Last Month and Beyond

The climax of my trip was during this month. Time went by fast and I was already at the last month. By then, I knew I needed to wrap up things I have not done.  One of which was travel. I completed my exploration of  Tokyo after going to Odaiba with my Canadian suite mate that month. We wanted to go somewhere together before I left.

A smaller Statue of Liberty at Odaiba
A smaller Statue of Liberty at Odaiba

I went outside of Tokyo four times this month as well. First, I took the bullet train to Osaka to visit my friend who goes to New Paltz for a few days.  Then my senior from high school stopped by Tokyo for four days. We went together to Mount Fuji on one of those days but never got to climb the mountain because it would require us to stay there for a night and I still had school. Then my suite and two people who from the unit across from us went to Yokohama together. We checked out the Chinatown there and somehow ended up riding a roller coaster by the end of the day. Finally I revisited Kawagoe to meet the friend who picked me up from the airport. I biked with him around Kawagoe, met his childhood friends, and went into the hot spring with him.

View of Mt.Fuji from Level 5

View of Mt.Fuji from Level 5

Another thing I had to do before leaving was basketball. One of my friends made a basketball club at the new campus. By the time the club was approved and formed, there was less than a month left of school. During that month, everyone was busy with their finals, so we could not play most of the time too. At least there was one day that we got to play some full court games with the team from the other Meiji campus.

Yokohama

Yokohama

During the summer in Japan, there are Hanabi Daikai or firework festivals all over Japan. I attended the biggest one at Sumidagawa with my yukata that I bought from Donki. We waited for hours until it began, and when it did, it rained soon after. It was a memorable day for me, but terrible for some of my friends. The train station was closed and we had to walk to the next train station.

I had less than 4 hours of sleep on my last two days. I spent a lot of time packing those two days too. I bought an extra small suitcase and still could not fit everything I had.  For my last meal in Japan, my unit and the unit across from us ate at a nearby Indian restaurant together. Before leaving, I locked up my bicycle so that I would always have something else in Japan besides my friends. I think of it as a proof of my existence there. One of my friends I met in Japan drove me to the airport. Thanks to him, I was able to spend a little more time with my friends. We were stuck in Tokyo traffic until we got to Chiba though.

So that ends my story in Japan. It took me a long time to get home because I had a 7 hour layover at Los Angeles. I still remain in daily contact with all my friends from dorm.My summer vacation has just begun, but it will end in two weeks. It makes up for my long winter vacation since school started later for me. Even though I will come back as a junior in New Paltz, I still feel like a sophomore. I have not seen my friends at New Paltz in half a year. There are some lost times that I need to make up for.

One last thing. Before leaving I saw a poster saying  “Tokyo: Olympic 2020 Candidate city.” Then I came up with the idea that if Tokyo is chosen to be the site for the Olympics in 2020, we should all meet again then. But now it does not matter if Tokyo is chosen because we will meet wherever the Olympic will be held. By then we will all be working and doing what we each aspire to become. As for me, I wanted to become a lawyer. Now I want to become an international lawyer.

-Sampson

 

 

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