Bankruptcy, Thailand

So after two packed flights, an eight hour layover in Bangkok and endless rides on three Tokyo train lines, my husband and I are finally back at our apartment. There wasn't an eviction notice on the door, and for that I am grateful. While were on vacation, Nova officially declared bankruptcy and now the government is busy searching for sponsors, i.e. buyers, leaving the former Japanese staff and foreign teachers with nothing to do but wait and hope for reimbursement of wages and/or the company to revive under new management. As my husband and I have literally no money to live on, we'll probably be returning to America in the next week or two and that's fine. We've been in Japan going on nine months and are content to come home early to our cats and American TV and native English and blending easily in a crowd and to not being gaijin. We won't have jobs, cars or a place to live that doesn't involve my husband's parents, but that's more or less true of our situation in Japan anyway.


Thailand was good, but it rained every single day. We didn't see the unclouded sun once on our vacation. However, we still got decent tans and were able to enjoy the beach and other outdoor activities between downpours. My favorite activity was probably the snorkeling/sight seeing trip around islands thirty miles off the coast of Thailand. If you've seen the new King Kong movie, the islands kind of looked like that, complete with soaring cliffs, thick tropical forests and monkeys. It rained practically all day and a few of the people in our group were determined to be miserable, but I really enjoyed the exoticness of it.


Another memorable activity was the ping pong show. Although ping pong ball ejection was the least impressive talent demonstrated that night. I didn't believe such things truly existed, but they do.