My long-planned hazy crazy 44 days of summer in Thailand begins tomorrow.

Technorati Tags: friends, japan, thailand, tokyo

There were some celebratory iterashai drinks in Kichijoji on Friday night, it was a bloody lovely night - the pictures show Darin playing with some fireworks (thanks Timbo) down in the park, Andrea and me saying Bon Voyage (but see ya soon baby, ne!); and Kazuma, one of my language exchange buddies and the fella who cooks dinner for me a couple of times a week. He makes a mean spicy Thai vegetable noodle.

The past week passed in a blur of micro-management administrivia crap and drinking and it hasn't quite registered that Andrea is also leaving the country tomorrow - but for her, it's the BIG SAYONARA which is something of a significant event for all concerned. Fortunately because of the family connection, it is not a true sayonara for we two. Still, it's really sad she's leaving Tokyo. It seems we're always saying farewell to someone here. Wonder who'll be next?

I have some people renting my room out while I'm away, one of whom is my ol' buddy Justin (Juggs) who will be staying on after I get back for 10 days. Yay.

So, tomorrow I'll be in Thailand. I transfer straight to a domestic flight down to Krabi Province where I'll be staying in a dive resort to do some diving and motoring around in Longboats to check out the caves and limestone rocks all along the coast there. I'm looking forward to being really active - daily yoga, swimming, walking, eating fresh fruit and great food. I really can't wait to get out of crazy mofo Tokyo! In August I'll head over to Phuket to do a TESOL certificate course (Teaching English To Speakers of Other languages), and then head back to Tokyo in early September.

I'm taking all my camera gear and the laptop and I'll be blogging with ECTO, the desktop blogging program I started using a few months back, which means I can save them to my computer as I go, then upload them all when I find an internet connection. Not sure when that'll be though.....

Right. I'm out. Iterashai!