The beginning of the end... of this trip

I think this might actually be the longest gap between posts that I've had all summer. I'm still averaging more than a post a week, though, so at least it's doing better than my other journal.

I've forgotten most of the specifics of what we've been doing for the past two weeks; the emotions associated with the upcoming end of the trip are much more vivid to me. It's strange how fast the summer has seemed to pass. We've said more than once that it feels like we got to Sendai just a little while ago, and in two weeks we will be leaving. It has been a full summer, though; a summer full of new friendships and new experiences. It's been a lot of fun, and it's also given me a lot to think about.

Stephanie, Samuel, Dustin, and I will spend one of our remaining two weeks on a trip to Shizuoka, a city in the south of Honshu, on the other side of Tokyo. We're leaving early Friday morning, and coming back on the 29th. While we're in Shizuoka, we're going to a fireworks display and planning to climb Mt. Fuji, in addition to hanging out with some of the American students we haven't seen since we arrived in Tokyo. It should be a lot of fun (I'm still not sure that I'm really looking forward to the hike, but I hope to take many more pictures).

By the way, this picture I've attached is of the sunset at a baseball game we went to last week. I thought it fit with this post, since I've been thinking about endings. I've also been thinking about beginnings, since I've been getting e-mails from ASU about my upcoming school semester. Thinking about school has actually been a little bit of a distraction from Japan -- it's hard to keep the two things (this trip and my plans for the fall) balanced in my mind. The bus ride to Shizuoka should be a good time for thinking through some of the things I've been putting off. I'll see about posting the results after I get back to Sendai.

Thanks for reading.