I have to say that I have never made so many friends in such a short time before in my life. And they're people I really like. That came out wrong. I guess what I mean to say is that I hope everyone stays in touch.
I still need to preface this event with our activities leading up to it. The day of the party was the same day I stayed up until god-awful writing those papers. As a result, we woke up late and didn't end up doing much that day. What we did do is head into Shinjuku-san-chome to hang out for a bit for a couple hours before dinner .
Why that meant going to Barney's I dunno. I could argue that we wanted a taste of home, but we're going home! The case for Barney's is that it actually is a little different in Tokyo. Although, we never go to Barney's in Chicago... Still it was one of those places that we've been afraid to enter. Amazingly, we discovered that it wasn't actually super-expensive. A lot of the designers were American sure, but there were plenty of Japanese labels I've never seen before. Maybe even our clothes tastes have started to get a little Japanized, but I could see myself frequenting that place if we ever came back and lived here.
We effed around until dinner at 8 PM by roaming the streets and checking out random stores. And then it was time for the saddest party ever.
Look at how grim everyone looks. Dinner was at this place called Yama-chan and involved about six or seven courses and a nomihodai. Yama-chan is apparently known for those chicken wings that you can see in the foreground. Yes, they were delicious. Miwa and Fuyuko can attest to that.
Especially Miwa. Just kidding, I probably ate the most wings I think, but everything there from the salad to the chicken karaage was delicious. I dunno what Diana thinks is so funny though. Our original reservation was for fourteen and we ended up with thirteen people, so I think what happened was that the other side of the table ate for six instead of five.
I was actually floating between the tables and eating off of both. I ate a lot. We had some fun with the nomihodai ordering anything and everything off the drink menu. Once Diana got a cassis beer, everyone else decided they needed to try it. The side of the table above was drinking cassis-orange cocktails all night. It tasted like juice. I think it was juice because none of them even got drunk. The identity of a cassis was a mystery to everyone, but I just looked it up and it turns out that its the French name for a blackcurrant. Just need to figure out what a blackcurrant is.
Somehow, no one actually got that drunk, nomihodai ended, and it was time for cake!
I think we should have gotten a cake that said, "Everyone, we will miss you." Instead we brought an apple-kuchen straight from Aomori.
It certainly was a bit of a sad occasion, but hopefully we'll be back in town to see everyone again soon.
I shan't forget about the unexpected presents! We got a lot of really thoughtful and amazing things from grow your own edamame to Japan-themed napkins to bath products and even eye-pillows.
The party dispersed soon after and most everyone went their separate ways. A few of us stopped by Mister Donut for a super quick fix; then the cool kids headed to the after-party.
The 30 minute after party over a bottle of champagne. Good times. Well, I won't get too sappy yet. We still have a couple days left in Tokyo after all!
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