School's Out for Summer

Have you ever been tossed by a wave and struggled to catch your breath?  That's sort of how I've felt the past month or so at work.  Teaching, testing, grading, and classroom cleanup is part of the normal hectic routine that educators go through at the end of each school year.

It's all the other stuff like the final spirit rally, grad dance, graduation, end-of-the-year picnic, and creating next year's leadership roster that had me stressed out and overwhelmed on what seemed like a daily basis.  Each time I had a chance to come up for air, I'd get pounded with the next thing on the list.

But school's out for summer.  Yesterday was the last day of the school year.  Grades have been submitted.  Keys turned in.  And this morning I submitted all of the lingering paperwork (like overtime and rosters) online.  Summer break is officially here.

That means it's blogging season in my area and I have a ton of stuff to write about including a bunch of flea market finds, a few card show hauls, eBay pickups, and even an estate sale purchase.  But before I get to those, I need to wrap up a few more thank you posts.

Today's post highlights some of my favorite Japanese athletes included in Reader X's and John's (@ Johnny's Trading Spot) care packages.  Together they sent me over one hundred fifty new singles for my Japanese athlete PC.

Let's start things off with this video game legend:

2025 Cardsmiths Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors Dreams #27

I wasn't a huge Street Fighter fan, but I do remember fighting against this sumo wrestler when I did play:

I'm hoping to track down another copy of this card for Ryan (@ SumoMenkoMan).

Here are some other big names and cool cards that Xavier sent my way earlier in the year:

This is my third copy of Masanori Murakami's First Pitch card, but I'm hoping it's not the last.  That's one of those cards I'm hoping to eventually fill a 9-pocket page with.

Shota and Masataka are experiencing slow starts in 2026, but this next player isnt:

Ohtani is having another amazing season and collectors can't get enough of his cardboard.  Neither can I.

Thank you Xavier for this latest batch of Japanese athletes!

Let's move on to the stuff that John sent my way.  

He sent me so many base cards, inserts, and parallels... that I expanded my Japanese PC binder collection from 6 to 7 binders.

Seiya Suzuki and Kodai Senga were two of the bigger stacks.  Some of them I already had... but most were new.

I was also very happy to cross off nine Matsui Rookie Chronicles cards from my set build.

Thank you John for expanding my collection.  Now that school is out, I'll get those Star Wars cards shipped out to you.

As for the rest of you, I hope you have a great summer.

Do you have any fun summer plans?

I have a few short trips planned here and there, however my main source of entertainment will be organizing parts of my collection and placing some Sportlots orders to complete some set builds.  Plus I'm hoping to attend at least one or two card shows.  Depending on the weather, I may or may not attend any flea markets over the next couple of months.  But like I said at the start of the post, I have a few flea market posts sitting in the draft folder.

Happy Friday and sayonara!