sun just peeped over the horizon as we finished, and people ran squealing up to top deck to see it. I escaped at that time for an hour of sleep, starting now.

pm no Zzzzz

11:17pm JST Thursday 30 March 2006 (day 13154)

Back in Jesse's house.

- - - -

Took them forever to get sorted for the immigration interviews, which literally amounted to them telling me, "here is your visa; it's good for 90 days."

Ate breakfast while waiting for them, during which time God graced me with a couple who invited me to stay with them in their cottage near Mt Fuji, which is basically on the way to Kyoto. Y and K 小林様。 Perfect!

While helping passengers get off the ship, occassionally taking pictures or hugging as requested, I was blessed with another offer to stay during my trip, this time from a woman named Nachiko in Odawara, which (from my experience) is a decent stopping place away from Tokyo for an easy day ride.

We were stationed at the exit; our job was to take luggage from the ship to the end of the boarding ramp. Easy easy easy job today. So thankful for it instead of hauling boxes out of rooms!!

Lisa, Petra, several staff and I were there. Lisa and I played a couple rounds of The Jackie Purdy Game. I won the round of songs about war, and she won the round of songs from TV shows.

Around 12pm we were freed from duty and zipped downstairs to chow lunch. I sat with Kellie, who didn't stay for the whole meal because we had to be Off The Boat by 1pm.

I stayed, though I switched tables when Matt was like, "I think we need to get going," and I jumped up before my dessert, but then found them still eating so I sat down at their table (Matt, Carl, Carla) and ate dessert, served by Slavena. Twice.

Much laughter as we entertained the idea of being called over the intercom by name to get the hell off the boat, but Carl continued in all seriousness to say we were all good, citing the scheduled boarding bridge removal time as 1:30pm. "That's nearly an hour away."

I bailed and he stayed, as Phil and Tony came in to eat (though I don't know if they stayed), and Carl was saying, "c'mon guys, let's see how far we can push it." (or something quite like that). Oh Shit, Dawg, You Be Gettin' Kurazyy!!

Went down to get my stuff and discovered Carl still had not finished packing (as in his bags were not packed so he could just run in, grab them, and run out), grabbed my shit, took a photo, ran out.

The rest in a blur:

• Shouted "goodbye _________" to various rooms on my way from the favela to 7th floor: Topaz, GET Street, Hitomi's room (my only student on 6th floor), Broadway, Peace Center, Free Space, Winjammer, Sports Bar, then down to reception

• Turned in my key at reception as Chika was hand signaling to usher us out

• Was surprised to find Eri still on the ship! I thought she was getting off in Yokohama, but no. She gave me a hug and I told her to email me.

• Got off the boat, remembered my coat in GET office, ran back to get it. Yuuka had it out on the chairs next to reception.

• Declared nothing at customs (no lie), but then lied that I had onward travel booked.

• Found Kellie's husband Go waiting for her, used his cellie, called Jesse, who said I could probably crash at his crib tonight.

• Found Hitomi waiting patiently; she helped me get my big box takubined to Jesse's apartment.

• She waited while I ran around hugging and saying Bye to peeps: Saki, Emi, Akane, Tae & Emi (plus Tae's mom), Yuka, Keiko, Hiromi, Akiko (I basically forgot their names during the voyage, but I think those are right), Ozako, Erika, more

• helped Dan, Carl, Carla get stuff takubined.

• went up to see departure. tears; running from one end of the ship to the other with many many byebyes and I Love You's exchanged in various forms of voice and hand motions.

• Found Tomoe, arranged to join her group in China town. Invited Hitomi.

• Took a long time to finally get out.

• Went with Hitomi, Rie, Tomoe out to China Town. Ate lunch. Surprised to hear Rie and Tomoe wanted to Talk privately; I had had visions of saying bye to Tomoe at the last minute as she had to leave.

• Left Chinatown; met two gaijin women in Minato Mirai station; they looked lost. We greatly enjoyed chatting with them and promising they had every right to be lost. One of them has a daughter who's teaching English in Takasaki. The daughter's situation is similar to mine: three years here, and can't really go back: "what the heck would I do back at home?"

• They had JR rail passes, and had enjoyed the shinkansen to Kyoto, saying the passes paid for themselves in one day. We helped them decide a destination after hearing the type of stuff they wanted to see and do. We settled on Harajuku (which they mentioned as a suggestion from a friend) and took them their via Tokaido line from Yokohama to Shinagawa (where I tried to give them just enough detail that they could find their way from Yamanote line to Shinkansen on their way back (but then later realized they could come up the stairs on a far end of Yamanote line, where it might appear significantly different (but as I write this, feel sure they would have handled that no worries)), then Yamanote as far as Shibuya where I just scribbled the final scribbles of a map to get them situated in Harajuku between Meiji Jingu & Yoyogi Park, and the crazy cutsey area that I said they would not be able to imagine the outfits they would see there. I reallly really hope they arrived no problem, enjoyed themselves, and could get back to Tokyo station in time. (hint hint: write me!)

• Helping them put me in a really happy mood, and almost certainly set up Hitomi and I for a nice evening: I had started out a bit stressed in China Town, and was worried about running around alone with Hitomi, but everything turned out perfectly. My lost friends were angels for me at least as much as we were for them.

• Hitomi and I hung out in Shibuya, where we ate overpriced cheese cake (70% funded by her), while she did a good job of asking questions, and I told her some stories of the voyage and plan for the immediate future: hear back from the meditation center, go meditate, hopefully figure out what to do next, ignore the detail of not knowing how I'm going to get tickets to leave the country within 90 days, probably never be on PB again, given their policy of paying 3rd time teachers but having quite a big enough selection of 2nd time teachers who would like to go.

• Bye to Hitomi, who played it 100% cool, and I realllly appreciate it.

• Hello to Jesse (and Mike, Jeff, Kuriko, Hitomi, Steve, Rick from his church bible study), who funded my dinner at El Torito, plus bowling, and I realllly appreciate it. Jeff wouldn't talk to me; he literally walked away (nervously?) as I was asking him how he arrived in Japan, etc. Rick is jobless now, living off savings from being a programmer in Japan for a while (his Japanese must be superlative). Kuriko asked me quite a few questions about PB, and said she may look into it once she quits her job. Her English is quite enough for her to be a CC. Steve quoted verses from the bible and generally got on my nerves starting with snidely stating we had met before when I asked his name (I don't care about just that, but when he's all, "I'm a Christian blah blah blah" talking about how he follows the example of Christ, acting all like he's super great, BUT doesn't forgivingly tell his name again when asked, I'm thinking he's a jerk.)

  However, he did treat Jesse to dinner, who treated me to dinner, so Steve paid for my dinner, and I called it a true blessing. He said it was a blessing from the lord, and not from him. I didn't point out that I had already acknowledged that.

• Jesse's party at the bowling center, where I bowled all sorts of crazy ways in order to keep my spirits high even if my score was low (if I tried to compete, I would be upset if I didn't win, so I just didn't compete). I bowled a few super slow balls, a few super fast balls, left handed, palming, backspin all the way down the lane, and a backwards granny frame, but my favorite was bowling from next to my chair where I could bowl, then instantly sit down before the ball even made it half way down the lane.

  37 points!

• Zipped back to Jesse's so he could make a phone call, and super blessed to have free internet, laundry and a bed, if just for a night and day.