Tokyo in January- made me feel like I could do something. I felt like my students actually respected me (kind of blew that by getting horrificly drunk in Uonuma and being hungover for the bus ride back)

Passing the JET interview- on the back of two great references (I chose my referees well) and answers the interviewers liked, I’m now in Japan, after months of waiting.

Graduating- put undergraduate university behind me for now. I’ll go back to honours one day, but maybe not in Perth, and certainly not at ECU. I’m thinking I’ll pass JLPT ni-kyuu and then do my honours on the literature of Kawabata Yasunari, maybe…I’ll work that out later.

Quitting my job- self explanitory. But no more dealing with abusive customers, abusive superiors, and…well everyone in that store was a bitch, with maybe three exceptions. No more sitting in a windowless box for twelve hours, or standing up for ten.

Moving to Japan- Everything from the five star hotel in Tokyo, the rent-free giant house to myself, the great pay, the job I love, the holidays I’ve been taking every month, the getting paid (a lot) to learn and all the cool people I’ve met, make me want to stay for a lot longer.

And then there’s all the small things, like having a 2nd grade teacher (a 26 year old about half my size) ask me what a ‘mother fucker’ is. She’d just seen Pulp Fiction, apparently.
Things like walking down to the shrine behind Sunny Mart to sit down on a bench, eat chocolate and read.
Things like the section of the Dosan line, where it crosses through eastern Tokushima prefecture, winding through white cliffs, red and orange leafs in Autumn, snow in Winter and (I can’t wait) blossoming cherry trees in Spring.
Things like knowing what the best coffee from all the vending machines is, and seeing the red stripe at the start of winter which means they’re selling canned hot coffee again (and hot tea, hot corn soup…)
Things like the christmas and new year’s cards I received from my students, particularly the one from Kaho in which she apologized that the card wasn’t ‘luxurious’ (actually it was the equal best christmas card I’ve ever gotten, because I’ve only ever received two hand made cards)
Things like planning more trips; Mt Fuji and Fuji Rock in Summer, following the cherry blossoms north to Tokyo in my Spring break, maybe Europe, Maybe China, maybe back to Australia for christmas (but the almost white christmas here was so good) which mean that the best of 2007 will most likely be the worst of 2008
but you might not all want to hear about how happy I am, so here’s a picture:
Miyajima