The Home Stretch

First off, I apologize for the general neglect that this blog has received in the last month. Apparently this is a fairly typical effect of holy-crap-study-abroad-is-ending syndrome, but this past month has been incredibly busy with seeing friends, visiting places, and doing all of the necessary preparations to leave Japan for a while. Saying goodbye feels beyond strange, and even though there are only a handful of hours between me and the airport I still can't comprehend that after tomorrow, the next time I wake up will not be in Tokyo (let alone on the other side of the planet).

The past couple weeks have been filled with a lot of goodbyes. It's been an interesting reminder of just how many people I've come to know during my year here, and how close we've become. People from juggling, from classes, and from random other interactions have all said their goodbyes, and some of them are starting to sink in. In particular, I realized at our last gathering that my program of study abroad students has really gotten close. This year, with its struggles and challenges, has tied us all together under this incredibly insane experience. It hit me when I was sitting in a cafe with 5 friends from my program, and we were just telling random stories and laughing together. We're all really different, but throughout the year our enormous group has become a hodge-podge of a family, and I still haven't processed what it means for us to not all be a unit from here on out.

The strangest part of all is trying to imagine what it will be like to be back. To not have your day revolve around train stations. To speak and be confident that what you're saying isn't nonsensical. To not eat rice with almost every meal. To have to drive places. These are all things that I no matter how hard I think about I can't remember what it's like. Don't get me wrong, it will be nice to walk into a restaurant and know what everything on the menu is, but I just don't get what that would feel like anymore.

All that being said, I am enormously excited to be returning home soon. I'm sure it's going to be a reverse-culture-shock-punch-in-the-face, but it's a punch filled with family and friends and intuitive reactions and bacon and countless other things that I cannot wait to experience once again.

Living in Japan has been incredible.
I've learned a lot.
I've enjoyed a lot.
And I definitely plan to come back.
But for right now, I'm ready to go home =)