Last two weeks in Japan, first two weeks back in the US

Time to wrap things up in this blog, I guess. The first part of this is things I've written here and there complied.
This will probably be my last post on this blog.

1. Last two weeks in Japan

August 2nd-6th, I went to Aomori with Satoru and Etienne! The night bus there was painful, as night buses usually are for me, as I'm not very good at sleeping in general, and especially not on buses. But the city was quite nice, Satoru's family (mostly his mother, though talked with this brother and father a bit too) were totally awesome and lovely and generous. We participated in the Nebuta Matsuri, with costume, jumping for hours, and all, which was slightly embarrassing at first, but actually quite fun. The Nebuta are really awesome in person. We also went to the beach a couple times, went canoeing (!!), and enjoyed onsen each night. A really excellent trip! On the night bus back, maybe partly because my being sick was reaching a peak, I slept more than I've ever slept on a night bus before. Not enough to not sleep half the day when I got back, but enough to make the ride non-miserable. XD

Because of Obon and the dorm staff being quite 勝手, I had to get my room ready to check out of in five hours on the ninth. But I did it, somehow. 学んだことは：信じれば・・・何とかなる。ｗｗｗ I actually needed up moving out into the floor lounge for a little while. I was feeling homeless for a little while, but then I started getting offers to stay with people from mall sides, and realized I could never be homeless in Tokyo. <# I love those people so much. I did end up storing most of my luggage in Alden's room. XD

Went to Hana's family home in Kobe with him and Joon Woo. His mother showed us some sadou, Joon Woo and I walked around various areas of Kobe, the three of us when up into the mountains and played with sheep and cows before eating gyuudon, and I took a day trip from there to Hiroshima to see Miyajima and the Genbaku Dome.Kobe is such a nice city, I remember constantly thinking that I'd like to live there. I had very little time on my day trip to Hiroshima (partly due to taking the cheapest trains to get there, which take a very long time), but I really enjoyed that as well. Miyajima is really かっこいい, and the Peace Park was quite moving. And, of course, again Hana's family's generosity blew me away.

Went back to Tokyo Friday morning to wrap things up there.

Had a small farewell dinner Friday night with Etienne, Erika, Miyamoto, Alden, Ryuutarou and Chou, and then I saw Akabane and Taiga briefly afterward, which was really nice. +) But really hard to say goodbye.
Stayed up 'til around four re-packing, taking a package to to post office at two, feeling weird about leaving... And then got up, hurriedly got ready, got sent off by Aprille and Ayu, took a taxi to Kichijouji, a bus to Narita, and a plane to Detroit.

2. Since I've been back in the US.

When you sign up for study abroad at UofM (and probably at many other schools), you're required to attend a whole series of informational meetings and such. One of the big themes of them is about dealing wit culture shock and depression that can set in upon arrival.I was fortunate to never experience this in Japan. Not to say I didn't commit any faux pas or was never surprised, but there was never a sense of "shock," and certainly no depression. But, coming back to the US, there was some of both.

Now I suppose I'm mostly used to it again, though not quite entirely.

My sense of time is also a bit distorted. It's almost hard to conceptualize my time in Tokyo in-line with the rest of my life. Rather, they almost feel like two separate lives. I keep referring to two years ago (the 2008-09 school year) as "last year"... Or maybe I'm just in denial about my time on exchange being over and still want to call it "this year." +P

Besides people (and food, public transit, weather, Heiwa Nakajima, etc.), I really miss speaking in Japanese. More than I even thought I would, and I definitely thought I would. There's really no one around me right now who I can speak it with, though reading and playing on the internet in Japanese has helped. I need to find some Japanese people soon, though. Definitely looking into JSA as soon as I can.
besides general missing the language, I guess it's not surprising, but those things that I can't really say in English I really miss. Wanting to say 出た！ when Jason deployed his special technique in a game (which I'd heard of from others), and realizing I couldn't, and couldn't think of a good way to say it in English... Really made me miss Japan in general.
I think only twice so far have I actually accidentally said something in Japanese during an English conversation (where the other party doesn't speak any Japanese). One was searching for an English word and saying "何という," and the other, an example of something I can't think of a natural way to say in English, "いろんな意味で."

Though i will say that prices here, especially on food, are way cheaper. I didn't notice so much when I went to Tokyo, probably because I hadn't been shopping for myself much beforehand, but coming back the difference has been quite striking.

I'm sure this year will be tremendously fun and valuable, but I do really, really miss Japan.