Goodbye Mama Melly!

Mamma Melly, here I go again

My my, how can I resist you?

Mamma Melly, does it show again?

My my, just how much I've missed you

Yes, I've been brokenhearted

Blue since the day we parted

Why, why did I ever let you go?

Mamma Melly, now I really know,

My my, I could never let you go......

Last night I had to say goodbye to one of my best friends here. It was very sad, Melanie left for England. I will truly miss her. Mel is one of the sweetest, loveliest, quirkiest, sexiest, funniest, smartest, on-the-ball, most sensible, most organized, most on-top-of-it gals around. I don't know who will organize my time for me, or do the research when I don't feel like it, work out the train schedules, track down what we need, or remind me of the name of some person who I have asked the name of at least 1000 times before. She was nicknamed "Mama Melly" for a reason- she gets everything done for us! I will miss her calling me up just for a "chat", or filling me in on where Esmie is in the world, or talking to me about Rob, or listening and sharing stories about the random people we meet or the random boys we all have been working on. I will miss the intercultural sharing; the fact that she gets corrected all the time for saying American words, such as ketchup, while my friends at home think I talk with a British accent. Who will finish off all the leftover sauces? No one is more talented and has the ability to stick so many things in her mouth- lookout men of England! I am worried I may accidentally order a lemon chu-hi in the midsts of our nama birus and moscow murus. The goodbye was sad. Mel is the first of three of my closest friends that I will have to say goodbye to. Beth leaves next week and Dave leaves the following week. I threw Mel a small sayonara party here in Arai.. We never go out in Arai so that was good fun. Tif, Beth, and Dave were the guests, so we had a pleasant group of five. After a beer at my house we headed out into the streets with the skies flashing lightning and a low grumble of thunder- we are all obviously gaijin since none of us had an umbrella and we all discussed carrying one before we left. Our intended izakaya was closed so I thought we could try this place I had seen up in front of the train station. So, we did. It was a nice little place, after being ushered to the corner table we asked if we could sit up amidst everyone, who were asking us to sit near them. So we did, and we all immediately started practicing English and Japanese- striking up conversation. To be honest, it truly was a night as regular as any of our classic nights. We were out in full force, all of us chatting with various strangers. Dave, being the lucky solo-man was really a good sport, putting up with everything. The conversation was great, and the highlight moment comes during the discussion of Star Wars- one of the four boys we were chatting with showed off his Darth Vadar keychain, upon which I saw I started in; dun dun dun dudundun dudundun (the Dark side theme) and the next thing I knew the whole place broke into singing. (I am talking whole place- everyone in the restaurant) . After the surreal Star Wars moment, we all left. (Dave had left earlier so as to let us be I guess) We took the four boys we had been chatting with back to my apartment for the remainder of the Sayonara party for Mel. Back at my place we played a few games- one being Osama wa dare? and Mel gathered the remainder of her things together. IM taxi came early, with the precisioness that is Japanese, and we had to say our goodbyes. It was hard, I was close to tears, but did not cry, big hugs all around, but it is weird, it will never feel like that hug was tight enough or that kiss wet enough for this girl. We got a "Urusai!" (your loud!) from a neighbor as we gave Mel a farewell "Banzai, Banzai, Banzai!" kisses on the glass of the taxi, turned to sloppy smudges as they pulled away. When we went back in my apartment there was a lot of silence among the crowd of now 7. No more games. We explained to the boys how special a girl Mel is, how much we have all been through together, and how important the moments in our life we shared are. They understood. They also agreed with us that the saddest part about the whole Sayonara was that none of us know when we will see each other again. All I know is that we will see each other. So Mel, if you are out there reading this somewhere....

Until we meet again... Take Care and Yoroshiku Onegaishimasu! よろしくおねがいします! I love you!