On Thursday night I simply went to a bar in Shibuya with Lauren as a sort of one-day-late 4th of July celebration. Good fun. Good to speak English with someone for an extended period of time. That's about it. Not too exciting, but still fun.
Friday night I basically did the same thing only with Yuki. She came to Shimbashi after work and we went to an (very very tiny) izakaya that we went to last week (or maybe it was the week before?), which was fun because the girl that works there remembered us (even remembered my name!) and we had some fun conversations, etc. We also sat next to a guy who had lived in Denver for a while and his English was really good and he was quite nice. All around good times. Afterwards we took a walk and went to this foot-bridge that goes over one of the big streets in the area, which I have gone to quite a few times at night because it's pretty and peaceful, in a way, to stand over the middle of a Tokyo street and look at the lights/cars/buildings.
The thing I really wanted to talk about, though, was last night. My friends had a 送別会 - farewell party - for me. They wouldn't tell me what we were going to do, they just told me to meet them at Shinjuku Station at 7 PM on 7/7/07. July 7th also happens to be a big holiday here called Tanabata, the star festival, which celebrates the one day a year when these two gods (lovers) are allowed to meet, when they are normally separated by the Milky Way. It's a HUGE wedding day in Japan and I saw many many people walking around in very nice dresses/tuxedos/kimonos. Anyways, back to the story...
So I met up with Aya at the station and, honestly I don't know why they were so secretive about the whole thing because their plans were just to go to a restaurant and eat and drink a lot. It was so fun, though. This was one of those restaurants where you take off your shoes at the door and you sit on the floor. We got our own little room again and altogether there were 8 of us: me, Aya, Yuki, Shibata, Taro, Tani, Natsumi, and Sachi. Taro gave me a really nice set of chopsticks! I was so surprised, mostly because this was only my second time seeing him. I really like him, though. He is from Osaka, which I could tell right away because he speaks with that old familiar dialect. People in Osaka and Kyoto speak with the same dialect, so when I was in Kyoto I became very familiar with it. So I would occasionally use some of the dialect when talking to Taro, which he loved. Yuki gave me a mix CD, which I'm excited to listen to. Sachi gave me a necklace that she made out of clay, which is so cool, despite the fact that I'll probably never wear it. It's really neat, though. It's in the shape of a key and she said "it's the key to the door to your happiness," to which I just laughed and told her that was so cheesy. But it really is awesome and I love it. I can't believe I've made such friends in the short time I've been here. They gave me a poster (which you can see a picture of below) that has some pictures of all of us and they all signed it. I may have cried a bit when they gave it to me... It was an emotional evening. After the restaurant kicked us out, we went to a bar and drank for a while, until it was time to go to catch the last train. Except 4 of us, including me, missed our trains, so we ended up taking a taxi to Taro's apartment, which was nearby, and we slept there. It was basically a sleepover, which I haven't done in god-knows-how-long, but it was so much fun. Plus, it was really neat to actually see where one of my friends lives. It was a really nice apartment. I hope I can get a place like that when I come back *wink*!
Yuki told me about a free music festival thing that's going on today, so I may go to that, but I just got home so for now, I'm gonna rest and shower and stuff. I drank quite a bit last night so I'm not exactly in the best shape right now. Enjoy the pictures from last night! Aya took some, too, so I'm sure she'll send those to me and I'll send them to you all when they come.
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