Stoat - Where?

And so, to leaving. It’s still hard to believe I don’t live in Japan anymore. I’m writing this from Singapore, where I’m staying for a few days with my cousin Alan, his wife Aneta and his kids Sarah and Stephanie. I was lucky enough to be seen off at the airport today by three of my friends, which made the whole process a little less lonely. I think I’m in some state of shock to be honest. I can’t really comprehend the fact that I won’t be seeing Japan again for a long time. This, despite numerous going away parties, packing and goodbyes. Thanks once again to everybody who made my experience in Japan as amazing and exciting as it was. There are far too many people to thank individually for all the support, photographs and presents I got, and I suspect they would be embarassed if I did so publicly anyway, so I hope it is enough to say that it wouldn’t have been the same without you all, you know who you are, and I hope we can meet again soon, in your country, my country or somewhere else in the world.
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Despite my various recent excursions around the local area, I’ve still somehow found time to do the important things too. Cancelling things is always a pain, but it hits new heights, bordering on excruciating, when trying to do it in Japan. What with gas, electricity, phone, bank transfers and posting stuff, it’s a wonder that anyone bothers to leave at all. I would certainly be having second thoughts if I had to cancel anything else. The Japanese have an expression, “shou ga nai”, which means roughly “What can you do?”. You hear it about a million times each day. It’s not hard to see why.
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