The Goodbye Party

Adam kindly organised the venue for this occasion (a place called The Dog's Bollox in Ikebukuro) and we both went about inviting our respective and mutual friends. Somewhere in the vicinity of 60 people turned up to join in the festivities. As the night progressed, we got drunker and drunker and yet neither of us had had to buy a drink. As expected all of this drunken behaviour led to some drunken shenanigans, but no-one was hurt or arrested, so all was good.

Someone had the idea of doing speeches, an unusual event at a normal going-away party, at least for the ones I have been to. Some good friends spoke and explained to everyone there how wonderful we were and then I spoke, followed Adam. As expected, Adam started his speech with some toilet humour at my expense, as I had to go to the toilet quickly after finishing my speech.

As the speeches progressed it started becoming clear how much our friends thought of us, and hopefully our words in the following speeches demonstrated how important those people were to the both of us too. Although Adam did use the “C” word in his speech... Naughty naughty!

The night wore on, with some people going home on last train, people who lived close enough taking cabs, and the last few remaining drunks staying until the morning... All in all, a brilliant evening and a tribute to the great friends that have made my stay in Japan such a wonderful experience.

Tokyo, Japan