June 22-24: The end of the road

For a variety of reasons, I don’t have much to share about these last few days at Technos.

• It’s been over two weeks and my memory is hazy.

• One of these days was filled with an assortment of bizarre athletic competitions, which wound up being much more fun than I expected but that didn’t really provide me with meaningful insights - other than that over-the-top group games are hella fun. I’ll put some videos here so you can see for yourself.

Our last day on campus with its farewell ceremony was bittersweet but the stress of trying to get thank you gifts to the right people distracted a fair bit from my ability to be in the present…so to speak. I took a walk to a nearby park before heading to campus and wish that I had worked up the confidence to explore some of the neighborhood parks earlier in the trip. While I had walked to Technos every day other than the first and last, I didn’t go explore elsewhere because my disastrous first attempt to find food the night we arrived had made me nervous about getting lost. I should have remembered that for me navigating by day and by night are barely related activities. Anyway, the park was small but really peaceful, with a shrine, some well groomed grounds, a small amphitheatre, and cool musician and cat statues.

We left Technos for a decently long haul out to the hotel by Narita airport and from that point on it largely felt like the day leading up to a marathon - a lot of hustle to then anxiously sit and wait for many many hours. Still I had a lovely final dinner with the faculty who were leaving from Narita (a few folks were headed out from a different airport) and a lovely walk from the hotel while killing time the following morning since my flight didn’t leave until 5 p.m.

My trip home was a super unfun 34 hours in an airport or plane (canceled flight from Newark and spending the night in the airport was the icing on the cake) but no one needs to hear about that. I’m just grateful I had good luck until getting back home. Those who know me well know that is not something I’ve ever been able to take for granted. I’m also grateful I’d picked up a few convenience store onigiri for the ride home. It was a long time without eating or sleeping.

I have a variety of odds and ends of reflections that didn’t fit into this blog, but I’ll share those in a final post.