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Just got back from Gyotoku. Took Kanako there for my last Ramen and Gyoza set from Bikkuri. I don’t know what was sadder: saying goodbye to the restaurant or to Kanako. Oh who am I kidding; it was Bikkuri Ramen. I’ll miss their 189 yen ramen or gyoza.

Oh, and in other news, I’m totally boned on this packing. I have about 3 hours until they are going to come and pick up my 2 big suitcases, which means I have to have the majority of my packing done by then. Oh and the post office is closed today since it’s ANOTHER random holiday, so I’ll have to rush tomorrow morning before I leave to go there and ship a box or two back home. There’s no way all of this is going to fit in the suitcases.

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 about 1PM, and I just got up. I love getting to catch up on sleep on the weekends. I almost forgot to write this post yesterday:

I’ve been studying Japanese for long enough now, and have seen enough Americans studying Japanese, to really have this annoy me. Now, my Japanese isn’t super great or anything, and I understand that there are people with different levels of the language. Somewhere, (I don’t think it’s taught in classes) a bunch of these kids learned ええぇぇぇと (“eeeeto”, Japanese version of “ummmm”) and started using it like there’s no tomorrow. It’s OK to try and make your Japanese more natural of course, but DON’T USE EEEEEEEETO IF YOUR JAPANESE SUCKS! Some people seriously put this between every word, and they sound like frickin morons (I’m actually going to be considerate and not name names). Stuffing your head into a book isn’t going to make your pronunciation better, and man they need to work on that.

I’m actually in a really good mood right now, but just thought I’d write that since it bugged me so much (listening to people) yesterday.

Well I finally uploaded some pictures. Click on “Pictures” to the left there. 1 gallery of general Japan pics, the other is from the Tokyo Game Show.