Sigh...

Toshi-bo loves him some fireworks.

Welp...i guess that's it. I'm leaving tomorrow. I'm going to miss everyone here. They picked up up from Sapporo after my trip to the mainland today. We were all excited to see each other. Ray gave me the farm update, told me about an alternative summit that is being held in Sapporo parallel to the G8 one. We packed potatoes that they are selling at a farmers market tomorrow. We listened to music as we worked. We joked around, laughed. I wrestled with Ken-Ken, talked music and gadgets with Kazu, played with Toshi-bo. They had a going away barbeque. We ate grilled asparagus, zucchini, pork and lamb. Launched fireworks late into the night. Aki smiled and said it was an "itirasshai" party (a way of saying goodbye which literally means "leave and come back"). Ken-Ken told me to not to go to Canada. Kazu reminded me to get him a bag like mine from MEC if and when i come back. Toshi-bo said "abobo" several times and tugged on my pantleg(his way of saying "asobu" which means "let's play!").

It was a good day. A nice contrast to the 6 hours of standing, yes standing, on a packed train yesterday. Yeah, i'm excited to go home, i've had more than my share of traveling these last few months and i want to see everyone back home, but i'm going to miss it here.