I caught up with my good friend Oscar on Thursday night for the last time before he heads back to England. We started as JETs together last year, although he was lucky enough to be placed in Nishinomiya, just east of Kobe. I didn't manage to hang out a whole lot with him during the year, mainly because of the distance, but it was always good times when we did catch up. It's kind of ... ironic? ... strange? ... interesting? ... that such a good friendship developed from simply seeing each other every time we went to the toilet at Yashiro Orientation last year :D Definitely one of the more interesting memories I will take with me!

Anyway, we caught up for dinner in Sannomiya along with our good friend Becky and her boyfriend Ben. The first place we tried to go had shut down, but we found a decent Thai place up towards Kitano. Afterwards we did a bit of a bar hop back towards the station, until I realised I'd missed my last train. I wasn't at all worried as I had nenkyuu the next day, and Oscar kindly offered to let me crash at his place. It was good fun, and we talked about what we wanted to do in the future and various other things I guess you talk about with people you know but may never see again.

It was a strange experience, actually, knowing that a good friend was leaving and that I truly may never see him again. I've mostly gotten used to this kind of thing over the years but you can never really avoid all the effects. I suppose the thing to remember is that it's so easy to stay in touch with people these days, and hey, if I ever go to England, I'll have a good friend there to call in on. Having friends all over the world is one of my goals, after all!