Nearing the End, After the End

Note: This blog post was written around a week ago, right after HIF ended. I'm bumming around at home in Shanghai now! I haven't had consistent Internet access during my time touring Japan after the program, and I've been quite lazy after getting home, so I'm just beginning to organize my writing and my thoughts regarding the past two months. Expect many more posts to come to conclude this blog! Thanks for sticking with me! :)

Chris

----------

As I begin writing this blog, I find myself on the Shinkansen line from Aomori to Tokyo. The train is stationary (perfect place to use that word – or is this where the word came from?). People are getting on and off at a stop I don’t know the name of. This is the northeast of Japan, probably not far from Fukushima, stilling living in the shadow of a disaster barely a year old. From the windows, the silhouettes of not-so-distant mountains blur into clouds.

View out from a Shinkansen window

Leaving Hakodate wasn’t easy. Although I could comfort myself in the thought that (and I assured Obaa-chan of this as well) I was looking forward to travelling in Honshu, looking forward to going home and spending time with my parents after that, and looking forward to going back to school and meeting all my friends (all of which is true), the city of Hakodate had long won my heart with its irresistible charm. Here I had the best two-month experience of my life, and although it gave me a very, very positive attitude thanks to which I could look forward to every coming day, I was sad to go. That’s how I felt when one of my Chinese 留学生 friends showed up at 6 AM outside my room to meet me for the last time before I left, when I visited Point Tachimachi for the last time to find theハナマス (Japanese Rose) in full bloom – as if the flowers had predicted my departure. As I saw Baa-chan and Jii-chan walking ever so slowly into the distance before I boarded my train out of Hakodate, the memories of the past two months came flooding through. There’s nothing to say except the most Japanese 言葉 of them all - ありがとう。

Baa-chan and a 留学生 friend at Tachimachi!

At Tachimachi for the last time

ハマナス in full bloom

In the next week, I’ll be touring Honshu with Abby. I might not be able to cover my travelling experience in this blog as well, but I plan to write another 2-3 blogs reflecting on my overall experience during HIF. Stay tuned, for now!