Me, Phil and Dave at Kuimonya

Last night Dave, Clare, Phil and myself headed out for the last supper in Yawatahama. We were luck enough to get into a funky izakaya restaurant called Kuimonya without a reservation (which never ever happens), a perfect start to the evening - is that karma or what!! We then headed off to Turf and the Smokey Dragon with our final stopping being the famed SY Bar. Of course there was loads of cheesy kareoke sung in honour of Dave's last night in town. Dave treated us to a fabulous version of The Copacobanna - his signature song! Clare and I managed to sing Careless Whisper, one of our faves which we stole from Dave, though my contribution was minimal. (Those of you who have been so unlucky can attribute, the less I sing.... the better the duet) :)

Phil gettin' it while he still can!

Perhaps the night's most amusing moment, aside from Phil kissing Dave at every opportunity(see photo), was Clare's *misconception* regarding the reproductive abilities of cats. According to Clare, our furry feline friends have the (Ahem....Unbelievable) ability to carry more than on litter of kittens at the same time.....And she wasn't even drinking!!! Clare stated that, from an apparently reputable source whose name she conveniently forgot, even though a cat may be pregnant, she still has the ability to conceive. And that, ladies and gentlemen is how your brain functions after two years in Japan. I'm still waiting for a link to Clare's reputable source, ahem.....
What an amusing end to the evening!

Goodbyes are funny things. It seems like the JET Programme is much like university, atleast in the sense that a number of really interesting, fun people get together in one place. If they're lucky, they hit it off and become great friends. Except here in Japan, even more so than uni, your friends are from all around the world. So when it's time to go, everyone heads off in different directions. I admit that it's just another excuse to travel the world, but that's not very comforting when you are saying goodbye to such great friends. You know that you will see them again, but things will never be quite the same. You won't be able to go to Joyfull at 4am, or do Print Club, or order okonomiyaki and beer.... But if there's one thing that I've learnt being overseas, it's that the world is indeed a very small place. And if needs be, those old friends are just a phone call or a plane ride away.

I remember a lecture that I attended at a conference last year. The speaker told us to prepare for change and to think about how we want to say goodbye to our friends. The whole idea of thinking about how to say goodbye seemed kinda silly to me. I've never been on to get too nervous or emotional but, good goodbyes are important. So, we bought Dave a special gift, made him a funny photo album and I even wrote a silly limerick but it still didn't feel right.

The bastard and his book!

After perhaps the worst Print Club ever and 2000 yen of silly arcade games, I said goodbye to a wonderful friend in a noisy and bright grocery store. Hardly what I had imagined. But at the same time it was strangely comforting, a perfect metaphor of our time spent in Japan: Flashy, crazy, colourful, fun and random - and often, not at all what you expect. Humm, maybe it wasn't such a bad goodbye afterall.

The gang at Turf!