School's Out

That's it..finished Last week I said goodbye to all my regular students, and by god it was almost teary-eyed. On Tuesday I said my fairwell's to the three kind old ladies whom I'd taught for the whole year and in return they gave me a watch. They must have seen me eyeing the clock often enough to have guess I needed one. On Thursday I said bye to other regular students as well, as on Saturday too and I got a big card and everything. It all felt suprisingly sad..like I was leaving secondary school or something. I almost felt bad for leaving. But I'm sure, like in big schools where I was only another gaijin face, they'll forget I even existed in a few months. So now I'm left to bide my time here before heading home in May. Still trying to decide if I have enough time/money to go to Korea for a few days in between. Last weekend in Sannomiya, me and Keiko were priviliged to see "The Amazing Kaname" - a David Blaine young upstart plying his trade for the huge audience of four in a small Sannomiya bar (made more embarassing as the bar was celebrating its anniversary). But it was actually quite cool..he pretended to swallow lit cigarattes, found coins in weird places, and even did that one card trick where he bends the card in half, sticks it in the middle of the deck, clicks his fingers and has the card jump to the top. I really couldn't see how he did it..feckin' cool. I even got his business card off his middle aged, heavily made-up mistress/assistant. On Sunday, despite the rain clouds, took my last chance to see the Sakura (Saturday having been the best). Went to Ashigawa and Shukugawa, two spots not too far from Kobe that were supposed to be nice. There were plenty of nice trees, and hordes of Japanese getting pissed under them. I missed all the fuss over it last year so it was good to at least see. Afterwards saw an exhibition of M.C. Escher paintings in Osaka. The 7th floor of a department store is kind of a strange place to have a big art gallery, but it was well worth it. Many of them were instantly recognisable and I'm sure you've seen them in enough places. The place was packed too. And then yesterday saw Dare mo shirani (Nobdy Knows) on dvd. It was really class. Understated, sad, poignant and just good. And whats more it really really looks like Japan. That may sound redundant being that its a Japanese film, but I guess it just looks exactly like what I see every day. My only gripe about it is that it reminds me a little too much of another Japanese movie