The departure from Gunma began early. As in, 5:30am early. My lovely host, Jenn, had a school enkai (celebration drinking party) to attend which departed for Yokohama at 7:00am. So, if we had to be up early, Jenn and I thought we might as well have a rocking good farewell breakfast before parting ways. And rocking good it was! Jenn was in charge of the smoothies and I made French toast!
And then, sadly, part ways we did. Luckily, though, not for too too long, though. I hope to see Jenn, and the rest of Gunma, again in July upon returning from Peace Boat. But until then, sayonara and お元気で！
After leaving Gunma, I made a stop in Kumagaya (Saitama prefecture) to see one of my past co-workers who now lives there and was kind enough to show me around the area!
When I finally did reach Tokyo, I spent the afternoon hanging out with one of my good friends from university, Saori. We lounged around in her very chique Tokyo apartment, catching up on the past two years of our lives while sipping on milk tea and watching some pretty hilarious Japanese TV shows. Oh, how I`ve missed them. And her!
For dinner, we called up our other university friend, Issa, and headed out to a Mexican restaurant in Shinbashi called Don Blanco. We had a delicious dinner and a hilarious time catching up. And at the end, our awesome waitress gave us some pretty sweet hats for our group picture:
And as we were about to leave, I found out that the other waiter in the restaurant was from a city near Acapulco, which is one of the stops on Peace Boat, so I asked for some recommendations, which he graciously wrote down for me. Gracias, Roberto!!
After a long day, and both Issa and Saori needing to work on Sunday, we called it a night. But not before giving the very shy Issa a huge bear hug!
Today (Sunday) consisted of: sleeping in (due to the major lack of sleep yesterday), preparing some documents for Peace Boat, buying some last-minute items in Shibuya and enjoying a final dinner with Saori.
And now I am off to bed because Peace Boat orientation begins tomorrow morning!! Woo!
Claire and the World 