Japan: Ganbate!: Week seventeen: The conclusion to my incredible semester

Well guys, hey there and welcome back to my final blog. I've been home for a little over a week now and have been busy adjusting my sleep schedule, preparing for and enjoying the holidays, and just spending as much time eating and being with my friends and family as possible. So, let's review.

Kuzuha Onsen Kakigori (snowcones)

Tuesday I was in Japan we went to Kuzuha onsen, which was very quaint but enjoyable--they had a relaxing outdoor section with a few different options, and the people were really nice. Other than that, I spent my last few days in Japan I spent trying to enjoy every last minute there (between shoving my suitcases), by going out with friends and eating food and grumbling about squatter toilets.

I left my dorm at 4:30 AM, walked out by my friends, and some of them were even sweet enough to walk me all the way down to the station with all of my (very heavy) crap. We cried as we said goodbye, and I got on the train, trying to suck it up as best as possible. In my exhausted and emotional state, I didn't realize I had gotten on the wrong color train, and went to the end of the line before getting off, very confused as to how I had possibly missed my stop. Luckily, a young Japanese guy helped me out, and went above and beyond--he got off the train, walked up to the ticket counter for the monorail, and then walked me up to the platform so he could put my luggage with me. This was such a positive note to finish Japan off and I'm so glad.

Packing up!

After narrowly missing my flight from Osaka to Tokyo, I had an otherwise uneventful flight path home. They were all crowded, I went through security half a million times, sweat as I lugged my ($200 overweight between the two) luggage back and forth, but it was overall uneventful thankfully, and I managed to sleep through pretty much every flight.

What I did notice? The second I started getting toward America, my stewardess' were a lot more rude and unhelpful, and that was a rough first step toward coming back. It was hard coming back because I missed Japan, and everyone I've met and grown to care about over there, but I was still excited to come home. It has been awesome being home, surrounded by familiar things, but at the same time it makes me miss Japan in a lot of weird ways.

No place is perfect, and there are plenty of things I won't (and totally don't) miss: cash only (though now this is such a habit that it feels weird using my card instead), no insulation in buildings (so it's always some extreme temperature that always ends up leaving me sweating), grocery store walks (I love my car), weird foods (which are fine as long as there's a safe alternative, however, there very often isn't), squatter/hole-in-the-ground toilets (seriously, stop it), hamburgers that still don't really taste like hamburgers (I don't get it), the expensive everything (from food to transportation), how small things are (clothes, items at the grocery store, whatever), your kinda awful (sorry) TV shows and news coverage, my flat futon (my back missed my box spring and mattress), ugly cars (without much variety), or getting stared at in a hostile manner (I don't mind if you stare if you don't look like you want to slit my throat).

Trying not to cry, leaving with Chihiro

Things I will miss: ToTo toilets (every cold seat makes my heart skip a beat), delicious conbini food and Osho Chinese food and Ramen and melon soda and melon bread and other weird tasty snacks (I really want some karage or a pizaman right about now), the convenience of walking to a train station (unless it's raining, then that sucks), people who are kind and willing to try (despite my limited Japanese and their strained English), people who don't hate their jobs (or who at least don't show it so much), how literally everything talks to you (elevators and doors and machines and God knows what else), being able to say whatever I want, wherever I want, and have very low odds of people understanding me (seriously, this was the best part of everything ever), all the weird fashions and Engrish shirts (how you guys manage to not look ridiculous wearing some of the things you do is beyond me, but you do manage it most of the time), waking up every day and seeing mountains on the horizon, being able to play my gaijin card any time I do something dumb or reprehensible (did I just cross the street when I wasn't supposed to? Whoops, gaijin!), shiba inus, the quiet train ride homes after a long day, staying out all night at a nomihoudai club, and uncountable other things I know I'm forgetting.

Being dumb, hanging out

Sometimes you just sit and you think that you have completely satisfied everything your heart could possibly want--that there can't be anyone else out there meant to change your life, to impact you so wholly--because everything you already have is so much more than you could have ever asked for. And then you wake up one day and your life changes again. You meet people who you soon can't imagine not knowing, not sharing your life with, if even for just a moment...or a few months. I can't give enough thanks to everyone--my friends from Japan and from around the world, from Europe to Canada to the US--I can't say thank you enough for making this experience everything it was. You made me laugh until I cried more times than I can count, you made me try new things, you made me pull through times that were hard without even trying. You made me become a better, different person, and I can't imagine what my experience would have been without you all. Thank you so much, and Japan, I will return again, of that I'm sure. I may not know when or where, but I will go back, because it became a place where I felt comfortable and happy, despite the differences between my home country and you.

So thank you for your hospitality, because in the end I fell in love with a place I never thought I'd be able to call a second home. Until next time, Japan. Sayounara<3