Friends up North, Part 1
There’s always been something about my friends from Gunma/Tochigi. I’ve never had a similar relationship in my life. I’m in contact with them all individually but when we meet up, we’re usually together in a group. Honestly, I usually prefer hanging out with my friends one at a time but the more of my Gunma friends I can meet together, the happier I am.
As to where I found them, my friend Robert told me one day in February 2007, “there’s so many Japanese around the university recently! They all have crazy clothes and hair!” and I was pretty annoyed because I couldn’t find them anywhere. A friend from my Japanese class, Stephen, had been talking to the languages department people in UL and had arranged to bring all these Japanese people out to Dolan’s in town (for anyone who doesn’t know, it’s a very traditional irish pub where they have live trad all the time). He said to me that he had arranged for this to happen but was a bit worried about doing it all my himself and asked if I could come too, just as I was about to ask if I could come too.
I drove us into town and we all met up at the bus stop in front of Brown Thomas. There was about 25 of them. I remember some of the conversation but I don’t remember at all who it was with. At that time, it was just a crowd of faces. That night I got to know a few people, and a certain table of them was particularly warm to me. Some of the others didn’t seem interested in talking at all, but this one table was full of great people. Hitomi gave me a 1 yen coin which I still have at home. Misuzu gave me a hokkairo (bag which keeps your hands warm by an exothermic reaction caused by shaking).
When we were leaving, a drunk Irish guy approached Hitomi, grabbed her hand, kissing it, and told her that she’s the most beautiful girl he’s ever seen in the world and he had to tell her that, while apologising for being so forward.
A few days later on March 1st, all the Japanese language students and Japanese English students gathered together in the Sports Bar on the UL campus and I got to know the people a bit better. My Japanese proficiency really improved that night and when I came back home I was so excited about having made so many friends that I woke up my parents just so I’d have someone to tell about all these incredible new people I met.
I did my best to organise as many activities as possible to be with these new friends: inviting them over to my house for dinner, making them dinner and dessert with Seán at his house, going to the cinema, et cetera.
The next time I would see them was in Tokyo last summer. This is blogged here. The post is entitled “Best Day of my Life” and I still maintain this. It was a totally magical day where so many of the things that I had fantasised about ever since I gained an interest in Japanese culture in 2002 came true.
There’s a certain level of energy that I get from this group of friends, be it energy causing me to wake up my family to tell them how great a time I had or energy spurring me to declare my day with them as being the best day of my life. I felt the same this weekend. They’re all such great people and do so much for me. Ayumi let me stay at her house and apart from when I was sleeping, there wasn’t a moment when I wasn’t without the company of her family. We ate together, watched TV together, spoke together, went on a day trip to Nikko together.
There’s a certain family feeling which I guess I hadn’t really appreciated until now. It’s like I never noticed it going away when I started living alone, but when I was put back into a family environment I immediately realised how I had been missing it. I really appreciate everything that the Nakajima family has done for me and I can’t wait to see them all again. They really do feel like a second family after all the kindness they showed me. I’m really blessed to have such great friends.
Well, that’s enough background and introduction. I have to go to a private lesson now but I’ll start writing about my trip to Toshigi (where Ayumi lives; the area next to Gunma) when I get back home.