A True Story

I love these types of stories because they keep my life interesting. About 10 minutes before work ended I was informed that we were all expected in the Yakuba (town office)... like... "this moment". I have not explained yet that working in Japan is much like still being in school in that our lives are still ruled by bells. In the morning a bell rings and all the teachers bow and say "good-morning". This is repeated again at the end of the day but we say "thank-you" and by this time I am in the office. This daily routine blends seamlessly into the background of my life, but is, in fact, quite exotic to Westerners. Today there was an exaggerated ceremonial town staff wide good-bye at 5:30PM to honour the current mayor because he is taking the rest of the week off to campian full time. I thought it was a nice touch and appricated the fact he kept his speech short and to the point. I think he was very classy in *not* using the chance to campaign while we are all captive, but he did encourage us to vote (though I will be in Hong Kong). After that leftovers for dinner and fretting about my trip and all that is all my plate.