Bought Justin's bike off him for 5000 yen before he left, minus whatever it'll cost to fix the tire (he ran over something sharp three days before). Considering he paid double that for it, I couldn't refuse the offer, especially considering train costs just from one end of Tsuru to the other. Meanwhile, Davey let us loot his place for perishables and miscellaneous stuff he didn't plan to take; I got some pasta and several extra hangers. (Sadly, he decided to take his PS2 with him. :p) Maybe I can nab one of the now-ronin tutors while I'm at it... Taka-san's still AWOL (though granted, so were most of the tutors over the past couple weeks), and Ayako speaks better English anyway (plus she's a cutie ^^).

Also gave both students a farewell... Davey we treated out to dinner, and Justin (who wasn't feeling up to going out) got a card from everyone and some friendly conversation at his apartment. He also got the chance to try to explain his PA "Got Wang?" shirt to a couple curious tutors. :D

Side note: And just as I finish this entry, the current music comes up. Weird.

Two cultural events this past week: ikebana (flower arranging) Wednesday afternoon, and sadou (tea ceremony) Thursday. I can personally vouch for the relaxing (or at least distracting) effects of the former; on a day where I spent most of the morning on the verge of panic (for reasons I'm not going to get into, since they seem to be more or less resolved), I found that fiddling with the angles of flowers did a good job keeping my mind busy on other things. My artist side must have enjoyed being let out for a bit.

The tea ceremony wasn't nearly as fun, unfortunately. First, the tea was bitter (it's supposed to taste like that; it's meant to keep you awake, not please the palate). And I still have no idea how the servers sat like that -- drop to both knees, then flatten the tops of your feet against the floor and sit on your heels -- because some part of my legs felt strained or crushed no matter what I did. (Thankfully, they only made us sit that way while we were actually being served, which encouraged me to down the stuff fast. -_-)