So! No time for idle speculations and navel gazings. Brass tacks! Lately, I've been scurrying around a lot, checking my pocket watch frequently and muttering "no time! no time!". No time to wonder about what I'm doing. No time to think about the distant future (the near future is distracting enough), no time to even realize that I am, indeed, leaving. This is THE END. GOODBYE! *vanishes*

Well, not quite the end yet. These last days should be the most precious, shouldn't they? And yet, I seem to be spending them sorting out phone bills and Yahoo accounts and hiding from the summer heat in my small apartment. Thank god we don't have to prepare for death this way.

Doctor: "Well, Justin, I'm afraid you will die in just a few hours."
Justin: "Dear God! So much to do in so short a time! A whole lifetime's worth of people to see and pl..."
Doctor: "Well, actually, we need you to fill out these forms and take care of this bill. I think if you start now, you should be able to finish before you, you know, kick the b...pass on."

Okay. Well, actually we DO have to prepare for death this way. What a rip off. I hope I'm mauled by bears.

Anyways... what was I talking about? Oh yeah. THE END (of my Japanese life). In eight days I sail to the West, though my affairs be uncollected and my Yahoo BB account still active (bastards). No matter! The date is set, the die cast. Beijing by slow boat. Although after that I'm not too certain about the whens, wheres, or hows. Just more distant lines crossing out of my sight, obscured by the fog of the present.

And of the past? How far back do I dare look in that rear view mirror? Is the face of regret waiting there in the back seat of my car? 

Let's save those musings for the boat ride. Brass Tacks!

Kohei and Mayumi have returned to Tokyo after their whirlwind tour of Kyoto, Nara, and the less reputable districts of Osaka (with me as their guide, where else could they expect to go?). They had a lot of fun, I think, and I am now fluent with every single temple in the greater Kyoto area. If anyone needs a guide to any of these places, call me.

I was about to write how tired I was of looking at them, but I just realized this is untrue. I love going to those places, just to sit in the gardens. Which we did a lot of. And Pontocho for Maiko-san viewing , fortune-telling and good food eating. And America-mura, for lollygoth hip hop viewing and good food eating. And Umeda, for good food eating and good food eating. And each thing seen or eaten. Each thing consumed now is doing it's best to fix itself now, somehow, in my mind. Each experience is followed by the fact of it's transience.

Hare today. Goon tomorrow.