A few months ago, I made a point to realize that I only had 5 months left in Japan.  In actuality, I only really have 2 1/2 months left.  I have made the decision to come home ahead of schedule, in June.  It's cheaper, and I want to be able to spend time with my family before I move to Seattle to get on with my film career.  As I've said before, moving to Japan was the worst and best decision I've made in a long time.  It's taught me so much, and I feel extremely and overly enlightened with Japanese culture.  Mostly, it's reminded how much I really want to go back home and do what I feel the best doing.  So the departure date is June 23rd, but it's not solid yet.  Still hammering out the ticket details with some people coming to visit me.

In the meantime I have to go say goodbye to one of my good friends tonight.  Bec will be going back to Australia!  And while I will miss her dearly, I'm happy that she has a job lined up and is looking forward to her life back there.  Japan is a place for arrivals and departures only.  No one ever seems to stay.  There are a lot of things that contribute to that theory, but I won't delve into it now.  Really, if you want to find out, then do what I did.  Take the plunge and just go there yourself.  

For the rest of my tenure in Japan, I plan to visit a few other places, like Nagoya, Koya San, Hiroshima, and Amanohashidate if there is time.  Just went to Himeji yesterday.  The castle was the best I've ever visited in Japan.  It would have been a lot prettier, had the sakura been in FULL bloom, but I'm not bitching anymore.  I think next week I will just go to Kyoto with a co-worker and get some shots.  As much as I enjoyed Osaka Castle last year, I just thought there should have been more to it.  And all the Sakura were white; I want to see other color!  I'll put any special shots I get up on DA.