I made two new special friends on my birthday.

November 16, 2024 

Hello everyone, ciao! Did you enjoy reading the first entry of this diary? 

I have a lot more to share with you today. First, this year's SJTL has finished, but unfortunately it didn't end the way TJP and I wanted it to. It was a very hard tour, with 9 matches in 12 days, and at the end our bodies were very tired. 

It was an up and down tour, and although we made it to the finals, there were a few matches we didn't want to lose. This tour was also my first time speaking on a microphone in Japanese after the main event. To be honest, I was very nervous. I was worried that I would make mistakes as my Japanese is not good enough yet, but I was really happy with the support from the fans. One of my goals now is to become more fluent in Japanese so that I can communicate with everyone more smoothly. The final in Osaka was a special match, even though we lost. I enjoyed it very much. I also tried black ramen for the first time during the tour. It was good, but the taste was very strong and probably not my favourite type of ramen. 

After the tour, I went to buy an aquarium as a reward for myself as my birthday was coming up. The moment I saw this type of goldfish in the shop, I thought, ‘I want one!’ I was so excited that I bought a big aquarium and it was hard to take it home (lol). 

I have given them the names ‘pota’ and ‘sempai’. ‘Pota' is a common word in my home town and is used as an exclamation. A Japanese word with a similar meaning might be ‘totally’. I chose ‘sempai’ because the main character Hibino Kafuka is always called ‘sempai’ in my current favourite anime ‘Kaiju 8’. Aren't they cute, with their big eyes?  

It's my birthday as I write this diary. I went to school in the morning and went to eat Italian food in the evening. It was fun. 

Time really does fly by and it feels as if it was only yesterday when I first arrived in Japan. 

Now I am 25 years old, I work for my dream company, I have my own house and I have two goldfish.  

Thank you for reading to the end! In my next diary entry I want to tell you about my first trip to Okinawa last month. It was a truly wonderful experience!  

So long, arrivederci!