We're into the final countdown now. We will spend only two more nights in our apartment. Tomorrow morning Dr. Tanabe comes to give Ginger his deworming treatment (required by the UK). Then we attend a farewell luncheon at Brad's office. Ginger leaves on Tuesday and that night we'll check into our temporary quarters. We'll be in the same building where we stayed when we first moved here. Govt quarters, but not too bad. At least we'll only be there for a week. We stayed there nearly two months when we first moved here.

I went to my final DigitalEve event on Saturday. We scheduled an afternoon tea at the Hilton in Shinjuku. The theme was "Hello, goodbye". I'm not the only DEva leaving Japan and a few others are also stepping down from the Steering Committee. Meanwhile, we welcomed some new members as volunteers. It was a nice social event. And the food was fantastic -- a cake buffet, but there were also savory items on the menu. Everything was delicious.

Today Brad and I went to Meguro Fudo-son to get in one more shrine sale before the movers come. We arrived around 10 a.m. and the place was empty. I was crestfallen. I was sure I had the schedule right -- every second and third Sunday at Meguro Fudo-son. Well, there wasn't much else we could do about it and since we weren't sure where else there was a shrine sale we decided to head out to Asakusabashi. That's the part of town full of stores selling paper products and packaging items -- everything you need to set up your own store or business. We are in search of a special cloth covered box to store our woodblock prints in. The box they came in is a bit tattered and we're hoping to find a replacement. Well, we came up emptyhanded at Asakusabashi. So from there we went to Asakusa for one last stroll through the shopping streets and the temple grounds. We picked up a few omiyage to take back home. So, I felt a little bit better. At least something useful had been accomplished.

Then back home for more organizing. I tried to pack my suitcases for the move and encountered such frustration. I have to pack for two different seasons: summer in the U.S. and who knows what kind of weather in England. The real problem is we don't really know when the rest of our clothes will arrive in England, so we've got to be sure to pack wisely.

Now it's past midnight. I was really tired and tried to go to bed about an hour ago, but I couldn't sleep. So I got up and took care of a few more things. After I post this I think I will hit the sack finally. Oh, and I checked my shrine sale schedule. There was supposed to be a shrine sale at Meguro Fudo-son today. Don't know what happened. Maybe they're not holding them there anymore. That's a shame.