Hisashiburi, ne!

(Long time, no see!)

Yes, it has been a while, but that's because I've been taking care of shit. Like this:














I went back home to Chicago, where I immmediately devoured a giant carne asada burrito and then locked myself in the bedroom with my man (What? WHAT!? I'm a grown woman and my needs hadn't been met in a few months). But I'll get to all that in a sec.

Before I left, we had my welcome pati/farewell pati for all the teachers heading on to greener pastures. And while Niijima High School's a little slow on the pick-up (had to wait a two months for the party), they set up a NICE spread:










Yeah, that's a giant platter of sashimi tastefully arranged around the gutted fish. I was so busy stuffing my face with raw fish, I forgot to take pictures of the rest of the feast.



Now, because a lot of the senseis here are family men, they don't get as rowdy as the Kozu crew, but I still try to kick it up a notch by encouraging debauchery and karaoke. The after party was the place to be. We didn't have any blow, but we sure acted like we did.














And these are the married men. Woo!











Of course, the older gentlemen could totally keep up, except for Murakami-san, who's nickname is Pooh (and he really does look like the bear...)















So, after all the partying, I up and got INFLUENZA! At least, that's what they call it here. Maybe it's just a regular cold, but whatever, I felt like shit. And it knocked out all the first graders on the island (all seven of them). So, I got Chicago, feeling like a wadded up kleenex. But I was still horny, hence the 12 hour stay in Stevhan's bedroom.

After that, I did some of this












and more of this

















and then mustered up the energy to attend Marjorie's birthday shindig!












There was a lot of T&A but that's what happens when you're around beautiful people.




































And with T&A comes crotch shots.














And with crotch shots comes embarrassment.























Oh, that handsome blonde in the back? My man. Yeah, he gets mistaken for a male prostitute ALL the time...


















And while I was there, I stocked up on the basics like tampons, girl scout cookies, and designer jeans. But I was happiest when playing house with Stev (he sews his own button while his deadbeat girlfriend gets high on the couch),








watching movies, drinking whiskey, cooking food, playing with dogs...











It's the mundane stuff you miss the most when you're in a foreign country.




It's also kind of funny how my feelings for Japan have changed since I've been back. Before I left, I had some anti-Japan feelings stirring. Mainly from some stories I've read in the paper about the anti-foreigner sentiments here, ranging from deportation of children of Iraqi immigrants born here to police dismissing calls from gaijin to job discrimination based on race, sex, and religion. Now, I've never received anything nastier than a frosty nod from one of the local curmudgeons and yeah, I'll be gone in four months. But it's interesting to note that the things I take for granted back home are certainly not true the world over. I mean, it's not like we're all holding hands back home, but at least I'm not feeling like a second-class citizen.

But: falling asleep on the train back to Tokyo, not worrying about my shit getting stolen, finding a warm welcome from my old Kozu students at the pier, having my breakfast on the deck of the ferry boat in the morning on my way to Niijima. Japan and I had kissed and made up. I was glad to be back 'home'.