January highlights: January 24 - Faiz's sendoff

With Faiz leaving Kagoshima on January 29, we decided to hold a sendoff party for him at a local izakaya (居酒屋, Japanese tavern) called Taiwan Ichiba (台湾市場) in Tenmonkan. The place offers both drinks (both alcoholic and nonalcoholic) and finger food.

We enjoyed two alcoholic filled hours before they kicked us out :P

In what seems to be an unconventional fashion in Japan, we invited both students and faculty members to the party. I was told that Japanese students don't usually party with faculty members.

We invited all of our friends and we eventually ended up with 31 people at the party. The two-hour limit put a damper to the festive mood, but we enjoyed a really good night nevertheless.

Here's David reading out a haiku he wrote for Faiz

It took three tables to fit everyone :)

Here's Prof. Itou, Kaoru (from the International Affairs Center (IAC) at IUK) and Faiz at the corner table

Me, Prof. Sokei (Intercultural Studies), and Prof. Onishi (Archaeology)

Prof. Sakamoto (Kagoshima University), Marie, and Faiz

clockwise from me: me (duh), Donican (you still look drunk no matter how you deny it :P), Mandy, Trisha, Izumi, and Marie

Marie, me, Shinobu, and Cealia (China)

clockwise from me: me (hehe), Faiz, Trisha, Marie, Trisha, and Mr. Nakamura (head of the IAC)

Trisha rushed out to capture the snow on film.
Yep, it snowed again that night.

clockwise from the top: Hiroki, Mako, Shinobu, and Tienchi