But we have lost some dear friends along the way. Don't worry--nobody died. Nor did we have a falling-out with anyone. (Actually, I was going to open this post with another Nietzsche quote: he has this great aphorism about how in the grand scheme of things the friends you make will always have been your friends, even if you had to become enemies with them on earth. I like it, but it doesn't apply here. The part about being enemies, I mean. (It's late.)) But three of the friends we've made on the JET programme departed in August to two of the four corners of the earth: Michelle and Cassie to Perth (so we'll see them again eventually), and Dan K to the United States. And I've been putting off writing this post for the usual reason: I wanted to include my usual slideshows of sixty-odd photos, but this generally takes hours owing to the arduous process of Gimp-ing (I'm referring of course to the photo editing software, not the unfortunate leatherbound soul in Pulp Fiction) and uploading the images we want to use. Not that you guys aren't worth the effort--but I do have to get up in the morning. Plus if you're on Facebook you'll have seen pictures not unlike those I intended to post, including karaoke photos. Karaoke's awesome, but readers of this blog will have seen enough pictures of gaijin singing the Aladdin theme song to get the message. Anyway, where was I . . .?
Cassie and Michelle were members of the 2007 contingent of WA JETs. Poor Michelle--she came half way around the world from a country town in WA only to be placed in an even smaller country town in the hills of Hyogo. (This, I believe, factored heavily in her decision not to re-contract. Oh yeah, and she got engaged too :).) She's a high school Japanese teacher by trade, and on our very first day in Japan she rescued a very disoriented Matt and Emma from the Akihabara JR station. In karaoke she sang like an angel . . . almost as good as Emma! So devoted was Michelle to the team that she thought nothing of making a three hour journey to Kobe or Osaka to attend festivities, and I think we should have made more an effort to visit her in Aogaki, though Emma and Cassie did just that shortly before Michelle's departure.
Cassie is a shop-a-holic by trade, but she also moonlights as a primary school teacher (we all have our peccadilloes). I'm a typical Australian male when it comes to shopping--drag me into a women's clothing store, as a very exasperated Emma will tell you, and I suddenly become autistic like Dustin Hoffman's character in Rain Man, and getting me to offer a useful opinion on a dress or skirt you may have your eye upon is like getting a cat to hum Bach's "St Matthew Passion." So Emma really appreciated Cassie's companionship. UPDATE: Oh, and did I mention the scrapbooks? I didn't, did I? 'Cause I'm a rude bastard. Cassie, being the scrapbooking queen that she is, made for us and for a few other ALTs beautiful picture books of the year that was. She has a post about them on her blog if you want to see what I'm talking about. And both of them--Cassie and Michelle--were really good for a yarn, and two of the most down-to-earth people you're ever likely to meet. (And Cassie--it's safe to admit this now that you're back in Perth: I was secretly watching Project Runway with you and Emma.) We miss them, but they're Perthies like us, so we'll see them again soon.
Dan K is from the east coast of the United States, but shall remain an honorary West Australian--insofar as it lies within the power of we WA JETs to bestow him with that status. He lived in Goran's apartment building in Miyodani, and when the two of them first met at (I think it was) Yashiro, it was (platonic) love at first sight. In fact . . . boys, the following YouTube is dedicated to you:
Seriously, with their powers combined these guys were the very definition of genki, and could be relied upon to be the life of any party. Speaking of parties, Dan's a mad-keen Obamaphile, and that earns him an automatic tick in my book. And he's been Emma's hero ever since he was able to secure for her an e-book reader she's been chasing for months, a Sony item which for some reason is unavailable in Japan, and which can only be purchased within the US. (That's like Australia manufacturing Vegemite solely for the Bhutanese market.) Nice work!
Thanks for sharing this experience with us, guys . . . it has been an honour to know you. Auf Wiedersehn!
