寂しい

Ever since I returned from Japan,

I still haven't got the spirit to go back working at the office. I'm still enjoying my life working for the Japanese company from home, and doing some other projects. So I got lots of spare time, and--wow, hold it. It's not what I'm going to talk about.

Okay.

Ever since I returned from Japan,

I still haven't completely moved on.

Best trip so far.

Well, I've always said that after finishing one trip.

But seriously, this one, is crazier and incomparable.

Giving the fact that it's a trip I find really, really immaculate, I never want the memories to fade too quick. So I write many memoirs about the journey, I keep contributing for the company I did my internship with, and, this is the one I like the most:

I watch K-ON.

I stood here, right where they were standing. Pic's from here.

An anime about a school band, consisting of five female high school students. Despite the title ("K-ON" derives from word "keionbu" which literally means "light music"), most of the episodes tell about the girls' daily routines like finishing homeworks, going on a vacation, arranging their club room, and many other non-music-related stuff. Yet so rich in Japanese day-to-day dos.

And that's why I love the show.

Watching K-ON reminds me a lot to the country I've been, and am still in love with. And it's smoothly created with delicate human gesture, natural dialects and intonations, and most importantly, 100% representing Japanese high school students. Unlike any other anime which sometimes can be, too much. Like Naruto. But still, I love that bastard ninja.

I've watched the show for quiet some time before I flew to Japan, but after my trip, everything seems to be much more relevant. How they go to the convenient store, how they arrive in Kyoto Station and visit the major tourist destinations, how they eat the soba sandwich I once ate in Osaka, damn, I'm now one million steps closer to the girls.

And of course, you know what happens next.

I'm emotionally invested to the show.

I have spare time, remember? So I spend my afternoon on Monday to Friday to get myself closer to the girls. And weird things have started crawling inside my mind ever since.

Like the fact that I began to think that Mio is cute and could be a perfect girlfriend. Mugi, too. And Ritsu could be a best bud I can do crimes with. I also constantly laugh to their jokes -the humour it's really my kind of sense, I imitate the way they speak as a part of my Japanese practice, I can even relate the feelings they create to each other, and the feelings that they are feeling.

Including the time they performed at the school festival on the senior year. Yes, their last performance. Finishing the top-notch play, they returned to their club room, and started recalling that performance they just did. One thing led to another, and they began to imagine how would their life be after this, after high school, when they go on separate ways and can't spend time together again. And being girls, high school girls, of course, they cried.

When Mio (the one on the very right) started crying, I began to lose control. Pic's from here.

The scene was so touching I even shed a--kidding, I didn't cry, I just, well--okay, I was going to deny, but no, I'll man up now. I cried. I knew exactly what they felt, and I felt like I was so close to them so, I also cried.

What made me feel worse that this episode remarked the end of the show. Literally. The anime is about HIGH SCHOOL music club. When they are to go on for university, of course, the club has to be broken up. But apart of the fact that "I feel close to the girls" thingy, which I'm pretty much disappointed because my bonding with them will end soon -am I starting to sound like a weird otaku guy now!?- it also upset me that, I was going to lose my main channel to reminisce the journey in Japan.

You see, I traveled there alone.

I met people, lots of people, but that's all. It's not like they were 24/7 with me during the trip, and it's not like they're available 24/7 for me to talk about the trip with.

And that's why I hated it when these girls left.

But yea, that's the price of solo traveling.
All stuff that happened, only matters to you.

Damn you, Japan.
I miss you