Day 27 | Back in Gobo & Farewell party

Alright guys, 4-5 days more left to describe. I will jump now next to the last day of my stay in Japan and that was on 27th July. Let me share with you events of this day. Time flew by really fast but I was really satisfied with everything and had really wonderful time as you are going to see.

I got back to Gobo town in Wakayama prefecture and was spending my last 48 hours around the area. Before I share the news with you quick

The day before

Our camp finished in Osaka on 26th of July in the afternoon after having this "Farewell party" at the same hotel we spent our preparations for Tenjin Matsuri two days earlier. I was told someone from the Lions Club Gobo was going to pick me up but had no idea who. Then I heard from someone that my host family came in front of the hotel and that I should go there to meet them. I took my bags, greeted the other guys "Until next time! " (who knows when) and jumped out of the hotel. Mr Yuki was waiting for me and I believe we also met our friend from Mongolia whose host family was also in Gobo. In the end two of us headed for our hometown and I had the last view over the central area of Osaka with its huge buildings... and then fell asleep tired of everything.

I woke up when we were now close to Gobo and we arrived to the house of Mr Yanase who was very happy to see us again. I put all the stuff up in my room and everything just seemed like I spent the last 10 days sleeping and dreaming of the camp... or even feeling like "deja vu" - I have been here already and the house looks familiar. Grandma Yanase prepared me something to eat and afterwards I went to greet the others at the store and might have done a short ride to Anchin.

(One of the illustrated Japanese-English and English-Japanese dictionaries. Without it it would have been pretty difficult to survive the day).

In the evening I was talking with Mr and Ms Yanase about my adventures and we needed a lot of papers and dictionary to illustrate the story. They also gave me for the first time some of the sake which is not as strong as rakia or slivovitsa.

I went to sleep tired and wanted to be prepared for the next day.

Wandering around the town on bike

I woke up fresh in the morning and after breakfast headed on the bike around the area. I believe I was at Anchin restaurant and talked with my friends there and afterwards visited the family of the architects. I still had no address of my 2nd host family and did not want to miss the opportunity to spend some time with them too before leaving Japan. Thus I got all the info I needed over messenger and I planned to go to them the same day as I knew locations of almost everyone. Unfortunately, once i came there a bit later in the afternoon no one was at home. Luckily, we all saw each other in the evening when my Farewell party was organised.

After Anchin I went to the architects and met almost everyone at home. I stayed a little bit in the office and told them about our adventures with the camp all around the area. Also, when the boss, mom Sachiko-san, was not around we decided to make the Dragon Ball Z energy blast photography after them seeing the one from Miyajima. I also shared the sweets we got from the camp as I could not eat everything and... why would not we eat it all together?

I came soon home for the lunch break and this is what one of the average meals looked like. I miss the hot rice and the fried shrimps!

While arriving to Akari's place at the wrong time I still had fun riding around Gobo and paying attention to everything I had seen. I tried to fully enjoy the last two days and I really did.

As the evening was approaching I had to prepare myself. I was told there were going to be many of the Lions Club Gobo members present but also the other host families. I was really looking forward to seeing everyone.

The Farewell party

This last party they held in my honour (and I am very thankful for that) was held near one tennis playground outside Gobo. I got into the car of Mr Yanase in the evening and by the time we arrived there it got already dark. It took us about 15-20 minutes by car and on our way back we got a bit lost.

Anyway, arriving at the parking lot and then some familiar faces. Except for the Lions Club Gobo members, who were very happy to see me and shook hands with me many times, I saw my host families.

The food and drink party was organised in the yard of this building, probably the centre of the tennis club. We had reserved 2 huge with places for about 24 or more persons to sit in total. In the middle of the table was the typically positioned grill so we were able to bake and grill right in front of us and our plates.

In the building one could find the vending machine selling different sorts of soda and carbonated drinks. I took myself one Cola.

As for the food there was plenty of rice and the rice balls or rollers, lots of shrimps, salad, maybe cut pork, sushi, barbecued octopus and much more. I tried to eat everything and as you already guess - when you know your time is soon up everything just is and tastes 100x better.

We might have spent about 2 and a half hours here and I tried to talk with everyone. I could not unfortunately remember half of the faces here and was surprised that many of them were so curious about my overall review of 4 weeks in Japan. All of these men were present during the first, some at the second, most of them during the third welcome party and LC ceremonies and now came here. One of them asked me if it was okay to send me a package with the cakes from his store. I was shocked as no one would have ever done that in Croatia, yet the man who barely knew me was so happy that I had a great time there and wanted to do more. This is one of the things I left Japan with - being aware of different mentality and values. Some of theme were shaking hands with me and even crying. What also surprised me (but pleasantly) was them worrying whether I enjoyed Japan or not.

I just did not know what to answer because I had one of the best time of my life and the experience not many of my friends and families has ever had. Of course I was happy!

"Subarashii natsu wo arigatou gozaimashita. "

They also made me make a small speech in Japanese. At first it was kind of a joke but then I said "Fine, let me try now" and tried to use all the vocabulary, phrases and knowledge I had in these 4 weeks and managed to say speak in broken Japanese for 3 minutes. I was really happy seeing their reactions and hoped they understood the point.

Among the families who came there were mom and host sister from the 2nd family (whom I managed to visit again the other morning), the trio of the architects and Mr Yuki who was helping the 2nd family earlier. You haven't met them here as they belong to my tumblr stories. I spent also time with them trying to have fun. The mom and Akari had to leave among the first unfortunately but I promised them a visit tomorrow.

Time flew by again quickly and we had to leave for home. Shook hands, greeted and thanked everyone and promised to come back one day again. I was going back b y car with Mr Yanase. And got a bit lost on our way home. I just hoped Mr Yanase did not repeat his activities with alcohol as it would take us probably a few more hours before we reached our house.

Packing the stuff and plans for tomorrow

Back in my room and it was time to clean the mess. I had my stuff all over the room but knew i could bring only max 30 kilograms of the things. I wanted to be more or less ready not to waste time tomorrow and had spent an hour to pack all the stuff. I also decided to leave some clothing and cosmetics here to save space. Some of the shirts i left for son of Mr Ishikura.

I also went relatively early to sleep as I wanted to start tomorrow early in the morning my journey on the bicycle. I have contacted earlier that day my friend Rena whom I met in Osaka. She was one of the camp assistants who accompanied us on several days. As I was at the restaurant Anchin this morning and checked myself in there... Rena saw it on Facebook and commented she was also very close to us. I told her I could visit also her on bike. She gave me the address and I saved the route on my google maps.

Ready for the last day in Japan?

And thanks for reading!

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