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Well, I guess I will go ahead and write a post tonight. Woke up around 8 or 9 and started to clean up and pack my entire room. Well I really didn’t get that far. But I did call the ABC moving company, who will be kind enough to move my 2 big suitcases from the dorm to the airport. Since I’m riding the trains from here to there on Friday, there’s no way I could carry that with me. Luckily, I was able to set up a pickup date on Thursday evening, so I have another whole day to procrastinate and pack up. Man it’s gonna cost 4200 yen, but shouganai.

Around noonish, I went to Asakusa to get some lunch with a friend, and also to do some souvenir/gift shopping. It’s totally a tourist trap, but that means they have some good stuff to buy people (really Nihon-poi). The biggest surprise was that while I was walking around the market, I ran into the KFarr and Elida. Yep, of all the millions of people in this country, I randomly ran into them. Wow, sugoi, etc. I guess it’s a touristy kind of place, but still, すごい偶然だな (what a coincidence!).

After that I went to Kaihim Makuhari for possibly the last time. Had coffee with Super Sayokon and Mayo, then went to school to return the hard drive I rented from SALC, and said goodbye to some more people. Stopped by IES, said “later bro” to Shin-san, and I guess that’s that for IES also. Strange strange. Then went to Kappa-Zushi with the Baileys (er, I mean Seth, Mii, and Yuuji) for some awesome and cheap kaiten sushi. I finally know the name of the orange and white one that I like, and it’s toro (fatty) salmon.

After that, went to hang out with Hiroko and Nana like we decided last week at the Sayonara Party. Went to Tsudanuma (for real, not just the code the A-Team used to use to deter the scabies), all the restaurants and izakaya were booked up. I guess it’s the beginning of winter break everywhere here. Anyway, we were able to find a nice Shirokiya chain izakaya, and it was fun. Did purikura (those little sticker pictures). Japanese girls love those things; they’re cool i guess but what am I gonna do with all these? Anyways, we were heading to the station and decided to take some regular pictures before we left. Hiroko and Nana were talking about how it’s tough to find someone to take your picture, since apparently there are a lot of hookers around Tsudanuma station. There was a girl in a hat sitting down on a bench, and Hiroko said something to the effect of “she looks the most not-like-a-hooker/nice.” So, we were going to get ready to ask her to take our picture for us. I was like “hey, she looks like of familiar. She looks like Sayoko.” Haha, funny. But IT WAS! Whoa bikkuri. So yeah, there’s super strange guuzen #2 for the day.

Once again, this entry turned out longer than I expected. Tomorrow’s going to be one last visit to Bikkuri Ramen (most romantic date in Japan), then lots of packing. Most likely, I will have the majority of everything packed up and ready to go by tomorrow afternoon. Then hopefully the evening free to see Kieran, Blanchard, any other people I need to see. It’s still strange, to think I won’t be in Japan this weekend.

Most likely, this page/blog won’t be updated until around Christmas or the 26th. I’m trying to finish up the last few days here in Japan… it’s a weird feeling, packing up everything and leaving the country. Totally different from going 4 hours away to go to school in Indiana. Anyways, that’s all for now. If you’re in St. Louis, I’ll be there for a week or so, so let’s hang out.

I’m still in Japan, just haven’t posted anything in the last few days since I’ve been really busy. Brian (Blanchard) came into Japan on Sunday, and Kieran is coming in today. I’m trying to just finish everything up around here, buy stuff, see people, etc. And yeah, no idea how I’m going to be packed up in time.

Oh, but I had chicken sashimi yesterday at this fancy restaurant. And yep, didn’t get sick. It was kind of tasteless though. And was a little tough. Haha.

Well, it’s over. Officially. The semester finished up today, following my second straight day of sitting in front of a computer at the SALC, carrying 2 heavy bags with me everywhere, and in general stressing about everything. After the 2 worst days of the semester, it ended with one of the best nights.

Yeah, almost everyone is leaving tomorrow, but that’s not horrible. It will be weird, of course. No A-Team assembling, no sitting at SALC computers doing nothing, no sitting at Y’s, Saize, or IES making fun of the scabies around us. For that, it’s a little sad. Not like I’m never going to see these people ever again. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’ll see a bunch of them sometime later.

Technically I’m not done with all my school work, although I sure wish I was. Stress level definitely plummeted though, which is good otherwise I would have had to jump in front of a train. I need to go to school on Tuesday to finch up some video editing (not really editing, I need to make CDs of the class videos, blah); also I still need to finish writing my History final paper sometime soon and e-mail it to the Prof. Didn’t finish it today, nor go to class since I was in the video comp lab. Ah well, the Prof didn’t seem that mad.

I was going to write a whole bunch more here. Thought about it all the way walking home from the station. I was going to mention about how I don’t think I’ve ever been able to “enjoy” a going away party, a final party, a graduation, etc… I’m always busy with something, like videos, computers, running errands, etc. Even tonight, after the IES Video was shown, then Spiderman, it felt like such a rush for me to walk around, say goodbye to some people, and leave. I thought to myself that maybe I’ll be able to sit back and enjoy my retirement in around 30 years, but even that is doubtful.

I’m going to get some sleep now. I haven’t been doing that much these last few days. Tomorrow I have to wake up reasonably early to go see some people off at the airport. Even if I didn’t go, I guess it wouldn’t be horrible, but I suppose it would be nice. Bryan, Ari, Mikey: you guys might be reading this in a day or two after you get home. I’ll probably write more tomorrow also. It was a great semester. I really did meet a lot of awesome people (I honestly think that was my biggest worry before coming here, a bunch of dorks etc). And now it’s over. It will definitely be strange to leave here in a week.

I wasn’t planning for or expecting this much work by the very last day of the semester. I’m exhausted and just want this to be over. I’m not going to be any fun at the sayonara party tonight (if I’m even awake at it…)

Tonight a bunch of us went to Bikkuri Ramen. Originally, tonight was going to be a huge eventful night, but since we’re all getting slammed pretty hard with final exams and papers, we ended up just going for Bikkuri. However, this wasn’t completely uneventful, as me, Bryan, Mikey, Seth, and Derek were there to do the long-awaited gyoza (pot stickers) eating contest. Mii and Isoroku were there too, but not competing. Anyways, Seth got a good second place with 1 bowl of ramen and 6 plates of gyoza. Me and Bryan tied for King with 1 bowl of ramen and 7 plates of gyoza. Nevermind the fact that we both felt so full we had to puke.

Between the 7 of us, I think we ate around 145 gyoza. Man they’re good. And cheap!

In other news, this has been by far my busiest week in Japan, especially when you consider it’s all for school/school-related work. Tomorrow’s my day off, but I’ll be spending all day at Kanda working on videos (Spiderman movie and also an IES video for the Sayonara party). For some reason, this reminds me of the end of senior year of high school. And also the end of freshman year at IU. I always tend to pick up video projects or something when it comes down the last minute…