Dilemma and decision

After long last, I’ve uploaded the last of my Japan photos to my Flickr account. It was an emotional occasion, too, as I tried to come up with some fitting words of closure and as I thought about what those photos evoked, and my last weeks/days/hours in Ikeda, in Tokushima Prefecture, and in Japan.

I’m also finally going to mail out a bunch of postcards to friends in Japan that I meant to send a month ago…oops. I hope that the friends whose addresses I have can do some reconnaissance and get me everyone else’s mailing address in time for me to send them holiday cards. I’m already wondering if I should go with store-bought cards, if I should order some nice greeting cards or nengajou/new year postcards online, or if I should try to figure out how to produce my own…?

Lately I’ve come to the realization that I really, really want to go back to Japan next year. I think I may try to do what Ellie did last year and come to see my kids graduate and to watch the musical (hopefully at the gorgeous Wakimachi Odeon-za), and maybe stay a few extra days and squeeze in a visit to Koya-san, which is traditionally how one begins the Shikoku 88-temple pilgrimage. I haven’t given up on my promise to myself to do it someday.

However, I hit a bit of a snag today, as I realized that the SXSW Interactive Festival is March 7-11, which is precisely when both graduation and the musical will be happening. Well, I don’t know their exact dates, but graduation is usually in the second week of March, and the musical takes place the first three weekends of March traditionally.

This is a big problem–my boss encourages all of us to go to a relevant conference every year and I’ve been wanting to attend this one for a few years now. SXSW Interactive, for those unfamiliar with it, is all about emerging web, wireless, and media technologies, issues, and studies (those of you who know me know that this is exactly what I’m into).

If it turns out that they don’t overlap after all, I could have a crazy 2 weeks next March and go to Japan as soon as I get back from Austin (or vice versa)…but if they do overlap, I have a very tough decision ahead of me.