Stoat - Where?

Despite my best intentions, I was worried that I wouldn’t get round to seeing much of the country in the last few weeks before I left because I’d been in kind of a rut lately, doing not much other than working and sleeping. Luckily, there’s nothing like leaving a country to create a list of tedious jobs to escape from and so for the last few days, instead of cancelling electricity and sending stuff home, I’ve been trekking around parts of Gifu seeing some of the places that were always in reach, but that I never found time to see. And sightseeing feels so much better when I know I should be doing something else - kind of like taking a sickie, but even better because I know I don’t have to go back to work the next day.
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And just like that, my two year teaching ‘career’ has come to an end. It’s hard to put my feelings into words as they alternate rapidly between the joy of revelling in new-found free time and a kind of emptiness, which I didn’t really expect. I guess suddenly stopping anything after a long time is bound to leave a hole, but I still didn’t anticipate it fully. To mitigate the effects, and mindful that I’m leaving soon, I’m doing my best to see as many people and places as possible before I go. In terms of places, I’ll probably be staying local as there are lots of places in the area that I still haven’t seen. I would’ve liked to go up to Tokyo, but I have to think about saving money for Singapore and Australia, so I might just use it as an excuse to come back in the future. Other cities like Osaka and Kobe, which I’ve been to, but not explored, will also have to take a back seat, though there’s a chance I might make it down to Universal Studios in Osaka in a couple of weeks.
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