Hello All

I have returned. Kyoto, Japan is now 10,000 kilometers away again. I have yet to be home for more than a week and it certainly feels that way. I am call my friends for directions to their houses, forget to leave tips at restaurants, bow when I receive change from cashiers and often find myself dodging the left on crowded sidewalks. It seems as though I have strayed off my path. It seems as though I am lost. It has been too long since I have driven through the streets of Seattle, enjoyed the amazing international cuisine and hung out with close friends and family. With that said, there is no doubt that I am enjoying myself at home. However, the sudden and comprehensive change in my surroundings that I experienced just six days ago truly set me off my course.

The last few days I spent in Kyoto, Japan were for the most part unremarkable. I was operating on a "these-are-the-last-days" daily routine: cooking for one, biking all across town, selling the bikes I rode all across town, attending goodbye parties and getting to sleep far too late. It was with subtle realization, while I was carrying out this unremarkable pattern in the final throws of my Japanese exchange, that I came to understand the importance and pricelessness of the simple lifestyle I was concluding. I had almost come to the point of compiling a small list of trivial aspects of Kyoto life that I will come to miss. I never did write them down on paper, but I guess it wouldn't hurt to share a few nostalgic characteristics of the priceless past eleven months:

Japanese food: I may have eaten over 900 meals in Japan and I never once experienced the "gut bomb", "man I need to lay down" or "I am never eating that again"-type-of-feeling. Below is my final supper in Japan, prepared by Rakuraku's head chef and owner, Akira-san



My mode of transportation: I rode a bike with a basket and bell everyday in Kyoto. The metallic blue frame of my miniature mamchari (grandma-bike) had become an extension of my oversized body. I owe it all to my mamachari, the bike that seemed to ride itself home from late nights at the river, karaoke or Korean barbeque.

Bamboo: Much more interesting than Evergreen trees on all levels, especially sound and movement.



Studying Japanese by default: As a resident of Japan last year I was surrounded by Japanese everyday. From television, magazine, newspapers and conversation, I will always remember the power of immersion in language.

"This instant leads into the distant future"


Japanese as a common language: This was by far the most pleasurable aspect of my stay in Japan. As a resident in an international dorm, I had the opportunity to share showers, laundry facilities, kitchens and company with students from Sweden, Taiwan, Mexico, China, Norway, Korea, Germany and New Jersey. I did, unfortunately, spend a lot of time speaking in english with my fellow American dorm mates, but more often than not Japanese was the common language among the residents of Ritsumeikan International House II. Expressing my own personality and opinion in Japanese was challenging to say the least, but it did push me to utilize and apply the my Japanese in a very unique way. On the other hand, interpreting personality traits through conversation in Japanese became an amazing learning experience and a refreshing change in the process of forming new friendships.



It was truly difficult to say goodbye to my friends, the dorm, my bike and the streets I rode it through, the language I became so familiar with and the country of Japan that taught me so much. I have certainly not close the door to Japan.

Until Next Time, Fresh From Kyoto