july 24

july 24
today was toon's farewell party. i knew we were doing bbq in odaiba. but i'm never really given the details about anything. i had to wake up at 730 to leave after 8a to walk to the station and catch the 840 train. i dressed nice because i got tired of being in jeans and my zipoff pants all the time. but i was in all black.

i make it to the university at 10am and chinatsu calls. i was at the elevator on the first floor. then i see everyone come out of the elevator. so we head out. we are walking toward hamamatsucho and instead of taking the train we are taking the bus. it's cheaper. only 200 yen each way. nice! we get to odaiba and go past joypolis and muscle park. we get off the bus and start walking to the park. good lord it was hot that day! i was melting in all black.

it was a crackhead idea to have a bbq in the sweltering heat. we were by the river. it's a place where many people come to rent equipment: grill, chairs, to bbq. we had beef, pork, seafood, hotdogs, and yaki soba. i wanted to help, but wasn't sure what i should be doing.

later they gave some presents to toon and she gave presents to them. yoshi and taka drank too much. taka went barefoot for a while and then took off his shirt and went to go sit by the rail near the water. kinda funny. and yoshi had to work that night at the pharmacy. tsk tsk tsk.

we had some icecream and then packed it up. luckily we caught a bus right after we got to the stop. then we went back to the classroom and i was going to go to the zoo, but it is only open until 5 and the last admission is 4pm. i was too late. so instead i went to akihabara to go back to animate. it's like 5 or 6 floors of cool stuff. i bought some more manga and other souvenirs. i love japan! have i said that enough?

i got invited to go to fireworks with toon, taka, and naoko. they were meeting at the university at 630p. i told toon that if i made it back in time i would go. well i did. i saw some of the other students going to class. i went with them. my mistake. we went to ueno station. if they just told us to meet there that would have been great, but they don't really like to fill us in on things. toon was already in ueno to go to her teachers hotel. and i was only one station below ueno. so we both wasted time going back to the university. when we get to ueno (standing the whole time) we switch to another line (and stand) and get off the train. then we walk for over 30 minutes. as we are walking we see the show has started already. we keep walking and when we get to a good spot, we stand. SHIT! i really didn't need to come all this way to stand for 3 hours! i saw fireworks already but wanted to hang out with toon one more time. i should have went home. yes, it was a cool show, but wow. i should have gone home. on the way back i switch at tokyo station to the tokaido line and have to stand and then on the sotetsu line, standing again. and then the long walk home.

much too long of a day.