Can it be true? In a week from now I will be back in UK? My mind is set to leaving mode – I will probably not buy new credit for my prepaid phone. I try to gather all the change and spend it. I lost my SUICA card (for subway) and started buying individual tickets, rather than buying a new card. I think about what to throw away, what to post to Germany, and what take to the UK. I tried to have a good bye party and/or beach trip – for the clubbing, only Sergio and Keisuke came, for the beach it was Sergio alone. Yesterday, I made another attempt and forced people out to have a good bye dinner, and Yuta, Eric, Takashi, Ryoko and our guest whose name i forgot made the effort, but i feel there is not a big culture for that, maybe they just wanted to be nice… and nice it was.
I find it a bit symbolic, that saying good bye will be private, in that sense… I have lived much more individualistic here than ever before – sociable Marieke has not made many friends. But I am still happy – in the morning, my private battle with my hamstrings and the tightness in my hips in yoga class. Then me talking to the world in email. Then lunch, sometimes in company, many times by myself. Then me and scientific facts, thoughts, ideas, advances, throw-backs. Me and the rest of the world via internet in the early evening. Dinner, alone most of the time. Then either more work, or socialising with random people who are up for it, or me and my guesthouse room. Finally, there is me and my head on the pillow as i drift away into sleep… The strange truth is that I do not need more than that.
I took a far reaching decision that is not so far-reaching after all – I have a one year work visa for Japan, which will expire when I leave the country, if I do not apply for a re-entry permit. I wanted to apply for one – but, thinking about it, what’s the point? It’s 4000 yen (20 pounds, 30 euros) and half a day lost sitting in the immigration office. If I come back for a visit, my tourist visa would do for up to three months. For those who don’t know it yet, I have a job in Germany which will go at least till June 2009, probably longer – the visa will have expired after that. And, even given the next to impossible case that everything goes wrong in Germany and I get a job here instead – I would get a new visa. Let’s face it: I am not going to come back.
The numbed sadness accompanying all these steps and decisions I am taking feels like a strange inversion of the curious excitement I felt when preparing for this trip three months ago. I knew it would be an adventure, a time I would never forget – but I never knew I would like it here so much.
July 31, 2008 at 3:52 am |
Where’s the job in DLand?
August 1, 2008 at 1:58 am |
Well… it is in Tuebingen – same group as the one from the proposal you helped me so much with! So, in the end, through mysterious ways, it did get me a job there… I will tell you all about it!
August 1, 2008 at 4:53 am |
Johannes called it the “Toy City”. But I hear from Graham and Kai-Uwe that the mensa is ghastly.
Now I will have some excuse to finally visit there!
Good travels to you.
August 1, 2008 at 5:10 am |
Actually, I lived in Tuebingen for college in 1999/2000 before going to Osnabrueck. The mensa is possibly the worst I have seen in Germany – instead of crockery, you get holes in your plastic tray, and ill-tempered staff use plastic gloves instead of serving spoons to serve you mash or cabbage – dig in and… smack!!!! Very unappetising… My friend also once found a plaster in her salad… FORTUNATELY I will be based in the MPI where the Mensa seemed very reasonable when I was there last year.
Otherwise, Tuebingen is definitely too small for me – in summer that is mitigated by gorgeous sunshine, a nice beergarden/brewpub by the riverside, picturesque tudor houses, beautiful surroundings – but in winter the little “Kopfsteinpflaster” roads can get quite claustrophobic and depressing.
It is a step down from Tokyo or San Jose, and probably even from Bonn and Brighton, but definitely better than Osnabrueck or Compiegne! And I have a great flat and job to look forward to, and I have friends in Stuttgart as well… and in Munich… and in Heidelberg… so, yes, I am sad to leave Tokyo, but it is not like I am on death row… and please come and visit! I still owe you that dinner I was talking about…