So that was a thing.

Alright I realize that we have been back in Canada for two months now, but it seems to me I haven't regaled our last days in Japan. At least not here. To anyone who has listened to me tell the stories already I apologize for being repetitive.

We had found out that the new tenants in our apartment in Japan would be arriving at noon on the 22nd of September. Our estimated departure time would be 11:00am. They move them through fast in Japan. Not even enough time to let the door hit your ass. We were told that someone would be doing an inspection of the apartment before we left, but after talking to other Nova teachers we found that that is a rare occurrence and that it usually happens as the next tenants are moving in. So if you sacrificed animals and set small fires in your apartment no one would know until the moment the next tenants were carrying their suitcases through the door. We did neither of those things, but nonetheless we still needed to clean. Fortunately our friend Joe had arrived the week before from Hamamatsu with the intention of traveling home with us. Much to our surprise (and his at being ambushed) we found that Joe is an excellent cleaner (If anyone needs their floors done I highly recommend him). We started cleaning the night before we left and finished up at around 3 or 4 in the morning. It was at that point that we thought bed might be a good idea, however, going to get beer and chu-hi and drinking them at Osaka castle seemed like a much better idea. We also had a mission to accomplish. You see in the year and half that we lived in Japan we had accumulated a significant number of umbrellas. It rains in Japan. Often. Sometimes it looks beautiful in the morning when you're off to work but when you step out the door at the end of the day it's pouring. So you pick up another umbrella. At 5$ a pop it's not a huge sacrifice. Anyhow, we had 11 of them and no idea what to do with them so we decided to do a reverse scavenger hunt at 4:30 in the morning. That meant just walking to the convenience store to get drinks and snacks and making our way to the castle and all the while trying to find interesting place to leave the umbrellas for the next person to happen along. Can you see them?





Umbrellas were not the only thinks left out either. A few odds and ends were left for fellow teachers in the building.





After arriving at the castle with drink in hand we stopped to reflect on the time we had spent and the fact that it would be a while before we were once again in a place that had a national heritage sight that was open to the public at all hours and where we could sit in public and legally drink without worrying about getting a ticket. We found a good spot near the castle wall and sat and watched all of the people walking by and listening to the drunk girl at another bench laughing way too hard and often at a guy who could not possibly have been that funny without a lot of alcohol being consumed on her behalf. We figured out the timers on our cameras and took some pictures and then headed home for a few hours of sleep before we headed to the airport.



Ahhh! The airport! Did I ever tell you about the time Joe almost didn't come back to Canada? We arrived there on time with our friend Chiaki who had joined us along the way. She was there to see us off and help us take care of last minute details that our Japanese skills were not capable of handling without help. We went to the baggage delivery booth where we had our larger suitcases sent to two days before (We did this at the liquor store that also did dry cleaning and package delivery). After that we found a Docomo shop to have our cell phones cancelled. After all that was done we headed to check-in to drop off our bags and get our boarding passes. Then we hit a bit of a hitch. You see Colleen and Joe had picked up hiking sticks when we went to Mt. Fuji and we wanted to bring them back to Canada with us. Colleen checked the internet the week before to see how much this would cost to bring these over and above our regular baggage allowance. It said it would be about $30 Cdn. When we got there, however it was $220 to bring them. Yikes! So we had to go with plan B, which was giving them to Chiaki and having her send them by mail which would be way cheaper. Then Joe decided to hit hitch number 2. As he handed them his passport to check in they looked it and frowned (frown is never good from airplane staff).

"Your Visa expired last week" She told him.

"Yeah that's why I'm leaving" Joe said.

"But it expired, you were in the country illegally" She explained.

"Right, so now I am leaving so I won't be" He reminded.

"I'm afraid we can't let you leave" She said.

"Why not?" He asked.

"Because you shouldn't be here" She informed him. "You'll have to come with me and talk to immigration officials who want to cavity search you"

Okay that's not word for word, but he did get held up for not having a valid visa and had to pay some money. He joined up with us a bit later (before the plane took off and after his cavity search, (which he didn't complain about (He's going to kill me))). After about thirteen hours of flying we finally touched down in Calgary to the cheers of our legion of fans (nine people), and promptly went to eat steak.

Thanks to everyone who read this and shared our adventures. And thanks for welcoming us back to Calgary without weapons in your hands. For continued craziness I have started a new blog for those friends in and out of Canada to keep in touch and such and share the more ridiculous things I find online.

Check out CarltheBaker

Cheers, Carl.