The monotony of school yesterday was nicely offset with a totally excellent </wayne> party at night. The famous Nick was back in town, and it seemed that half of Hyogo had turned out to welcome him! The party was naturally at Minato-ya, so I headed down at just before 7pm. When I arrived, I found that it was packed to the gunnels. I'd never seen it so busy before, it was a nice sight. Minato-san was working like a machine behind his hotplate, with about 6 or 7 different things on the go. I managed to work out everyone's story, slowly, and where they came from. There was the local crew of Mitsue and Kazu The Gay, both of whom I hadn't seen in ages, as well as some of Nick's old students and other Ako locals I didn't recognise. Nate was also there with several other JETs and people from Aioi, including yet another Perth JET I had met briefly before, Kieran. And occupying an entire corner of Minato-ya was Yuka, who'd gotten married literally the day before, and half her wedding party, haha. There was a very cool atmosphere in the place, and with the good mix of people there was plenty of good conversation.

To add fuel to the fire, I'd invited my friend Rachael along too, who was visiting Japan. She was heading off to Spain and wanted to catch up one last time before she jetted off. I was in a little bit of a quandry as it was the only night I could see Rachael and Nick, so in the end, I just decided to invite her along to the party too. She's really sociable so it worked well, and we grabbed some beer and food and mingled into the crowd. I spent quite a while talking to Nick and Nate, and was really glad I'd managed to meet Nick. He's a very cool guy, and is a bit of a legend in Ako. His long stay, near perfect Japanese, laid back nature and the fact he married a local girl, Kanako, mean that most people around here seem to know and love him. So it was very cool to finally meet the man behind the legend.

Yuka and her party, Nate and his people and Rachael all had to leave relatively early, but the rest of us kept going. As it was a special occasion, I decided to sacrifice ability to get home fast in order to have a few beers. Random side note - Minato-san has Lowenbrau on tap, and I found to my delight that it's delicious. I hadn't had it before. Anyway, after a bit more drinking and conversation, Ewan turned up, and everyone migrated to a (non dodgy) snack nearby, amusingly called Selfish. I still had a beer, so finished it off while chatting to Minato-san. I managed to find the snack, where everyone was singing Karaoke. As I'd had a few drinks and the company was great, it wasn't actually too bad. Kazu The Greatest was also there, who is always good value, and we all sang and drank until about 1am. I walked home with Nick and Kanako, getting in some final chat time before heading home myself.

By the time I got to bed it was after 2am. Probably a little too late for a school night, but it was ok. It was a necessary evil to meet Nick, and definitely worth it. I've never been terribly socially competent, but I've developed a bit of a taste for meeting people and networking since coming to Japan. And I've found out that it's worth the initial uncomfortable feeling of introductions. Nick is a really good bloke, and in the kind of situation I'm in, it's always good to know people that have come before you and built strong ties in the area. Besides, surprise, surprise, no classes today, and I felt pretty ok when I woke up just 4.5 hours later. Definitely an early night tonight though, hehe. Party on!