I couldn't have done this without P.

By the grace of God, we managed to get about 70kg of my barang barang from Singapore to Tokyo without any overweight charges- two luggages checked in and five hand-carried bags between the two of us.

When we got to the Narita airport we realized that we had to transport them by two train lines an hour and a half away, so we began to stuff as much things as we could into as little bags and then began the insane process of dragging all of my worldly posessions via the JR Kisei Limited Express to Nippori, then the Yamanote Line to Takadanobaba and finally through the windy and pebbled streets and after-school crowd from the station to his apartment.

It's amazing we didn't break my cheap new suitcases. Or our fingers. (But my sorry arms are aching and P is snoring away next to me.)

The last time I was here I had only ten days, but now it is days ad infinitum and it is a strange and almost depressing feeling to know that that everything I own are what I have packed. My bank account in Singapore has been emptied out and converted into cold hard cash stuffed into a secret box in P's room.

I get random table space and a third of his wardrobe to use, and P spent a few hours last night cleaning up my computer and trying to get it wired up. He also got me the 100ml bottle of Kenzo's Amour and 50 ml of CK's In2U so that I can have new scents to associate my new life in Tokyo with.

Yesterday night he took me to this tsukimen store near his apartment and we had to queue up in the cold for about 15 minutes with the university students to wait for our turn to eat- it was those traditional Japanese noodles place where you sit down, order, eat and go and the chef lovingly prepares the noodles bowl by bowl.

I had the most amazing noodles of my life- the small portion P ordered for me had 550 grams of pure tsukimen and a big bowl of sliced pork broth to dip the noodles in. He had the medium size which was 650 grams and word has it that no one has even seen any one order the large 1 kilo version yet...

Today we are headed to Costco in Chiba to do grocery shopping and hopefully I can also register for a new mobile- all my contacts are stored on my laptop and my almost-new Samsung DH900 had to be given to my mum because it doesn't work here.

My goal is to get in shape and lose all the weight that I gained from pigging out with P while he was in Singapore. The only two things I really remember doing are eating and shopping, and we pretty much had about 6-8 meals a day because he was constantly hungry and eager to try new food. But we had a lot of fun and met up with a lot of my family and friends. Even my usually reticent dad smiled and spoke much to him and thanked him at airport for helping me with the move. My mum was won over at first sight and plied him with food and gifts and gave us rides in the morning on her way to work. She also asked to take a photo with him before we left, which was cute.

And because I had to forget something in Singapore, I realized my digital camera was missing when I was on the car to the airport. I can't even remember if I dropped it at Holland Village the night before my departure and if left it in one of my bags or somewhere in my room. Most of the photos from P's time here are on his mobile, but I lost the ones I took at my farewell dinners. :(

Oh well. My training with Berlitz begins on Monday till Friday at their Aoyama headquarters and I am psyched to get started!

Till then, keep me in prayers and I'll check in again soon.

Labels: farewell, food, life, love, memories, tokyo

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