...The Pay-Off...

Tomorrow will be my last day in the dormitory, something that is both a relief and completely sad.

The rules DROVE ME CRAZY!!! They have rules about every little thing! For example, you cannot shower between 9am-5pm, M-F. Why? Why?!? WHY?!? What if you want to go for an afternoon jog? Or sit out in the noon sun? Or freshen up before a nice dinner out? Just think about every time in the past 5 months when you may have showered any time between 9am-5pm, M-F, and that is approximately 1/100th of the amount of times I was completely frustrated with Wakakusa. They have rules about the computers, toilets, washing machines, refrigerators, shoe boxes, air conditioners, EVERYTHING - and don't even get me started on CUR-FUCKING-FEW... 10pm every day? Oh, you know I just don't LIVE like that!

Yet...
I am going to miss Wakakusa more than words can express. The other night the girls threw me a surprise "sianara party" where they gave me 1,000 folded paper cranes, "shikishi" posters in which they each wrote kind personal messages, and sang to me - in unison- with an acoustic guitar - a Japanese love song!

Not at all a fan of public displays of emotion, I broke out in tears anyway. Out of control emotionality, snot-nosed, red-faced, shaky-hands, the works. It was physically impossible for me to hold back, I was suddenly overrun with an intense love for each and every girl in Wakakusa. I kept thinking that maybe if I wished hard enough, it wouldn't be my sianara party but instead some sort of welcoming celebration, all over again.