Friday, July 1, 2011

Finally at the end.

Before I talk about the farewell party, let's recap some events that happened before. One weekend, I went to Tokyo with Claire. We explored Harajuku, Shibuya and Akihabara. I was disappointed that I was disappointed with Akihabara. I always thought it'd be this cool amazing place with tons of cosplay. But apparently its really is just a male otaku's paradise. One I'm not really interested in. On the bright side, I bought tons of clothes from Harajuku. The following Tuesday, the class went to Tokyo for a day trip. :) I explored so many places: Akihabara, Ueno, Asakusa, Shin-Okubo, Shinjuku, Harajuku, Shibuya and Shinagawa. By the end of that day, my feet were so tired. Shin Okubo was pretty interested considering how big the Hallyu wave is in Japan. Every street had Korean celebrities merchandise shops. Claire went crazy looking for Big Bang merchandise.

Anthony, Adrian, Claire and I near Tokyo Sky Tree

Don Quijote building: AKB48 Theater is on the top floor

View of Shinjuku

At Shin-Okubo, Tokyo's Koreatown

Hachiko, we meet again (for the third time this month)
Nagase sensei returned on Wednesday, and came with us and the TAs to izakaya. There was karaoke inside the room. As if 3 hours karaoke prior wasn't enough. Coming to Japan, I've become with two things: karaoke and purikura. Both of which is available in the U.S, but not as fun. Thursday, we took a walk around Kakitagawa River, which was beautiful. The water from Mt. Fuji is delicious! After, we were given shopping time at Sun to Moon, where I bought more clothes :)
I stayed behind at Sun to Moon because my host family and I were going to watch a movie there. It was called Hoshi Mamoru Inu. A movie similar to Hachiko and just as sad. I cried buckets of tears! Good thing there was no one else in the theater.

Onto today, the final day of classes at Nichidai. Class in the morning was the same as usual, except we completely skipped the second half of the class and used it to take pictures with the TAs. I also met a new TA who was a Hong Konger just like me! I was so surprised when she started talking to me in cantonese! and her Japanese is so fluent too. -jealous- For lunch, the TAs, senseis and the class went to Cats Cafe and challenged the huge bucket of parfait. and I'm proud to say we finished it!
It doesn't look like much :P

Let's Dig in!

Holding the empty bucket! success!
After we took tons of purikura in the game center upstairs. It was fun to try and fit like 10 people in one picture.
Everyone returned home to change and prepare for the farewell party. At the party, it was nonstop picture taking, I was so exhausted by the end. At the end, we were told to say a few words of thanks to our host family. I didn't expect to cry, but seeing others start tearing up made me tear it. I'm really going to miss Mishima. I've grown somewhat attached to this place. Also I can't thank my host family: Nishigami-san, enough! They've taken such great care of me and taught me so much. I'm also going to miss all the TAs and friends I met at Nichidai, they're always complimenting me on my Japanese, but their English is more impressive.





また、会いましょうね。




I will definitely be back to visit!

P.S Please watch the video blogs another member of the Mishima group made while he was in Japan.
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL331ABEBF53B3CB7C&feature=mh_lolz