Here in Vegas

the flight... immigration... driving around vegas...

Goodbye Kanazawa... Japan

Only a few hours left on the countdown timer.

We've packed, shipped our stuff, and cleaned. We've said "goodbye" to many wonderful friends. But it's difficult to say "thank you" for all the good times, and for all the support in a way that really covers everything.

We'll soon be looking for a new home and a new life.

Back to you on the flipside.

Home strech

A few days ago the guys came to grab our furniture. Then the moving company came yesterday to grab our clothes and other personal effects. Today, we're waiting to meet the real estate folks to close up the apartment.

When we finish with that, we're doing small errands and finishing up business with school.

The exchange rate has been dropping, but that was after we had sent the bulk of our funds home - oh well.

We're left with saying goodbye to a lot of good folks here.

Casey asked about the future of this blog, and my first reaction was to just keep it going. I think I'll keep with that. It's just that my definition of "home" is going to radically change pretty soon.

Yukon HQ Sport Kite

Went out to CCZ again with Casey today to try out his Yukon. We were getting what felt like consistent winds, but it wasn't enough to fly the Yukon for longer than about 15 minutes or so.

I was impressed with the kite for a number of reasons:

1. it looks solid - carbon fiber/fiberglass construction
2. it flew well - very responsive lines
   
3. it packed up nicely - came with a nice carrying case
   

Testing Casey's Kite at CCZ

Casey, his friend Sean and I went to the beach yesterday. We took a quick trip to Kanazawa's CCZ to try out Casey's new kite, but unfortunately we didn't have much wind. We ended up body surfing and throwing the frisbee around instead which was fine by us.

Kickin' it at Kenmin Pool

Yuko-san gave us directions to a great community pool not far from us. It's right on the ocean, although you can't actually see it from the poolside. Even though it was pretty busy, we had all the room we could need at the "adult" pool - an Olympic size pool right in front of us. Next time we'll have to try waiting in line for the water slides.

KIT's Electric Car to Race at Suzuka tomorrow

I am very proud of this project because one of my students, Tomonori, is responsible for the electric motors on the car. He built all of them! Let's wish them luck tomorrow.
Click on the pictures to view a larger slideshow.

Yamato (Black Cat) Movers

Mr. Yamada from Yamato Shipping came by this morning with Omi-san of KIT. We had an appointment to get an estimate from Yamato for all the stuff we want to take back with us. The pile of stuff measures about 1.6 x 1.5 x 1 square meters.

It's mostly clothes, books, electronics with a few larger things like my snowboard and a rack we've been using to cart around my projector.

We've been trying to whittle down all the stuff we're bringing home for obvious reasons. Having finished my contract, I can ship home ¥300,000 worth of stuff to America. Unfortunately, even though Hyunjoo is working under the same contract, we won't get an additional ¥300,000 since she's technically breaking her contract.

We made arrangements to have the stuff sent to Hyunjoo's sister's house in Las Vegas. Sending the stuff to the West coast is cheaper than the East coast so we should be able to bring more with us for the same amount of money.

I figured we'd be a little over the shipping allowance, but as it turns out, we're way under. Omi-san said it was the least amount of stuff she's seen in about the past 10 years! Hyunjoo and I were so relieved to hear that.