On Swans and Contracts

Back in the end of Autumn, my supervisor asked me if I had seen the swans that arrived from Russia. They migrate here from Siberia for the winter. I asked him what they were like, and he proceeded to describe a swan. So I asked him how they differed from the swans that already lived in the nearby park, which have been there since I had first arrived in the height of summer.

They are actually also Russian swans. One winter, a pair of swans were injured and come spring they weren’t able to fly back to their home in Siberia. So they had to stay behind in Tsuruoka and rest until they could take to the air again. That was some years ago now, but the swans have yet to leave.

“Maybe they’re lazy!”, observed my supervisor.

“Maybe they don’t want to go back to Russia?”, I replied.

That made him laugh. Who would?

But maybe they just stayed a while, and found that they liked it. I mean, there’s an awful lot to like here. Maybe they thought they’d stay a little longer. Lazy or not, maybe these swans had the right idea...






I officially re-contracted today. I’ll be staying in Japan for another year.