Anyone who has been following the death throes of the pink bunny surely know by now that Nova has gone belly up, but I think I will be ahead of everyone else with this news report:

The Education Ministry has just made a stunning discovery: a still operating NOVA branch school on the tiny island of Okizari, 13 years after the eikaiwa giant folded. Okizari, a wind-swept island 150 kilometers north of Hokkaido, is home to some 300 people, mostly dependent on a small fishing industry. It has 5 kilometres of rail and one train; the NOVA school, overlooked on previous ministry visits, is located behind the outhouse at the main station. Officials walked in to find a somewhat grubby school staffed with 2 Japanese receptionists and 3 New Zealander teachers, dressed in unfashionable – and tatty – suits.

Today former NOVA boss Sahashi Nozomu was given temporary release from jail and flown out from the mainland with some New Zealander English teachers. On arrival at Okizari they delivered the following message:`NOVA is finished. You can go home`. `We were sort of cut off, you see, and the admin staff and I figured we should just keep working` explains Louise Horrocks, AT at the Okizari school.

Thanks to someone on the English Teachers in Japan Yahoo group for this one.