Maiko's Last Supper

After my last day of Kengaku, I met up with Maiko in Shinjuku to accompany her on a few errands, say good-bye and thank you to Nishio-san, and do a little cake shopping.

We went to her mom’s apartment around 7 pm and helped her get ready for Maiko’s sayonara party. She is in the US for a few weeks, then she leaves for Belgium for a semester abroad in early September. It is going to be weird not having her around, but we have the Internet, calling cards, and mail services to keep in touch, so I think we’ll be OK. I am also planning on going to visit her in Europe in mid-November after midterms, so we both have something to look forward too!

We had hand-rolled sushi for dinner and a cake topped with many kinds of fresh fruit for dinner. It was delicious! Maiko’s dad was there. It was the first time for me to meet him, so I was a bit nervous, but things went well. I think my poor impressions of Sean Connery and Ah-nold won (along with a few other bad jokes of mine) won him over.

Some of Maiko’s family’s friends were there, too. Overall, in spite of my jitters, the night was very enjoyable.

Maiko’s apartment building is in a suburban area of Tokyo that doesn’t feel like Tokyo. It’s a tall apartment building, but there are trees around and you can hear the cicadas chirping up a storm at night. It was a cool night, so we had the doors open and the AC off all night. We were up late as we had to clean up and Maiko had to finish packing. When we got up in the morning, it was pouring rain. There was a typhoon on the way!

Considering how heavy Maiko’s luggage was, we decided to skip dragging huge bags through crowded train stations and took a bus. We made it to the airport with enough time for her to check in her bags and grab a bite to eat before saying our goodbyes.
I can’t say that I am not a little sad to see her go, but we are both going on big adventures, and we will get to see each other in less than three months. Maiko, thank you for such a great summer! I have nothing but great memories from this summer! Take care of yourself and I’ll see you soon!