Snow-day in Tokyo. With the streets spotless, I walked into an empty school. "I don't think the snow will settle?", I said to a English teacher. With no lessons to prepare, we duly discussed, exhaustively, the verb "settle", its application to people and snow, and the Japanese candidates for the English idiom "the dust hasn't yet settled".
The dust hasn't yet settled on January, and already messages are going out across school about the end of the academic year. Ceremonies, cancelled classes, photographs. Not to panic, but more than two weeks have passed since I handed in my notice. That snow keeps coming down outside the window.
Looking a bit like the slash on the business cardsmocked up last night, thanks to a Japanese friend. I don't want to seem fixated on these things; they just represent a committment to Japan (名刺） and the the titles written over the name, "writer, teacher". They're something holdable. Websites here: https://tinyurl.com/y9drvcm5.
All this preparation for the After JET Conference, which still feels far away. The snow isn't settling, yet.