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Last weekend in Tokyo was the JET Program Job Fair, an exercise in rounding up 300 socially awkward JET members in front 30 of the sleaziest people I've ever seen in Japan, promising employment to people desperate to stay in Japan for whatever reason.

Why did I go? Good question. Curiosity, I guess. Hint for future JET participants: don't go.

Square Enix was the only game company on hand, and I sat down at their booth to ask a question; something along the lines of, "Do you have openings in marketing? Do you do events?" This turned into a short conversation, which turned disdainful once my Square rep learned that I had only played Final Fantasy X. (Although in retrospect, I have also played 7, 8, 12, parts of Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG, but they didn't exactly spring to mind.)

Today I received a lovely little email from somebody in Square HR. Turns out I had interviewed with them and not known it. And been turned down for "a job" at Square. What job that would have been, I have no clue. While I generally disagree with posting private conversations or emails, this is just too good to pass up.

Dear Blake Ellison-san

Thank you for visiting the booth of SQUARE ENIX. in the finding JET employment fair for the other day.

Result of in-house examination,it became no interview to you as the next step.

I am very sorry for not rewarding your apply.

But,we are very pleased with your interest to SQUARE ENIX.

We hope that you get job worth doing.

Thank you.

SQUARE ENIX Co.,Ltd.

Consider this the antithesis to the stressed-out, burned-out, depressed note I wrote a few months back. I still get messages about that post every now and again, and I'm happy to report that things have changed for the better.

The light at the end of the tunnel is now very, very bright. With only a month and a half left on my contract, it's gotten easy to stop worrying about small stuff and it's become more important to use this month and a half as best I can - it probably won't be my last time in Japan, but it could be the last for a few years.

At school, I've taken an "I don't care" approach to teaching. If the kids are acting up, let 'em. If I'm 5 minutes late, I'm still 10 minutes early for the morning meeting and here 5 minutes before the principal anyway. This approach lets me sleep better, and strangely, it's more effective in the classroom. My new motto is "What are they gonna do, send me back to America?" I don't equate this to slacking off at school - I'm still productive - but it's eliminated 99% of the stress from my daily schedule.

My generally-improving health leaves me less exhausted, so I sleep less heavily than I used to. This means I have more free time, so I play more at night and see people more.

I'm setting a travel schedule for my last bit here. Next weekend I'll be headed to Osaka to play indoor, close-quarters Airsoft with my 3 JET Airsoft buddies. It'll be a gentleman's weekend, and a fun one at that. Imagine playing Counter-Strike in real life, and that's what I'll be doing next weekend. Yeah, we're nerds, and we're paid good money for it too. After that is a weekend-long beach party with a beach bar and famous Japanese DJs, and after that my Eikaiwa class is taking me to Miyajima (known as one of Japan's 3 most beautiful places) for my last hurrah with them.

My last hurrah with my best friend out here will be a trip to Seoul at the start of August. After that, I'll be going to the places I wanted to go - Nagasaki, Nagoya, Kyoto one more time, and of course one last hurrah in Tokyo - before I catch a flight home.

Update: I'll be flying back to Texas before August 15th, and I'll take an immediate connection from Houston to DFW.

Also, a quick bit of love goes out to Mom, who has finally elected to quit her giant-stressball job, so I no longer have to worry about her mental health. If you see her, congratulate her.

Lastly, I've found a *really* good reason to come home. It's, well, me.

It's only been recently that I've realized that I've been given more than most JET people. I've got a lovely home to go to. I've got a small but awesome and stable family. Living at home doesn't even phase me, considering how symbiotically my mom and I can live. Whether or not I live at home, I've got my material needs basically covered, thanks to this year's savings. I've got an awesome, awesome, awesome network of friends who 'get' me more than I ever realized. I have a community that I belong to that shares a common interest.

I'd truly have to be insane to throw all that away.

It's been an interesting 10 months on JET, to say the least. But the most interesting day was easily the first one. I still remember my first night 'on the job' in Houston the day before departing with the crew that would be leaving from the Houston consulate.

John, a guy from the UT Japanese program, was a die-hard Simpsons fan and *had* to see the newly-released Simpsons movie before we left. The movie had come out that day. He led an expedition from the hotel, by taxi, to Houston's Movie Tavern, where about 5 of us guys had a few drinks and were the first to see The Simpsons Movie. The already funny movie was made absolutely hilarious by the sheer escapism of it all - all 5 of us were enjoying the last night of Life As We Knew It. The next 365 days - or 730, or 3, 4, or 5 years' worth of days - could prove to be completely transformative for our lives. What if we never came back? It's a question that you at least have to acknowledge before you leave, if not confront.

Then JET turned out to be life as promised. One day after another in rural Japan, in a place you slowly but surely make into your own. I bought a big futon, tons of video games, and spent a ton of money on Hiroshima booze to feel comfortable.

Now I have to start reversing that process - shipping winter clothes to the States, trying to figure out the logistics of getting multiple suitcases home, trying to sell off all those video games and still having something to do in my last couple weeks here. Not to mention saying goodbyes - my wonderful night class is taking me to Hiroshima for a last hurrah. And I'll have to say my own goodbyes in a way that gives me closure.

And my last night here is over two months away, but I can tell you exactly what the experience will be - am I done here? I've found that I love Japan just as much as I thought I would, and the thought of not coming back is pretty hard to swallow. It's been 3 years since I did this whole thing in Spain and I haven't been back there. Did I accomplish everything I wanted to? Did I see everything I wanted? Have I learned what I came here to learn?

Long story short, the first night and the last night are the most significant of one's entire JET experience. They're the only two days where you can see the 'big picture' of your life and how the JET chapter fits into it. And the last night is equally terrifying as the first. On the way out of the country, you're paralyzed with wonder over how your life will change. On the way back, I'm going to panic with fear that I've missed something.

In a couple days I'll be informing my supervisor of my intended flight home. If that goes according to plan, I'll be arriving in Houston on August 4th and reaching Dallas between there and the 6th.

If you see me, please have a drink with me, or failing that say 'hi.' I'll be seriously in need of reminders why I left Japan - that is, reminders why I came home.

Aroon and I have been big fans of the TED Talks - an enlightened conference for the world's most powerful, innovative, and soulful people - ever since he introduced them to me a bit over a year ago. Past presenters include Bill Clinton, Al Gore (including the premiere of his second global warming slideshow), music industry pioneers, famous architects, Larry and Sergey (the Google founders), Johnny Lee (the CMU researcher made famous by his construction of a multitouch whiteboard using a Wiimote and an LED), Bono, BMW designer Chris Bangle... really, the list goes on, and on, and on.

Honestly, it's the most purely high-brow and interesting thing on the Internet today. So when Aroon linked one related to the problems with the world's food supply, I obligingly watched, already made aware of the details of the problem by the current issue of Wired magazine.

But this guy's approach is totally different. This guy is a food critic for the New York Times. His advice, in one very strongly put word, is "Eat." There are one or two strings attached, but I've never heard the advice put so simply:

After just 20 minutes of this very convincing case, I've decided to be a little better to myself. I had already cut back on red meat and started eating more sushi as a result of living in Japan, but I was convinced to take another step forward. Indeed, still less red meat. Indeed, still more plants. And absolutely no more ordering comforting American junk food from Costco Japan.

Aroon had forgotten to tell me that he had gone vegetarian 6 months ago. And my mom told me over drinks on her first night in Tokyo that she was contemplating making the switch as well (she already doesn't do beef or pork, and she's tired of chicken).

So join us! Be like me and take baby steps - drop your junk food purchases little by little, learn recipes one by one. I'm not giving up red meat anytime soon, but I am happy to report that my intake of it is down by maybe 40 to 50% since I got here 10 months ago.

Truth be told, it's not even really a sacrifice. Just eat.

In the 2004 election, I was a mad crazy hyperblogger sent from outer space to convince college campuses everywhere that everything the Republicans said was a lie, and you should STFU and vote Kerry because he wasn't part of that collective.

I stand by my statements, but this time I'm a bit more relaxed, if only because the media circus is mostly on my side this time. So this time, I'm going to focus on one tee-tiny thing Bush screwed up on:

Holidays.

Bush proclaimed Jesus Day to be sometime in the spring, like March or somewhere around there. Patriot Day was proclaimed on 9/11 to rouse our support in the War on Eurasia (or was it Eastasia?). In both cases, Bush made a vital flaw in his calculations.

In the case of Jesus Day, he neglected that Jesus Day already exists and is big enough to determine the fate of the American economy over the course of an entire fiscal year.

In the case of Patriot Day, he failed to realize that war cannot be declared on nouns.

Once elected president, I promise to rectify these missteps by proclaiming truly amazing holidays. No, no Pirate Day, no Ninja Day. Those who wish to pursue Pirate/Ninja Day or any variant thereof should go back to watching Napoleon Dynamite for the 90th time and continue to call their friends "broheim." I'll loan you my copy of Superbad if you just go away.

Anyway. At the start of my epiphany, I was thinking we needed to give American holidays a touch of class. Enough days related to war, the military, or Christianity. We need something that's unabashedly American in the unhealthy-but-can't-resist kind of way. Like Miles Davis Day. That's just the kind of inspirational character America needs - genius, did great things, but flawed.

"Wait," said the other half of my near-schizophrenic inner monologue. "Didn't Miles Davis like, severely beat his women?"

Well, that won't do. We're going for class here, and beating your lady is just not gentlemanly. One of those flaws that won't play out well in the political world.

So, we're on to Coltrane. Like Miles, he was a genius, did great things, and was a flawed man - and, as a bonus for the super Christians, he found God! So they can enjoy that, and the rest of us can appreciate the whole body of Coltrane's work and contributions to culture and we can make a new holiday tradition out of drinking scotch on the rocks in dark rooms filled with that bittersweet alto sax sound.