here, there, everywhere

All packed up and waiting in our empty, scrubbed clean, tiny little room for the landlords to come and pick up the keys. Home for the last few weeks has been a shared, seven-bedroom, one-bathroom house in Kichijoji, where fortunately we lucked out in terms of cool, chill roommates and relatively comprehensible waste management laws. As much as I've liked Kichijoji, though, I'm mostly just excited to get to Numazu in the Izu Peninsula, where - after a week of staying in a hotel while the other teachers clear out of the apartment - we can finally unpack our suitcases, maybe stick a photo or two up on the walls, and settle down for a full year, which will be the longest I've been settled anywhere in the two-plus years I've been traveling. Anyway, updates from Numazu to follow - for now, keep your fingers crossed for us that the landlord thinks the room is as clean as we do and gives us back all our security deposit money.