My life, Onegai Shimasu!

The handover is about to begin.

Have you ever given your life over to someone else? That's exactly what I am about to do. Not my whole life of course, but my life in Japan. My job, my car, my apartment, a lot of my belongings. My year here is up, and it is time for someone else to step into my shoes now. It's a weird feeling.

I'm waiting at school right now, and my successor and Micah's successor will be arriving in 20 minutes or so. They'll be fresh from the whirlwind arrival and 3-day orientation in Tokyo, and probably exhausted and overwhelmed. For the next few days, Micah and I will basically be training them to take over our lives. Because of overlapping contracts, both of us will be sharing the apartments with our successors for about a week, which luckily they agreed to readily. Today I had to finally move everything into my spare room, and get the apartment completely ready for it's new resident, even though I will still be there. I wanted it to feel as much like HER place as possible, so I got everything of mine confined to a small space in the spare room and left the place sparkling clean. I said goodbye to my apartment about an hour ago, because it's no longer mine. So far, that was one of the saddest goodbyes I've had to say -- I love my apartment!!

I think it will be fun actually, showing the two of them around town, taking them to all the good stores and restaurants and sharing all the helpful tidbits we have acquired during out time here. Most people on this program don't stay to help their successors, and the newbies spend the first month in a state of confusion and cluelessness. But Micah and I decided this was a much better way to do it; plus, neither of us is quite ready to leave our quiet little beachside town just yet.

I remember my arrival day as if it were yestday, probably because it was one of the most miserable days I had in Japan. Really! I hated that day. It was blazing hot, I was absolutely exhasted, totally nervous, and totally overwhelmed. And on your first day in your home prefecture, you have to take a hot 4 hour bus ride, sit through an even hotter opening ceremony, make a speech in Japanese to a whole bunch of new people, and then meet your supervisor and school principals. And usually, its blazing hot and humid, and of course you are wearing business clothes. What a day! It took about 2 weeks for my head to clear after my arrival. Hopefully the new people will be in better shape than I was! They have gotten a lucky break in the weather at least -- it's about 10 degrees cooler today that it has been.

So I guess I've come full circle. I like being in this place (at the end of the cycle) so much better than being where I was a year ago, that's for sure! Not worried about first impressions or making any faux-pas -- in fact I am wearing a tanktop and dangly earrings to work today, something I would have *never* done before. But now, who cares?!? And I'm about to meet two people who will be exactly where I was just one short year ago. In a way, I envy them because their adventure is about to begin, but in another way, I don't envy them at all!

Let the great handover begin!