Last weekend, a dozen or so members of the Sanda International Association visited the Blue Mountains. The circumstances surrounding the visit are too bizarre to recount, save to mention that the Leura Garden Festival (that they were attending) was supposed to be Japanese-themed (and wasn't), that the Japanese Ambassador had come from Canberra to open said-themed festival (he did, even though there was not a vestige of nihon no kyouyou to be seen) and that Nadia and I had been allocated the roles of official translators.
It struck me that an official translator should have more immersion in a langauge than I did, with my basic functional nihongo experience, so I was considerably unnerved as I met the ambassador and his wife at their hotel. After the obligatory greetings, I explained that I was not a translator, that the native speakers were in Japan on holidays, so I was sorry for my likely incompetence. I needn't have worried - they both spoke fluent English and were delightfully charming.
It was, in the end, a great catchup on things Japanese. We met and re-met old friends and acquaintances, made new connections and generally had a swell time. Nadia cried when the bus pulled away from the hotel, heading for Sydney.
Though as for departures, this really was just mata ne, not sayonara.
