The Group

Went to a Canadian friend of mine's wedding party. They had the actual wedding in Vancouver, Canada (I actually attended the post-party) but had this party in Japan to share this special event in their life together with their friends here as well.

The Canadian friend of mine, I've known from the days when I first moved over here in Japan and was out partying with the group of random foreign people every weekend. It really was an interesting mix of people from North/South America, Europe, Oceania along w/ some locals. We simply called this gathering "The Group". The sole reason of the Group's existence was so we, most of who were fairly new to the country, could stick together and enjoy the weekends by drinking and partying. The beauty of this Group was we didn't know much about each other aside from some really basic info like where everyone was from, how long they had been in Japan and maybe how old they were.. A lot of times, we only knew each other by the nick names they went by inside the Group and never found out what their real full names were... We didn't really care what everyone else did in the day time or what their real names were. All that mattered was that we had good times whenever we got together.

It'd be a lie if we said we didn't have any problems inside the Group. Being a bunch consisted of people of various origins from all over the world, it was never easy to get a consensus within the group. And a gathering like this was probably not meant to last forever anyway. As we all aged, many of the Group members found significant others and started "retiring" from the Group. Also because the majority of the Group were foreigners who somehow winded up in Tokyo temporarily, one by one (or sometimes by couples) people left the country. Getting back to the reality, basically, seeking a real career, etc.

So the Group has practically died. Most of people are long gone from the country. And even the ones that are still around, we rarely see each other except for special occasions like this. However, when we do see each other, we still have good times. We may not know that much about each other's lives but we certainly know how to have good times together from countless night outs in Tokyo. And it really doesn't matter where we are, it seems. I've met up w/ some of the European former Group members that used to live here in June in Germany and Spain. We really had good times despite a drastic change in geographic location. And this past September in the US and Canada, I met up with some of other former members again. Whenever we meet up, it almost feels like we are back in those good ol' days when we were meeting up every Fri/Sat night in Roppongi around 11PM, anxious to hit the clubs, just a little older, maybe :)

True, it does kinda blow that many of them are no longer around to hang out on weekends but this is life, I guess... and instead, I am now able to say that I have friends in all these different countries that I could go visit and have good times together, which really is something. By far, the friends from the Group are the most important assets that I have gained ever since I've come to Japan. I do miss my friends from Seattle at the same time though.. they are friends of different.. qualities, I guess.