IF YOU REALLY WANT, GET THE CHANCE. NOW IT'S TIME TO MOVE

One of the 三年生　had that written on one of her books in class today- it mightn' even have been an English book. There's a novelty about English for the Japanese, in much the same way as old Latin proverbs for some, or grammatically bastard German for my mate Max's dj name, 'Das Maxx'. The 三年生 have got exams coming up next week, you see, to get into High School. Tensions high.

The day before yesterday I told the Kyoto Sensei at school and the City Hall folk that I'm going to quit Jet this summer. It wasn't a very nice process. I had planned to take a moment with the Kyoto, Komatani Sensei, and explain I'm having a whale...everything is steady...but..And that would be that. I thought it only right to tell him in private, like that, given the amount of trouble he has taken for my sake in the past.

In the end, he aught me off-guard and asked me as I got up to get off to an elementary school for a lesson. I answered. A few other teachers were standing around, there was nothing beside the utterance and I thought, 'No! No! It wasn't supposed to be like this!!'

The paperwork I took to the City Hall wasn't good enough. So I had to sign exactly the same piece of paper in front of my supervisor, Noriko. Japanese to the last. That felt all bad inside too.

A year and a half or so ago, I wandered about Yamagata with the strangest feeling. I couldn't help but look at everything like someone about to leave, although in truth I had only just arrived. I picked the big トンビ　birds out of the sky, I'd miss them. The little narrow alleys spidering off from my apartment. An izakaye here, a building there. And now there's an actual countdown set, I can't help but think ahead to farewell speeches and last, longing looks, six months early.