Goodbye Japan.... さようなら～

This is gonna be one long post and it's gonna sum up my last 3 weeks spent in Japan.
this is also gonna be the last post on this blog as my adventure in Japan ends here.... temporarily.

So where have I left off in the last post? The JLPT exam?
On some tuesday after the exam, I had my first farewell party with the NTT badminton group. They held another handicap tournament and this time Billy (Lam) played too! haha it was quite fun... the actual playing wasn't that fun but just hanging out with the group and watching Nakajima-san the funny old man.... I will never forget him! hahahaa

And then there was the CJP AYCE Yakiniku party... mMm.. haven't had so much meat ever since I went to Japan. haha it was great... that was my last time seeing many of the CJP peeps before I left. After Yakiniku, many went clubbing but I stayed over at Lynn's place and had some great girltalk... =) It is really cool how people can become friends so easily when they are in a foreign land. Perhaps everything and everyone else is so different in a foreign country that we all cling on to the smallest bit of familiarity we can find... Anyway, it was a great night... not for some people though..... =P

*CJP Kanto RULES!

Then the next day Braz arrived to visit... we visited DisneySea on Monday together with Katie and it was SO FUN!! XD I felt like a kid again when I step foot in Disney. The ride "Journey to the center of the earth" was great... and "Tower of Terror" was not as scary as expected but still fun... the show "The Legend of Mythica" was GREAT... with Dragons, 3 headed dragons, Unicorns and also a bunch of disney characters. I fell in love with Chip and Dale after Braz won a Dale from one of the stall games... =O That was a great day... =)

*Me and Katie the mouse

*Braz and I in DisneySea

On tuesday night, Billy, Meghan, Vu, Braz and I had a Takoyaki/Pizza party... we tried out the Takoyaki machine I bought (for 1000yen) and we also ordered Pizza hut pizza. hahaa the Takoyaki turned out GREAT! mMm.. hehehe tastes almost as good as those you buy outside... and the Pizzahut delivery guy was so cute! hahaha... the pizza itself was alright... not as good as expected though. Meghan then tried out pancake batter on the takoyaki machine and they turned out humungous cuz the pancake batter expanded... XD We played the Japanese version of Game of Life (Black and Bitter version)... Meghan kept changing the rules to her advantage (just kiddin.. lol) and Billy's game reflected his real life. hahaha Brian had so much money to start off with but lost it all in the end. And whose kids stole all their money again? Was it Billy's? =P

*Takoyaki and Pizzahut pizza

*Black and Bitter Game of Life

The weekend after was the year-end trip to Chiba with my company's group (O基G）. We rode on the ferry to Chiba and spent the first day visiting temples and museums. We also visited a castle there but it was under renovations.... -_-;; . Then we returned to our ryokan and had a banquet there where I received my going-away present-- a Hagoita (羽子板）, which is a traditional Japanese badminton racket!! XD Kids play with hagoita during new years and the winner gets to draw on the loser's face.... sounds fun. hahaha... after dinner we took turns bathing in the outdoor onsen. It was great, except it would've been much more fun if there were other girls or if I was a guy so I wouldn't have to onsen alone. =( After that, we played some games and then a few people left the group to play Mahjong. After chatting with the first group for a while, I joined the second group in playing Japanese Mahjong. Since I'm a beginner, Taniguchi-san coached me for the first game (where I was the big winner XD), and Naito-san and Uchiyama-san coached me for the second game. I ended up beating our project manager (who's my boss's boss's boss) lol but he's super nice!! Now I think I know the basics of Japanese MJ.... they have special bonus tiles called "Dora" which will double your points... and they also have a lot more ways of winning. The style of playing is very different from Canto MJ, since you lose points if you "PON"(pong) or "CHI"(seung) , I was told not to take other's tiles even though I was tempted to many times. Anyway... enough about MJ. The next morning we headed to another temple and then we decided to head home because of high tides, meaning if we stay we run the risk of getting stuck in Chiba. It was such a great trip... I got to know a lot of my coworkers much better. I wish I got to stay longer...!! ~><~

*My work group... XD

My work ended on the 19th. I stayed in the office till 10pm that day trying to finish off my code, but secretly it was because I wanted to stay in the office as long as possible. Turns out a few people was STILL working after I left at 10... crazy!! Braz decided to extend his stay in Japan so we hung out around Tokyo the next few days.

On the 22nd, I visited my supervisor's home to finish up some work. His wife, Fumiko-san made me a Japaense New Year's lunch and it was sooo yummy!! I gave out christmas presents to their family and played with his kids for a while.

*My supervisor's family!! His sons are sooo cute!

After that I attended the year-end party/farewell party with 羽魂(Hakon) members. I received another going away present, which is a Hakon uniform with number 63!! XD I will wear it in Vancouver I promise. Dinner was good, and I got to meet Ray one last time before I left. I took pictures with everyone and I feel so bad for not attending practises in the past... 3 months?? I hope members of Hakon will continue to improve and upgrade their level of play... and yes I will ganbatte in Vancouver too! After the first party we went for a 二次会 (second party) at another izakaya... Shibuji-san was half drunk and was saying many funny things.. LOL... it was a fun night and I caught the last train home.

*Ray and I!!

Then on 23rd, After that I went to the yearend/farewell party with Hira-san's baddy group. That party was CRAZY FUN..hahaha probably the best yearend party ever. We ate lots and had 3 hours of nomihoudai... I gave everyone christmas cards but I misspelled Ishii-san's name as "Ishida-san" so the whole night everyone was calling him that. LOL... and Oota-san made nicknames for everyone... ダメ人間系 (Oota)、エロイ系(Seki)、石田系(Ishii)、サウスポー系(Satou)、ちょっとうまい系(Mori)、アキレス系(Yamashita) and many more....XD after a few rounds of beer, Oota-san was the first one out...and we headed for our 二次会 at an intestines yakiniku place. Vincent joined us and then we headed to our 三次会 at Karaoke!! This is the time when i really regret I didn't learn how to sing any Japanese songs... =( I tried to sing a few Japanese songs unsuccessfully, but in the end I think Vincent and I impressed them with "San woo hoi", one of my all time favorite duet songs! =)

*The NTT Tsuken baddy group... *sigh* I'll miss them the most...

*Me and hira-san, Hakon cup winner!

*Me, perfect husband and his daughter! aww his daugher is sooooo cute!!!!

On the 25th Billy and I sent Clem to the airport... then we joined Will and his friends Jessica and Lionel for dinner at Izakaya. After that... MORE karaoke!! at AYCE icecream place.... hahaha that was great. I think that was why my coughing never went away... because of many nights of consequetive AYCE icecream karaoke... ><><

*Justin and i with minnie mouse!

On the 29th, after sending Justin off on the nightbus to Kyoto, I got stranded in Tokyo cuz I missed the last train. Damn night bus... was LATE... and the whole thing was SO confusing. Grr... I ended up meeting up with Billy, Will, and his two other friends Janice and her brother. We got some food at Matsuya and then we got some Chu-hi and drank underneath Tokyo Tower in the cold, cold night. -_-;;..... hahaha OMG. After that we headed back to Janice's hotel and crashed...

On the 30th I got pissed at the AU guy who kept LYING to me telling me I couldn't pay on the day and that I couldn't stop my phone at 7pm... f-ing bastard!!! I was gonna yell at him if I wasn't in Japan.......... I also didn't pay my last water bill because the people from the waterworks did not come and collect my water bill like they said they would. Stupid liars!!! Anyhow, after completing some chores I met up with my supervisor for dinner. He took me to the red warehouse that's rebuilt into a chain of restaurants and shops in Minato-mirai. The restaurant was great!!! We chatted about a lot of things and after dinner, he took me to the ferris wheel. Ahh.. I thought I wouldn't have a chance to go on the ferris wheel but I did afterall!! It was a 15 minutes long ferris wheel ride... and I would never forget it. Yokohama at night is very beautiful.. you can see the 2 rainbow bridges that stretches from Yokohama to Chiba as well. Finally I had to go home and pack so my supervisor and I trained home. On the train ride home, he said to me "Rosalynn-san, since I don't have any sisters, I've been treating you like a little sister all along." I feel so touched.... and glad to have met such a great supervisor. Thankyou so much............. for everything!! I will never forget my supervisor.

The night of the 30th was hell. Thankyou BILLY for going through hell with me... haha... I basically spent the whole night packing and moving all my stuff and garbage to billy's place (cuz Japanese ppl don't collect garbage from the end of year till Jan4th.. -_-;;). After stuffing most of my stuff into my suitcases and an extra box to mail back home, I cleaned up the apartment and it was almost time to leave. Billy by this time has passed out already.... thankyou soooooooooo much again. We then headed to the airport and rushed and rushed to catch the airport bus so I wouldn't miss my flight. I finally got to the checkin counter at 10am for my 11:15am flight, and the attendant said "Ms. Chong, I'm afraid this flight is not the correct flight. The one you have written down is your flight from Hong kong to Narita; the flight you were supposed to take to Hong Kong departed at 10am." and I was like................... ".........shit!!". She then proceeded to tell me that I must pay $150 for flight transfer fee, and that my luggage is 10kg over the limit (the limit is 32kg) and that I must pay another $200 for the overweight baggage. Holy (*#&@(#. I thought i was quite fxxxed. Then I discussed it with Billy and he came up with the brilliant idea of mailing a package home.... and so I did, for $70 only. To my surprise, when I went to pay for the flight transfer, the attendant told me they made a mistake because my ticket can be changed anytime within a year, so my flight change is indeed free of charge. Yayy!! I rejoiced.... I ended up only having $70 from the original $350. *phew*. My flight was changed to the 5pm flight and Billy left for Nagano to spend New Years with Will. I will miss you pal.... thanks for being such a great neighbour and EATING PARTNER... haha.... see you back in Van!!

And this concludes my adventures in Japan....
these 6 months have no doubt been the best time of my life..... I'm already missing JAPAN and all the people there!!
Someday I will be back... I swear.... so long, Japan, goodbye.... for now.