Volleyball and taxes

Those two normally have nothing in common, but I did both this summer, and I can't remember enough about either to devote a full post to each. Besides, who wants to read just about my taxes?

Back in June, the teachers from all three high schools on Tsushima got together for a volleyball tournament. It was held at Toyotama, my small high school, and I was on the Tsushima High team, though I teach at both schools. I can't recall playing volleyball since middle school P.E., but it wasn't that big a deal. We played in the school gym, right at the end of the rainy season, so it was hot and muggy. During breaks, though, nobody else was drinking water. Instead, they had cold bottled tea for everyone. I tried the same kind my first week in Tsushima--the label is green, which from a distance can be mistaken for Mountain Dew's--and I think it's just awful. However, everybody drinks it, and apparently it hydrates them enough that they don't bother with just plain water. Anyway, the tournament was a lot of fun.

I also had to take care of taxes this summer. Being out of the country on April 15 gives you an automatic two-month extension, and filing a foreign residency form tacks on two more months, which means my taxes weren't due until August 15. The U.S. and Japan have a tax treaty that exempts me from paying Japanese income tax, and filing my taxes after having been out of the country for 330 days keeps my foreign-earned income from being taxable in the U.S. To qualify for that, though, I had to file the normal 1040 form instead of the EZ one. This was my first time doing my taxes on my own. Once I sat down with all the materials, though, it wasn't that bad.