sayonara japan

Since the fall, I’ve been spending a lot of time working on grad school applications, planning our trip around Asia, and preparing to leave Japan. While the former two items were really important (especially applications) it is the latter that has really been the focus of almost all my thoughts. The two years I spent in Japan were really special in so many ways. I went there knowing next to nothing about Japan, and started out not knowing how much I’d like it. After a few months, I started seeing things that I really liked, and by the end of the year, I was enjoying my time there a lot. But I think it was the second year that my love for the place really grew. We made good friends. I started learning the language a little better. Things became more and more accessible as I understood more about the culture. I grew really attached to Japanese style, and appreciated it every day in many ways. I became really comfortable with the daily interactions.

Which is what makes leaving so sad.

BUT. I want to be closer to my U.S. friends and family. I want to go to graduate school. I want to get settled in somewhere where I know I’ll stay for a while. And because of that, I have had a stronger and stronger sense that it was time to move on. The last few weeks in Japan, Jesse and I kept saying how satisfied we were with our time there. It was fantastic, really. But because it had been so great, we both felt like we could leave and be happy. It was hard in many ways. Some sad goodbyes. Lots of “lasts.” And a bit of a panic when they took away my resident card at the airport. I have loved being a foreign resident, and it was sad to let that go. But overall, I have a really warm feeling when I think about the past two years.