Last full week in Japan..

Well this is our last full week in Japan. We have already started preparing to leave and about 2/3 of our belongings have already been sent home. It is a regular occurrence to discover things we probably should have kept for the final shipment, but anyway it is too late now. Fortunately I think we all have our underwear.. Along with preparing our belongings we have already started to say goodbye to many of friends. Kate and the children met the children's English tutor Clarence and his wife for dinner one night and to say goodbye.

On a Tuesday I met with a supplier to say farewell. Even though it was a Tuesday night many people still managed to make it out to the party. We had a great time and it was nice to see many old and new friends before leaving.

I also had a farewell party on Wednesday night, but have not yet received the pictures from the outing. It was with my new group members from work. We had a great dinner and conversation. I am still getting to know some of the members and so it was a nice opportunity to spend time together.

Kate met some friends for lunch and a last trip to Mashiko. (I will get her to write up more later)

Colleen's choir group had a nice farewell party for her.

I met a number of the cycling members at the Japan cup course for one last trip around it. Everyone wore their new jersey to look professional for the photo. I think the picture came out looking pretty good.

The only problem was that Ito san and I both had to ride mini-velos. My Cannondale already shipped for America and Ito now lives in Tokyo so he borrowed Maeshima san's girlfriends bike. See for yourself in the picture below, but I think it dropped us down on the pro-looking scale a couple of notches...

We also met the Shionome sans for a nice dinner. Taka san prepared many of the dishes and all were delicious. He made extra maguro for Liam, Colleen, and Kate as they like it. I said it was like half of a Tuna, but they still managed to eat it all.. It was a great evening of hanging out and laughing.

Tonight we went to the Kato's home for dinner. The children really enjoyed playing with Tora kun and Chibi. Again the food was delicious. It has really been nice seeing everyone in the last few weeks, but also a bit draining emotionally. I believe that we will have the chance to see some of our friends again in the future as they are thinking about visiting the US. We should start thinking about what interesting places there may be around our city to take them..

That is all for this week. As we will be leaving our home on Wednesday I will most likely not finish the final post until we are in the US and receive our computer. It means it will be about 2 months and that will include our final few days and a small right up about the trip home.

Thank you for following our adventure.. See some of you soon on the other side..

Kate had her speech and after the ladies surprised her with a gift and flowers.

Kate met Colleen at school for a mother daugher activity.












Before we returned h0me we wanted to purhcase some stonework for our garden. We found a family owned and run place close to our home and decided to purchase from them. Kate stopped by to check on the progress and get some pictures of the father and son as they worked on them.

They even let Kate try her hand at carving some of the stones. She actually got to work on one of the ones that we were being made for us.

This week was my farewell party with my original department from work. A number of the associates I worked with made it out to the party, even though it was on a Wednesday.

At the end of the first party and before the 2nd and 2rd, everyone grouped in front of the restaurant and gathered around. I was not exaclty sure of what was going on, but I was grabbed and then thrown into the air 3 times. It is a good thing that I lost weight over the 2 year stay.

Next was my bicycling group party. All of my friends that I rode bicycles with during our stay were able to go. We had good food and a lot of great conversation. At the end they presented me with my very own custom cycling jersey. Ito sans friend is a graphic designer and designed the jersey. Originally they were going to present it to me at Motegi, but the jersey came in late. It was a great night.

Colleen had her last singing concert. This was the first chance for me to see her in action. She and the other girls did a great job. This time it was for exibition and not competition.

The event was at a Takanezawa community festival, so we also had the opportunity to eat her last choco bananna.

Liam picked up his last udon as well.

Kate had a farewell night out with the ladies.

We had our last Takanezawa community BBQ. The community gathered together. The community is divided into groups. Each group sets up a grill and starts cooking. Everyone chips in during the cooking. We liked cooking this style and decided to buy one of the pans before leaving for America so we can do the same style at home.

The cookout gave us the chance to see a number of neighbors again before we left.

The Yagishta sans (our next door neighbors) also attended the event.

The Nakamichi sans also came over one last time to visit. It was great to see them again and hang out. They are such a nice family..
The children played games while waiting for dinner. We were able to pick up a sushi dinner from the grocery store and hung out for the rest of the evening.




That is all for this post, have a great week...