So its obviously been a while since I’ve posted! And I’m clearly not in Japan anymore, since the semester ended a long while ago. The entire experience felt like blur, but nothing felt quite as fast as the last month there did. I wish I could have finished up a few posts I wanted to make about the last trips I took to Tokyo, the Kurama Onsen, and all the goodbyes I had to say.
I wanted to wait until some time had passed before I made a last post. I was still in reverse culture shock for a little bit. Then came holidays and the start of a new semester. I can honestly say looking back at the four months I spent there that I had an amazing experience. And I look back and it all and feel incredibly grateful I could experience it. But there were some really hard times too. The first month I was there it was a fight to stay positive and as soon as I started feeling better about it all I got really sick for over a month. But in all that I still had fun and did things I had always dreamed of doing in Japan. I kept the posts about the struggles I was having as drafts and figured if I wanted to ever look back on it I could. I think everyone there goes through an adjustment period and deals with it in their own way. And as time passes you just kind of adjust without realizing it.
I think that I definitely made some friendships that will last, and then some that probably won’t. I’ve kept in touch with people via email and skyping. A few friends are still at Kansai Gaidai for the next semester and I try to live vicariously through them. I look back at the pictures and the movies and all the random things I saw and did. My massive amount of pictures and videos are my way to save all the memories I had. I love being able to see them and remember vividly how I felt at the time.
I could look back and think to myself how things might have turned out differently had I only done such and such, but truthfully I had the time of my life there. Any small change in my actions might have changed my experience. And I was given opportunity to learn and have fun.
Dana in Japan 