The colorful wolf

It's finally time I started to write something. The time is 20 minutes past 1 in the night. It's late, but some feelings can only be captured late at night, no matter how sleepy you are. I've been awake for 20 hours straight and only had 2 hours of sleep before that. Here in Japan there are no limits. There is no one to hold you back, no one to say that it might be better to act a bit more 'normal'. No limits. TIJ. This Is Japan.

Why so late? Kamil and Matthieu. They have been my best friends for the past year here in Japan, and today was finally the time for them to leave. As expected, things went quite chaotic. Crazy brainmashing sessions by both of them, to try to get as much information stuffed in their successors as possible during the little time that they have together. Last minute parties, room checks failing, late night cleanup, very late night packing (and an online personality test o_0), an unexpected failure to reserve a taxi during the evening, and a very early and sleepy wakeup. Somehow we managed to get a taxi at 6 in the morning, which was absolutely necessary because the guys were packed up with a lot of luggage :O Everything turned out alright somehow, and at 7:15 both of them were on their way to Narita airport. And I was on my way home to try and get some sleep before going to work. This failed by the way, and I was sleep-programming at work all day.

I'm going to Hong Kong! On September 20th I'll leave for a long weekend in Hong Kong to visit Kamil there, and do a lot of sightseeing ^_^. Of course, since Kamil had so much luggage, he just put a suitcase of his in my room and told me to bring it later o_0. Will do, I guess. My room has never ever been more messy than now. I came back from Holland, didn't really clean up, lived in my room for a week, went on a trip to Matsumoto and Shirakawa-go for a weekend, brought back a lot of crap, still didn't clean up... And then Kamil and Matthieu had to clean their rooms, which meant that everything they did not want to take back, but still had some value, was to be put in my room. Hence le grand mess.

Do I have a jam face? For some reason people like to give me jam. Matthieu left me several jars of jam. Before that I already bought my own, and received it as a present from Martin and Takako. Half of my fridge is currently filled with jam.

There's a ty coming. Again. Must be like the third or fourth one. Haven't really kept track of them. There is a chance that it might hit the Tokyo area, so we might have some interesting stuff happening here soon. I set up my time lapse camera up on my balcony, plastic bag wrapped around it against the rain. I hope I'll get some nice clouds on that movie. If my camera doesn't break down first from the rain, or everthing short-circuits because it's plugged in to the adapter..

Life goes on. Always. Even if you don't want it to. Old times don't come back, but new times might surprise you. I was telling myself not to become too involved with the new people this year. I'm starting to dislike the feeling of making friends and losing sight of them again. I want to focus my third year in Japan on more things than just hanging around in Atsugi and Tokyo with the AK people. But old habits die hard, and I suddenly found myself doing a crazy weekend-trip with one of the new guys, going to a birthday party for one of the others, and having some fun at work with the new people. It's so easy to be a part of the group, and this year's guys are great people again, who all deserve a chance to make the most of their stay in Japan here.

Still, it's very quiet at work. I miss all the guys from last year, and everything we built together. We had a very strong group, with some truly legendary people. Who of us can forget the "I am not a lesbian" speech, the "I'm so lonely...." song, or the loud laughing sounds that could so often be heard in the office, making all the Japanese people look up surprised towards the general direction of our modeling team. We did many things, and I truly believe we made the best out of it. Crazy cycling trips, midnight fishing and karaoke, Crappy horror movie nights on the rooftop, random bike trips around Atsugi, getting stuck in Tokyo because we missed the last train. Going to Hokkaido. Many, many happy memories. The legacy will live on, and once in a while I will tell the new guys about the crazy stunts we used to pull during our stay in Japan. Evading yakuza and ending up on the highway in Kyoto with our rental bikes, arriving at the crappiest possible hotel in Hiroshima, getting stuck in the train for hours in bad weather on our way back from Hokkaido. Events I will always remember. No matter if they were good or bad at the time, right now they give me a very warm feeling in my heart.

This Is Japan. To all my friends from my first and second year in Japan: I miss you! And to the new people: Welcome. Time to begin ;)