April is winding down and soon it will be May. The first week of May is known as Golden Week because there are 3 consecutive public holidays, mon-wed.
I've booked a hotel in Tokyo for Monday and Tuesday night, I just couldn't face staying home. Lots of ALTs are leaving the country, a few are leaving for an extended trip to China tomorrow, Marcus will be going back to the USA, At least one other will be in Singapore and Australia. So I thought I should make at least a small effort.
I can't go too far away, since I'm committed to the USA trip in June. That might become a little more expansive, I got an email from the CFC (Canada Film Center) Worldwide Short Film Festival, they were just asking for extra information while they make decisions, but I took it to mean 'Flip' is on the shortlist. If it's selected I might ad Canada to my trip. Palm Springs is the biggest Short Film Festival in the USA, but the Canadian festival is the biggest in North America. I've already booked and paid for Palm Springs, but I can probably squeeze 3 nights in Canada in at the beginning. The CFC festival finishes on the 21st and Palm Springs starts on the 23rd, so there's a day for travel.
I've worked out I can leave Japan a day early on the 19th, spend two full days at the CFC fest, and then go to Palm Springs, where I will miss the last 2 days as I have to leave early to get home. It adds significantly to the cost, but you can't scrimp on experiences like this.
Unfortunately I won't hear anything definite from CFC till early May, in the meantime I'm going to change my departure date anyway. Fortunately I've got one full day and 2 hours of annual leave left unused. I can take leave by the hour, so I think 4 hours of leave should get me to the airport in time. It's a 3 hr bus trip to the airport, if I leave school at 12 I can easily catch the 1:20pm bus and get to the airport at 4:30, the flight is at 6:45, so it should be fine, and should leave me with a few hours of leave in case of emergency.
That's the plan anyway.
I think I found the cuplrit in my fridge, there was some shredded cheese that I used for pizza toast, I took a closer look and there were some unusual colours in the sides of the plastic bag. I tossed it out. Fotunately the Aeroplane jelly I made is still in the fridge so I'm eating the rest of it today, if I have a relapse I'll know I was wrong.
On other fronts, I sent Max a birthday present today, I also drew a picture for Wakana's birthday (at her request, not because I'm cheap). I am pretty happy with the result, I'll put it up on the blog after the weekend, I don't want to ruin the surprise for her before Saturday.
This is getting pretty long considering I don't have much of any consequence to actually say. Probably time to go.
The countdown is on though, each day is one closer to July 27, the last day of my contract. So there's now just over 3 months to go, then maybe a couple of weeks more before I leave for home.
I imagine it will fly by far too quickly, then again the warm weather is bringing out all the horrendous insects, that's something I won't miss. I've already taken to sleeping under a mosquito net, there aren't any actual mosquitos yet, but there's a wide selection of other insect life roaming my house apparently at will.
One last thought, I have submitted 'Flip' to Siggraph Asia, I wasn't going to but it's free and the director of the Melbourne International Aniamtion Festival suggested it to me (along with a bunch of other very high profile festivals I hadn't had the nerve to enter, I have sent to a few of them since). This year Siggrapgh Asia is in Yokohama, so it might be ironic if I get in. Depending on how other things work out I may be back in Japan before the year is out.
