Yesterday around 6PM, I met with Japanese friends I met in an online game. We're from the same alliance in the game we've been playing, and sometimes we would be voice chatting in discord. There was even a time when we had the voice chat on for more than 24 hours, just people come and go and sometimes not turning on their microphones.
I wasn't really afraid of meeting strangers - I've been meeting people I just knew online for many times already in the past, and I knew these people are kind people. I've talked to them and they've been great.
We met at Nakano station, so since it's just near, I walked from home. I didn't know that was just a warm up of what would happen as the night unfolded.
As discussed, we had yakiniku but the ホルモン (insides of the meat) were all sold out. We didn’t stay long there and moved to another izakaya (Japanese pub).
After talking and talking (actually they’re the ones talking a lot I was just listening earnestly), it was decided that we would be walking from Nakano to Ogikubo for the rest of the night.
It was a 5km walk, and we would be passing 2 stations and the 3rd station would be Ogikubo. My house is near Nakano but I agreed to walk. Why? It’s fun to walk with people, and it’s also a good chance to exercise. Besides, I haven’t taken this route before. I’ve only taken the other route which is the Marunouchi Line, not the JR line which was what we’re taking.
The road to Koenji, the first station was mostly for cars, not the best for walking. Although we were just following the tracks and not a busy road, still I think it would be nice if it’s only for pedestrians or make a dedicated road for pedestrians.
From Koenji to Asagaya was a bit fast. I think we got used to the pace already. We had stops along the way to go to the toilet, and luckily there were toilets in convenience stores that we could use.
From Asagaya to Ogikubo, there was a little fun because they wanted to try the electric scooter or kickboard (or I’m not really sure of the name). They all tried except me because it was kinda fast and scary. I’ll just try it sometime with my partner. 😏
We reached Ogikubo and we parted ways. That ended our オフ会 (offline meeting). It was so nice meeting them and I hope we would be meeting again sometime in the future. We’re still playing together in the game so that’s fine 😁
Thanks for reading!
See you around! じゃあ、またね！
All photos are taken using my phone unless stated otherwise.
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