Monday, 7 January

The last few days have been spent relaxing with friends, watching movies, reading books and eating far too much chocolate (thank you friends and relations who all decided I needed fattening up and gave me loads of my faves). Sadly two of my friends returned to England at different times throughout this week which always leaves me with mixed emotions about how cool it is to see old friends again after a long time but how sad it is that people come into your life and then leave.

When I lived in Japan one of the best things about living there was how many amazingly cool people I became friends with from all over the world, but this also led to one of the hardest things about life in Japan.  Most foreigners living there were only there for a year while their working holiday visas lasted and then they would leave, most of whom I never saw again and didn’t manage to stay in touch with.  At least these days with email and Facebook it’s so much easier than in the “old days” when the only way people stayed in touch was by letter.

Today I went into town to have lunch with a friend who is leaving New Zealand to study medicine, he probably won’t return but I hope we do stay in touch.

After lunch to cheer myself up I went shopping and bought a brand new bed, which excitingly is going to be delivered on Wednesday – yay.  I would much rather have bought a new iPhone but probably a new bed will be better for me in the long run.