I realize I didn't write about a lot of things from this trip, but I'm trying to write down as much as I can remember before I forget a lot of the detail.

I did not write about Odaiba! I went to Joypolis and it's sort of this indoor amusement park place. Odaiba was also the place that had the giant Gundam they had up for a short while, so I also went to see that as well.

I pretty much spent everyday in Japan outside. Whenever my friends couldn't see me, I would plan some silly tourist thing or just visit Akihabara, Ikebukuro, etc. I saw more people than I did touristy things. Oh, not to mention HOW many times I went to karaoke or the game center... haha

Anyway, day I flew back to America...

I had invited friends over to the Guest House in the morning (and I'm sure you know I hate, hate waking up super early in the morning)... it was the last day I could see anyone, so I'm glad they were all able to make it. Namae and co (they are always this cute little set, they also brought along one friend I hadn't met before) came early early in the morning to see us finish up our packing and hang out.

We went to eat at Gusto or whatever that cheap cafe was called... in Kawaguchi. Big difference from the Gusto I visited in Osaka which was totally cleaner and crud. Since this was pretty much like West Kawaguchi, it was sort of getting toward the red light district, so yeah. It's funny but their non-smoking area was just next to the smoking area and nothing big blocked its way but light air conditioning blowing the smoke in the other direction.

Even so, I was happy they were all there with me. We made a lot of jokes, and it's really funny, but each time I say anything in English, Namae would make this super cute face, because she was so weak at English.

We went to the last karaoke session I'd have in Japan, and we drew a bit in the sketchbooks while waiting. Well, it was mostly one person because I requested to have a drawing from him...

Anyway, after the karaoke session was up, I went to pick up my luggage (in just about everything I wrote about this trip, add Kimberly, 'cause she was also there sans for all of two times) I asked them how far they were going to see us off.

The result ended up being that they, all of them, purchased train tickets to ride with Kimberly and I all the way to Narita airport. This was a good hour, hour and a half by train! And they were all coming WITH us. ALL of them. All four of them!!!

I was really touched! I really didn't expect them to come all the way... when they purchased our Airliner tickets for the airport, they split it up so that we didn't have to pay for our segment, but I refused not being able to pay, so I offered Haruichi an American 20 dollar bill and she finally took it.

When this trip started, I didn't think I would have anyone at the airport seeing me off. I expected it like I arrived, with Kimberly, carrying our crud, riding the train for an hour or so to get to Kawaguchi city.

I was really happy, really thankful that they came all the way...!

On the way there, I sat next to Namae and tried my hardest with my weak spoken Japanese to tell her about my trip. The rest of them, including Kimberly, eventually fell asleep, but I knew this was the last time I'd get to spend time with her. I talked about who I saw, what I did, why I was happy to be able to meet them all, pixiv, this and that. I think she noticed how hard I was trying to communicate with her so she tried hard to help me out when I got stuck on my words somewhere. I remember her later telling Haruichi that I was chatting with her, in which Haruichi seemed to be surprised since Namae can't speak English and would seem nervous around me since she can't speak English.

When I arrived at the airport, I had one more friend come to meet me, Talka, a friend of KirbyM's. He gave me some of KirbyM's items and I drew the Shanghai for KirbyM... then I drew a super, super duper quick image of Alice for Talka since I was running low on time.

I had all of them stand together and took a photo! Today I was looking through photos and just seeing all of their faces again makes me really hope that I can go back to visit them soon.

All of them pretty much sent us off as far as the security gate, after we had checked in all of our baggage. When I finally decided we should really go through the gate, I gave them all the best hugs I could and went into the gate.

What I didn't know is that at Narita airport, there was this clear sort of window thing, a super large area where the top floor is where we passed prior... and as I was going down the escalator thinking about the 130+ artists (I ran out of Mils badges, I had 130 of them) I had met on this trip, I saw Namae and them! So I looked up and waved at them!!

They came with me all the way to the airport! To the airport!! I'm really happy that I went at the time I did. Many people said it was a long time coming that I visit Japan, but in all honesty, I didn't have a good enough reason to go. After joining pixiv and meeting all of these artists from there, it became reason enough. I went at the prime time where I had so many connections and had the right events (comiket, touhou only event, etc) going on... I was able to meet a lot of the artists I wanted to meet, and many more I couldn't meet, so perhaps until next time, eh?

When I came home, I found out that my brother had missed me, my parents did too (even though they didn't say a word about it), and of course my friends. It was a really short trip for me!