The Italian Job

It was today, on March 23rd, that Dario left Japan, not to come back for another 8 months, which he's to spend in Italy for an important job. As understandable as that is, the underlying meaning would be that I wouldn't get to see him again before my own departure. Our last night out together was humble, but fun, and unfortunately went by much too fast. Though we had been on quite a few adventures together (Nokogiriyama, the Capsule Hotel, the Buddha of Ushiku all come to mind from the top of my head) there's no telling when we'll ever see each other again, so it was with a little regret and with a firm handshake that I said goodbye to Dario, one of my closest friends in Tokyo.

Without a Driver

This morning, Lo flew home to Lyons, France, after the end of his one year working holiday. He won't be going home empty-handed, seeing as Haruka, his Japanese girlfriend, has decided to fly to France with him and will be living there for a year before they can figure out their next move. We now find ourselves short a good friend and a driver, so I'll have to find some way to audition the next one.
 Man, I'm bleeding. We had some pretty good times together.

Minus One

The Yamanote 4 - now dissolved!

Sofie's returning to Denmark. After a night at a Japanese pub and some karaoke, it was time to say goodbye to our Dane and dissolve the Yamanote 4 - the four of us who've walked the Yamanote Line together a few months back.

 

 Hopefully this isn't goodbye!

Lonely Tokyo

And so, Julian "Shank" Einschenk has returned to his country of Germany, leaving me short a friend and a roommate. Though the past few months had us on different schedules and completely unable to hang out outside of home, Julian was the last of the original batch of people I had met in Tokyo.
 Whose bed will I jump on now?
 Tokyo just got a little lonelier.

It Gets Lonely

 This morning Clement left Tokyo to go back to his hometown of Lyon. Which is too bad, really, since there were still lots of things we had planned to do. But we ran out of time and that's that, I guess.

A Lot of Small, Unrelated Things

First off, here's a Latvian joke I found on the internet.

Three men are in ship. One Latvian, one Russian, one Lithuanian. Lithuanian take out one bottle wodka. Russian kill Lithuanian, then drink wodka. Then Latvian wait until Russian drink self to sleep, then kill. Is end.
In more serious news, I'd like to let everyone know that Kris got home safely after finally receiving money. He's in his hometown of Riga digging for potatoes or whatever Latvians do in order not to starve in their tiny frozen country. What a shame, too; we didn't have the chance to go for a last drink.

Yeah I know, it's dark. I didn't take other pics.

That aside, I also went to a nice club yesterday named Unit, in Ebisu. I gotta say, though I enjoyed Womb, I took an even greater liking to Unit, simply because there were less foreigners. Most people who know me know that I don't really go clubbing in Montreal. However, I think the whole ambiance is totally different in Japanese clubs. In a way, it feels less like a jubilant mass of horny youths trying to rub on one another and more like self-respecting people just dancing to the sound of a music they all enjoy. In retrospect, Clement and Julian and I left late at night and danced 'til the morning. Uhh, not together, though.

Last but not least, as some of you may already know, I have an interview tomorrow for a job as an English Teacher for Children. This is serious stuff. The job pays 35$ an hour. If I can pull off a job like that, I'll be able to stay in Japan pretty much indefinitely, which would be an amazing thing in and of itself, let alone the incredible amount of extra money. Wish me luck!

Mostly Sucky Stuff

So my first paid conversation session was yesterday. Or not.
It was a no-show. I waited half an hour and no one showed up, so I just got up and left. Yeah, that was kind of disappointing. When I got back to the hotel, I found she had e-mailed me seven minutes before we were supposed to meet, asking if she had the address right, which she did. It kind of left me confused, but I'm hoping we can reschedule, though. Plus, the guy who sat beside me on the metro smelled like diarrhea.

And then there were three

Yesterday (or today for people in Montreal?) went to Ueno so that I could register for a Gaijin card (Alien Registration Card) and not have to carry my passport around at all times. Though I may have a visa, I can't work without the damn card, so yeah.
 The upside of it all was that we later got to walk around the market district and see some pretty neat Japanese stores. I gave in and bought a yukata and a headband.
The headband says "kamikaze." It appeals to both the Japanese and Iranian sides of my heritage, if you know what I mean. Heheheh.

That aside, today Anton left us to go back to England, having run out of money. He gave me deodorant and toothpaste as he left. Hopefully that wasn't a remark on my hygiene. Having extended an invitation for me to come to England one day, he took that faithful last train, McDonald's cheeseburger in hand, and left for the journey home. Now we are three, and short one dominican-irish-korean british b-boy optician fox-guy.

One Less Soldier

Today Rodrigue's headed back home to France, with hopes of resting before studying English in Canada, with the ultimate purpose of coming back to Japan.
 On my end, I've established contact with a university student who wants to learn to speak better French. Here's to hoping we can actually meet up some time soon. I gotta get my networking shit on.

Left to right: me, Rodrigue, Anton, Kris