Another Sayonara Party

Alberto's second and last Sayonara party took place yesterday, starting at an izakaya in the heart of Shinjuku with no less than 23 people attending. We got to sit at what seemed like a table normally reserved for company parties and the like - a huge square thing surrounding some large flower arrangement in the middle. The food was very good too, although there could have been more of it for the price we paid. As usually, nomihoudai (drink all you want) was in effect, so it was a good way to start the evening.

For a few of us, however, that wasn't the start of the evening at all. Several hours before, Skip, Nobu, Staffan and Alberto himself, had come to my apartment for an afternoon of moviewatching and pancakes. As is always the case, everyone found my pancakes very delicious. The snacks my friends brought with them were equally so, especially the limited edition holiday Skipcorn. Legato's bottle of Scorpion Vodka was emptied towards the end of the afternoon, allowing him to eat the scorpion inside, something he has truly been looking forward. As for the movie - Tropic Thunder - it was the best thing Ben Stiller has done in... well, ever. For a comedy, I very much recommend it.

Moving back to the evening event, once our time at the izakaya was drawing to and end, Shinya showed up with a bunch of other people. Together we ended up returning to Matsudo - I hadn't been back there since I moved almost two months ago now - where a night of karaoke awaited us. A nice surprise was that Hana-chan showed up as well. It was too long since I saw her last, but now it seems we are going clubbing in Shibuya on my birthday, so that's all good and well.

Though I really had fun last night, my voice truly ended up destroyed by the end of it, likely due to a combination of spending too much time in the room occupied by the smokers among us (never a good thing while straining your voice like you do when singing), and singing in a way which isn't quite good for my voice in the first place. I wouldn't mind taking some singing lessons sooner or later to deal with that problem (and to improve my singing in general - not that I am bad or anything), but that will just have to wait until after I have learned to play the piano well, begun practicing martial arts again and gotten back into scuba diving. Or gotten my hands on enough money to do it all at the same time.

Now I need to start going through the vocabulary and kanji I should know before the exams I have tomorrow. As the last tests went as bad as they did - because I felt very ungenki when writing them - my teachers offered to allow me to retake them tomorrow together with those who were away from school when the real tests were. So that I will do. Now wish me luck!