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March 31 is the cruelest day in Japan

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Tokyo, 2010.03.31

In Japan, companies tend to shuffle their employees around for the new fiscal year, which starts on April 1. This makes March 31 a day of goodbyes.

For Kenny it meant that he's losing three of his teachers—two of whom are moving to other schools. Mari suggested that we make a point of descending to the day care together to say goodbye, so we met with the one fellow who was one of Kenny's most direct caregivers. It was obviously really tough on him, as he was tearing over saying goodbye to other kids before we even got to him.

In happy times when the two had just met.

rand()m quote

Consistency requires you to be as ignorant today as you were a year ago.

—Bernard Berenson