Welcome

to America.

Signs and adverts here are a mixture of imperatives and real American colloquialisms, like a Security Council resolution drawn up by a wharf rat. FEDERAL LAW REQUIRES THESE SEATS BE MADE AVAILABLE TO SENIORS beneath the airport transfer boast-board, "BART...and you're there." Whythankyou, yes I am.

at Customs the Visa Waiver form I didn't have when I met the immigration lady demanded baldy, USE ENGLISH, in bold. There's really no fannying around here.

"I apologise" I said "It's ok" she said, "It pays to be polite" I thought when she said "Go and fill out the visa waiver form and join the front of the queue". I'd only have to wait one person more.

I came back. "Didn't I give you my pen? Go back and get my pen" she said. I lost my spot at the front of the queue to another entrant to the United States of America.

Mr Wang on the other side saw me, he said, sent back a couple times by her so decided to help me out. So I gave him the female immigration lady's pen, explaining I'd been instructed to return it post-haste. I also gave him the Bic pen I'd received from Vincent the Bic pen man a week or two back, as interest.

Customs weren't cleared yet though. Not having a print-off of my returning flight e-ticket, I was sent to Secondary, a small room over-spilling with exhausting-looking travellers and wise-cracking immigrations officials. I would have found it tedious and straining after roughly 25 hour of travel via Beijing, if I wasn't delighted to already be fulfilling an American stereotype- isn't it always tough to get into the USA in all the films and books?

40 minutes later, I picked my bags off a baggage trolley a bag-man was loading and moving, to make the last remaining bags more visible. Nick of time, I joked with him.

Endings

10 weeks ago I wrote a list of 10 things to do before I left Japan. I didn't actually have a 10th, but decided to make it 'Meet a yakuza'.

This is the story of how I fulfilled the 10th item on the list, and where it went bad.


Had you going for a sec, no?

I finished up in Japan but I don't want to write anything crass like, 'Every ending is a new beginning', because every ending is shit. I told friends I'd be back to visit, back in 2 or 3 years to stay longer, back for this or that, but really who knows what'll happen. More likely, I'll return to England and fly off on a completely different trajectory to the one plotted in Japan, like an errant firework.

Near the end I had to remind myself why I had written that list of 10 things, and it was purely for closure, so I could walk away with no second thoughts. As it turned out, a big trip to the States immediately after Japan has ensured that, as well as a few goodbyes that went as well as they could be expected to have gone.

Last Friday I said goodbye to many on my ex-frisbee team Iku.

Saturday was goodbye to Mika, Masumi and Sachie at the Sumida River fireworks show.

Sunday I went for dinner with my Yama-G-Shi home-dog Sean and Monday night was one last one with The Faculty, Juri and Ian, in my crib, Nakameguro. After that, I spent four hours at Ran's apartment talking until I had to run to pack to catch an early train to catch a 5.30 bus to the airport.

And here I am now in America.

Soba I'll never forget, Frogs by Mamigaseki River, Outside Family Mart on my last night in Yamagata

A post for Shun

I have met Shun once a week since last September. Recently we had our final meeting. He is my only conversation class student and after I moved from Oimachi to Nakameguro we agreed to meet in Shinagawa (where he works) and Meguro (where I work) alternately.

We're nearly the same age so it's interesting to compare my life and his. He has a good job working in patents at Sony. I had to look up 'patents' to understand what kind of job it is. I work with blocks, alphabet cards and sometimes paints. He has a strong old boy network from school and this April, no longer a junior at work, he received a promotion and became a leader for some new graduate recruits. I am in contact with 2 or 3 people from school. I'm returning to England to find my third job in 3 years and one day he will mature into a true Japanese company man.

Sometimes we talked about work. Sometimes we talked about friends. A lot of the time we talked about girls- Shun goes to 'gokon' match-making parties all the time since he and his girlfriend in his home-town Osaka split up. Slowly I discovered Shun has a very busy social life. Every weekend he goes somewhere or does something: ice-fishing in winter, motor-bike tours to Chiba, crab-fishing or firefly watching in summer.

I enjoyed talking with Shun a lot. Giving my thoughts voice, carefully considering what I wanted to say, ordering things in my mind before I uttered them, delving back into all the parts of language that fascinate me- the mutability and multiplicity of English, the range of expression and idiom- and purely keeping a conversation going for an hour with someone over a coffee really gave me a kick.