Alright. So that's my second year in Japan over with and I've found myself stuck in the lethargic limbo that is the end of the JET schedule. My office is deserted and I have no work to do so I have found myself reminiscing over the past two years and of the friends who are leaving Kochi. This time last year I wrote a massive entry that gave a brief description over everything I did that year. I can't be arsed doing that this year for many reasons. I can't remember everything for a start but a lot of things were similar and also that I lost the "OH WOW JAPAN" attitude that most first year JETs bring with them to Narita airport. That isn't necessary a bad thing though and I have had a much more enjoyable time here in my second year. A lot of the little niggles and difficulties of life here have vanished or I've simply become used to them. The most concerning thing for a writer of such a bitter blog is my life here now feels totally normal and that I am now so accustomed to every day life here that I forget what it was like back home.

It's been a good year ranging from travelling around Japan and Asia to just getting drunk under my kotatsu with friends in the winter. I hate writing nice things about people but my group of friends this year have been excellent and I'll miss a lot of them. Also, a main reason for enjoying this year would be meeting my girlfriend who I don't really like writing about... mainly because it makes both of us feel ill. She's great though and puts up with all my rubbish. Although she makes me make all her food and she's the most clumsy person I've ever met.

The main differences affecting me next year will be the replacement of Noah with a new CIR called Alex. I'm surprisingly not that bothered about it considering he'll be my new neighbour and colleague for the next year. Noah is only off to Kochi City so I don't need to cry a river for him leaving. In saying that, I will miss Noah at work and I have greatly enjoyed our man-bitching over our desks for the past two years.

So here's to two years of working with Noah and listening to the daily paranoia of his portion size at school lunch, his never-ending battles with mosquitoes, his coffee induced eye twitches, his embarrassment when we both wore red polo shirts at work, his dedication to the rotation policy between grades at playtime, the day he let a French stranger live with him but wouldn't share his last can of beer, when I shaved his head to the bone by accident, when he talked to our awkward supervisor about women in the darkness and seclusion of a temple, when I heard him screaming when birds flew into his house, his half hour battles selecting a movie to rent, the day we walked up the wrong path to a temple and I got dehydrated, the weekend we spent with 80 year old women and getting blind drunk in Takamatsu, the day he screamed in tormented fear at the impending crash of a truck 200 metres away driven by an old woman, his anger at me being praised for singing Japanese at his leaving party despite him singing the whole song perfectly, his look of disgust when I have doubts about Scottish independence, his maggot rice, his semi-successful pizza gyoza creation, his help when I broke my leg and for just generally being a good friend who dealt with all the bollocks at work in an environment that wasn't easy.

I think I need to go to the airport to meet the new Tanoite on Wednesday. I hope the car ride there isn't awkward because I used up all my Japanese conversation at the work party on Friday. I'm actually leaving for Tokyo on Thursday evening so I won't be around these parts for the whole of August to meet new people. I kind of feel like the average JET life is two years so I'm quite happy to have a long break whilst Alex and the new people settle themselves in. Meanwhile, I'll be off in Tokyo doing lots of exciting things before going off on holiday for another three weeks. It's great.