These are very strange days.

This morning, I ran 13 miles. When I began my run, it was 6 AM and overcast and cool. I started off through the rice fields and saw a large remote-control helicopter being flown back and forth across one of the fields.

"Oh," I thought. "It looks like the quarry guys are having a bit of fun on their break."

As I got closer, I realized that the remote-control helicopter was actually dusting the field with what I assume was pesticide. I ran on. Further ahead, another helicopter was dusting a field. And another. And another! The fields were covered by these hovering crafts dispensing chemicals. I wondered if the technicians shouldn't be wearing gas masks.

Now my parents are in town and the strange days continue. My Dad is sleeping on the floor next to my couch, my Mom is in my bed, and I'm shivering under a thin fleece with the air-conditioner cranked to 22 degrees, Celsius. My parents claim that this is the most comfortable they've felt since they've been in Japan. I, on the other hand, am freezing my butt off.

Tomorrow, my parents and I will visit each of the schools that I've taught at in the past year and exchange pleasantries with my coworkers. I'll introduce them to my students. This will also be the very last time that I visit any of these schools or see any of my colleagues, at least for a long, long time.

In less than two weeks, my parents and I will have traveled to Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Kyoto, and Tokyo. Then we will board a plane for Seattle and I will say goodbye to Japan after an entire year. In Seattle, I will hang out with my girlfriends and make dinner with my boyfriend and go camping with my sister and search for gainful employment and it will be like this year of sushi and chopsticks and kanji and Sports Days and anime and yukata and soft tennis and futons was just another twelve months.

As I was finishing my run this morning, a group of young firemen said 'good morning' to me. I responded with the Japanese greeting, "ohayo gozaimasu!" They doubled over with laughter and I blushed.

Indeed, these are very strange days.