Goodbye my friend

June, 12th

My last day in Jiyugaoka was a kind of solemn occasion. Kosuke had to leave for school at 7:00 AM to get to school at 9:00 AM and I really only woke up early enough to literally just say hear him say "bye Joshua"... I said "bye" and that was it. I was a really disappointed that our last goodbye was such an unfriendly occasion but I guess the language barrier can't really be helped. Getting up for breakfast was equally strange because it was just me eating alone while Natsuko san bundled newspapers she was going to deliver. I felt kind of left in the dust as though I didn't matter as the rest of every ones lives continued. I had hoped to meet Kosuke again ever since I first made friends with him four years ago and it felt very one sided on our parting.

Natsuko and I were about to head out on a journey to ultimately get me a bus in Shinjuku to Nagano but their were many things to do before that. Hauling my luggage down from the 2nd floor felt more difficult then getting up in the first place. When I finally got down the perilous Japanese made anti-American stairs I made sure to thank Kosuke's grandparents a second time. Hatsuko san handed me a present that she said to eat on the bus to Nagano which turned out to be Meiji chocolates (very similar to Hershey chocolate). I asked them If I could take their picture before I left but I didn't get a clear response so I just left it at photographing the outside of their house.

After transferring from bus to bus, making a stop at a Japanese bank and hoping trains we got to Shinjuku where we searched for Tokyo tower where the Nikon plaza is on the 28th floor. As we were walking to Tokyo tower we past this discount electronics shop where there was this one older Japanese guy smoking. You'd think whatever some dude smoking, but this white dude came out of the electronics shop who apparently worked there and told the Japanese guy "not to smoke here" while using his index fingers to make a "no good" sign. I thought this was terribly funny considering that some white guy was telling a Japanese guy in Japan not to smoke while speaking Japanese. That is off topic though. Back on topic, I knew that I would enjoy being there but didn't realize exactly how cool it would be. I basically had every lens and camera body that I'd ever want to buy in front of me and the best part was I could use them. Let me tell you getting to hold an $8,000 camera body with a $2,000 lens on the end of it is pretty damn awesome. Needless to say I felt kind of annoyed with my camera afterwards because it just doesn't focus as fast or have as many focus points or shoot as fast... I could keep going but I'd become depressed. I discovered this super cool telescope thingy that I can't remember the correct name for. I've been losing the names of many different things lately because of these new Japanese words. Anyways this telescopemabob could see super far away. Unfortunately I don't have a good way of explaining how far but just know it was FAR. After leaving Tokyo tower we went to the bus station in Shinjuku for my 2:45 hour bus ride to Chuoda Chino where I was told I'd meet "Hossan" at 5:30 at Hotel Chino. Real quick let me fill you in on how crazy good Japanese transportation is. You often read train schedules that say they arrive at the station at 2:10 for example but then it says arrives at 2:37... Why in the world would they say 2:37??? why not a 2:35 or 2:40? It's because when they say 2:37 they mean they'll arrive at 2:37 lol. It's crazy, I've never gotten anywhere late. You either get somewhere on time or earlier, very efficient.

June 22nd, It's really late and I need to sleep but I'll post some more tomorrow hopefully.