Now that it’s winter break here and all the study abroad kids who aren’t staying a full year have left, it’s a pretty good time to look back on all the memories of the Fall semester and all of the people I’ve met who’ve changed my life.

There have been a lot of goodbye parties over the past week or so. I’ll start with the first one. This is me with my senseis for this semester. Mutsukawa, Watarai, Ide, and Yamato.

I’ve known a lot of different Japanese teachers. My high school teacher was always kind to me, but never strict enough, I didn’t get that education I needed at that time. Then when I got to PSU, my idea of the Japanese language teacher became that they are strict, tough, extremely demanding, but caring behind the scenes and legitimately wanting us to learn, even if they’re harsh as they ensure it. Thinking we would get the same thing here, especially in a language intensive study abroad program, I was in for quite a surprise.

These people… clearly love their jobs. They love teaching. They love talking to us, helping us learn. They were fun to talk to and while some lessons, I dreaded, I never dreaded the idea of making a mistake in front of them or asking a stupid question. I honestly loved learning from them.

And I’m extremely thrilled to say that they’re actually moving up a level and teaching us IJ400 as well, except for Yamato sensei. So here’s the first group of people who have helped make this first semester in Japan incredible: my teachers.

Next was the IJ300 group. These are the kids I’ve been learning Japanese with side-by-side for 4 months. Oddly enough, it wasn’t really until we had our speech presentations by the end of the semester that we started getting close, but I’m glad that I’ve met all of these lovely people from around the world.

Learning experiences come not only from the textbook, but from your classmates, and these guys have definitely made my fall semester a memorable one. We have inside jokes, we plotted a secret song to sing for the teachers during our goodbye party (During a class practicing listening skills, we had to sing along and dissect a song from the early 2000s that sort of stuck with us, so a classmate took the lyrics, changed them around to apply to the class and the senseis, and we sang it for the senseis, who didn’t suspect a thing of what we had been doing.)

I’ll be honest. We were the best IJ— group.

Thirdly, if there’s one group that has truly grown up and experienced everything with me, it’s the IES:Abroad group. They were there my first whole day in Japan. They were there for our first karaoke, our trips to Kyoto and Takayama, they’ve been there for everything. I’ve made life-long friends here, and I will never forget them.

We went to a restaurant for our goodbyes, as well as an hour and a half of ‘all you can drink.’ We’ve all gotten to know each other so well that it was one of the most relaxing lunches I’ve ever had because it was just us, hanging out, eating, talking. The new IES group has a lot to work up to, because I am going to miss these people all through Spring.

Next is my dance crew, Prime! We also had their last performance of the year last week. A friend and I had an adventure of making it to the Centrair Nagoya airport by ourselves for the first time. The performance itself went very well, even if our audience was rather small. It was a winter festival of sorts, because apparently, airports are the place to be in Nagoya. 

Everyone encourages you to join a club or a group when you come to study abroad. I think I chose the group that I best belong with, because this is just a large collection of girls that are fun to be with and have taught me a lot in the way of Japanese and Japanese culture.

And finally, the last day! All of the study abroad kids, or most of them, came to the very last CJS party. It was the time for final goodbyes and hugs and pictures.

Admittedly, I’m terrible at goodbyes. I can never think of the right thing to say and I vaguely just hope that my speechless gestures get the message across about how much I’m going to miss them, how much they meant to me, and how much I don’t really want to say goodbye at all. For the most part, goodbyes are never permanent. Not with the internet, facebook, and cell phones. But at the same time, many of these people are never going to even be in the same state as I am, let alone the same vicinity. So while it lasted, I’m glad we got to know each other, and I am sad to see them go.

And as if my thoughtful words weren’t enough, I also did a vlog about this.

Happy holidays!

Location: Yamada, Kita-ku, Nagoya-shi, Aichi, Japan