August 15, 2003
farewell party
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I really don't and can't say good-bye. I've moved around a lot and have managed to keep many long-distance friendships so I just don't consider moving away as any reason to change things. But the people I work with at the Ministry of Finance organized an awfully nice farewell dinner for me and invited the women from my office to join. I can't express well how much I've appreciated working with dedicated and good people. They have really inspired me and don't even realize how much they helped me through confusing times. I've gained great respect for the Japanese Ministry of Finance.
And it's not just their work. They're also super friendly and funny too! We had a great time last night (I didn't want to sit there typing in my phone while at the party so I'm posting today). After a few drinks, we really began swapping stories in earnest.
Here's a cute one: a MoF guy recently went to Washington and visited our headquarters. For lunch, he was taken on a tour of the sakura cherry blossom trees. The woman he was with kept talking about the problem with beavers and how they were gnawing away at the trees. Well, this MoF guy, who speaks excellent English, was not quite following the conversation for some reason and became quite confused because he did understand 'beaver'...not the animal definition but the alternative meaning, which is used in Japan too. We all had a good laugh imagining him trying to figure out why this woman was yapping about beavers and sakura.
Anyway, I received beautiful flowers which I appreciate much since my apartment is getting empty and ugly.
Thank you to all!
本当にお世話になりました。いろいろ助けて頂いて、心から感謝しています。これからもどうぞお元気でがんばって下さい。サン フランシスコへ来られたら是非連絡下さるようお願いします！