Thursday was the last day of school, and as predicted it was quite sad. Students were crying and everything. And now I am finished. I as sad at the moment because according to most of the veteran AETs, Shin Ei is the best school in Koshigaya, and maybe now the school I will go to next is not as good. And it is a lot bigger than Shin-Ei. And I will have to get to know all the people all over again, which I was just really getting into at Shin-Ei. I was really getting comfortable. Now I will be completely uncomfortable. But it will be a good opportunity to see how much less shy I have become. By the end of my time at Shin Ei I was not shy around the students or teachers too much, but I am not sure how much of the is attributable to having become comfortable in that situation and how much is due to overcoming my introversion. I don;t tend to view introversion as a hurdle to be overcome as such, but it sure makes teaching a lot more difficult. Although I have found actually that I have been able to help a lot of the more introverted students, who disliked the other AETs and their super-perky genkiness, because they can identify with me more easily. So that's good.

Anyway, yesterday was an interesting day. Friday was a holiday because of the equinox (yes, we get a day off for that. Don't ask me why.) so I went own to Akihabara with some of my students. Actually I met them there at like noon because they got up at 9:00 to go down which is just a little too crazy for me. One of these kids is the one who looks just like me and did an impression of me in the farewell party, and neither he nor any of his little cronies could speak much English. But it was okay, although there was a lot of general confusion. So we had a great time shopping for crap and I even bought some stuff. I bought a knockoff 5-button Microsoft Optical Intellimouse for like 2000 yen and a tiny little 64Mb USB keychain drive which is really cool. It is about the size of my skinny pinky finger up to the second knuckle. I have seen other bigger ones, even in the US, but this was the smallest I could find, and only 3000 yen.

After shopping, we all went to a big war protest downtown. We marched from Koizumi's house past the US Embassy to Hibiya Park. According to the papers there were 5000 people there, but I don't know because I couldn't see the beginning or the end of the mass of people. Everybody was very cooperative and the police were very friendly and helpful, stopping traffic and blocking cars so we could get by. Of course they were probably against the war too. According to a reporter I talked to, 80% of Japanese people are opposed to the war. There were lots of signs and banners and puppets and all that, and everyone was waving and cheering us on from their stores and cars. The whole event was really positive. I don't know if it bodes too well for Koizumi though, who has come out in support of the war, because such a vast majority of the citizenry oppose it. But really he had to, because Japan really needs US help with North Korea. The so-called Self-Defense Forces we have here would really not be able to protect us at all in case NK wanted to do something. In fact, North Korea could lob a nuclear missile into Tokyo at any time, and there isn't too much anyone could do about it at this point. Which is part of why it is so unwise for the Bush Administration to egg them on so much, and why I feel more threatened sitting here than I do in DC.

After the protest I went to a party that this couple I know was having because they are getting married soon. The guy is German and the girl is Japanese but lived in has lived in Germany for like 6 years. They also are opposed to the war, just like everyone else I have met, but were able to give me a more European take on it. One compelling point made was that Germany is a lot more skittish about any behavior that resembles nationalism due to the obvious problems it has caused in the past.

Ooops, now I need to go to a barbeque. I am sure I will once again have to apologize for the actions of my country, which is getting really old. Remember when you were a kid and you would read comic books or watch TV shows and the good guys wouldn't ever be willing to resort to the underhanded tactics of the bad guys in order to defeat them, because they were "the good guys" and they would become "the bad guys" if they did? I always felt like all of these references were basically propaganda designed to indoctrinate us into the spirit upon which the United States was founded, but it doesn't seem to be the case that a country can go about actually behaving that way, at least if it wants to establish complete unchallenged global dominance.