In the time-being

Moo has been here visiting.
Perhaps she will send me some of the photos she has taken so I can put them up on hereee.
I've taken her out to meet some of my friends.
We went to the park - the aquarium - where I cried at a dolphin show because it felt mean and I'd never seen one before. In fact I hated every moment of it. Those intelligent creatures deserve better.
We went to Tokyo and spent the day with Yuri and her mum shopping and eating tempura yummm.
We had a tonkatsu cooking lesson from my supervisor and had a yummy dinner party at my aparto.

Ok, well, thats the small talk over and done with.

In general, Im feeling a little down. A lot of my friends are leaving at the moment. Not only does this make me incredibly sad to think there are some people I may never see again. Its sad to think the group of friends I've made here will never all hang out together in the same way. How can this group of people be together again? - when we all live in completely different parts of the world? Yes, it means that whenever I travel I might be able to stay with someone I know - and catch up. But it will never be the same. Here we make memories. When we leave - it will just be a matter of remembering. When you live here together, you are in the same situation. You are going through the same experiences, you have much more in common. When you meet up in years from now, as different people with different lives, different responsibilities, will it be the same? of course not. What will you have in common? only the memories. The memories that will make you sad to have left it all behind. I felt a similar way after finishing my masters programme. Everyone on my course was from different parts of the world. But theres something deeper here. In Bristol I was still in England, I was in my home country, I had all my home comforts around me. I could visit London whenever I wanted. Here - this is it.  My friends here are family.  This is why its so sad to see people move away. I feel as though I've hardly been here for any time, yet I am already going to be missing people and feeling nostalgic.

When people leave, it also makes me remember how temporary this situation is. What will people do after they leave? Where are they going? How do they know they are ready to leave? This makes me panic so much about my own situation. How long do I plan on living in Japan? What will I do after this? who will I meet? Its good to have moo here to discuss these things with. But I feel that whenever I seek advice from those at home, they can't help but try to steer me back to London.