End of an era

I finished exams on the first of February - a gruelling timetable with two exams on the Friday, three on Monday and the last two on Tuesday - 6 exams for my Japanese course, and one for my literature course. I felt pretty burned out by the end of it and I ended up flunking the oral component on the last day. But it was the last day and I just wanted to finish.

I had lunch with some of my friends from the class after final exams - an Indian restaurant near campus. Which reminds me, our class also did karaoke together after our Friday exams as one of our classmates was leaving the next day, which was pretty fun.

After the best sleep-in on Wednesday, we had our farewell party with the Sophia Communication Club. Tabe-nomihoudai at La Pausa (pizza and pasta). It was a great turnout and everyone leaving got these boards with farewell messages from the club members. I'm really going to miss these guys (but I am going to an onsen with them for a final stint before heading home!).

The next couple of days was catch up sessions with friends who were leaving involving; lots of food, all-night karaoke and yours truly's birthday. I had some time to wander around and spent a day walking from Ueno station to Tokyo station (via Okachimachi, Akihabara and Kanda stations) and exploring the Ameyoko markets and doing some window shipping in Akiba. That, plus preparation for checking out of the dorm bound for a one-week trip to Sapporo.

Just speaking of Ameyoko markets, I really liked the feel of the area. It's definitely reminiscent of a 1980s Japan and nostalgia of markets back in the Philippines came to mind. It's nothing like the rest of Tokyo and is definitely worth a look. A day would just barely be enough to cover the plethora of shops and there are some really good deals to be found.

Cleaning my room and packing took a full day and a half - but I did take my time. I was feeling kind of down about the whole having to leave Japan thing, but packing was really therapeutic in regards to coming to terms with it all. Though, it did get kind pretty crazy in the hour leading up to getting my room checked. I had weighed everything and realised I was way over my baggage limit, so I had to run to the post office to ship my textbooks home.

Anyway, cleaning got done and I got my room inspected within the last 10 minutes of the office hours - just avoiding a ￥5000 overtime fee.

And with that, was the end of an era.