Final Email from Japan

Dear friends and family,
I regret to say that the end is here. Two days from now I'll be back in good old Utah. Truthfully, I'm not really ready for it . . . Sadly my last week in Japan has been a serious mix of good and bad. This email will be kind of long, sorry.
This week I had my final test in Japanese. I studied like CRAZY for about 3 days before. I really wanted to do well on it so I spent every spare moment in my books. Even the morning of the test I was up early studying. My brain was so full I realized I couldn't think Japanese clearly so I stopped studying and rested for about 2 hours before the test. Luckily all that studying served me well. I couldn't remember certain things but my subconscious did and I was able to pass the test with 79/100. Yatta! I said my final goodbye to Dan and Brett before my test. Dan and I agreed that we will probably see each other again, in Japan, someday.
Thursday, the day of my final test, Akane planned a farewell party and we ended up having about 25 people attending. A bunch of the exchange students came and tons of our Japanese tutors and friends. Also, many of the tutors received emails regarding their study abroad interviews. Akane passed! We were all so excited and come to find out Norihiro had received an email as well. He refused to open it though. He said he didn't want the night to be ruined if he wasn't picked to do study abroad. He promised me that he would open it with me later. He said he wanted to do it when we were alone. So I waited, very impatiently. We went to BBQ to have dinner. It was a lot of fun but, unfortunately, the night was far from perfect due to Hiroki ruining it. He REALLY dislikes me as he's started to sense mine and Norihiro's relationship so the whole night he was making fun of me and being abusive. Many of the girls were getting annoyed with him on my behalf. I yelled at him around the end of dinner, after he stuck his lighter in my face a few times, very close to my skin. He wouldn't stop so I ended up swearing at him and Norihiro quickly came to my rescue and pushed Hiroki away from me. After that we went to a bar and made reservations at a Karaoke place for around 10. Many people had tests coming up so they had to leave. I had some teary goodbyes, especially with Ayari (Louis's girlfriend) who is such a sweety and one of my language partners, Taisuke, who is so kind. He they both hugged me and when we pulled away we had tears in our eyes. It was really difficult to say goodbye to everyone. Final goodbye with Louis at the bar. As we were going to karaoke many people decided to leave and, Akane told me, it was due to Hiroki. (I found out the next day that while walking to the bar he had bumped into an elderly woman and ended up screaming at her and telling her to F-off in Japanese. No one bothered to tell me this at the time but that was way so many people were angry with him.) Norihiro and I wanted to spend time together though so we choose to go to karaoke, which proved a bad decision. But by the time we realized we should have just left the last train was just minutes away and we wouldn't have made it. So we ended up staying in the karaoke box until 6 AM. Luckily it wasn't all horrible at Karaoke, there were 11 of us so some of the time was a lot of fun. But Hiroki was there and true to his nature. Around 4:30 a few of us had fallen asleep while others kept singing. I woke up to see Hiroki cuddling Norihiro's sleeping body as well as make some REALLY crude sexual gestures over Norihiro. Norihiro woke up to see it too and I had the satisfaction of watching my boyfriend punch Hiroki on top of the head, twice, in a very Japanese like fashion. After this happened I went to the bathroom. When I had come back Hiroki and Norihiro was sitting VERY far apart (which is out of character for Hiroki as he normally is either clinging to Norihiro or very nearby) and there was distinct anger between them. Norihiro had terminated their friendship and Hiroki was furious. The night soon ended, with Ismail being completely drunk and Madison vanishing without his coat or cell phone. So everyone was true to their characters. But I was sad because Norihiro was angry and hadn't had any fun because of Hiroki's behavior. I felt kind of sad for Hiroki because when I first met him he was so kind to me. But slowly, over the semester, I've come to see he's really not a nice person. The night of the farewell party he lost many friends. The last time I saw Sheng was on the train, we both agreed that we're sad to leave Japan.
The next day, Friday, Sarah planned dinner with some of the exchange students and two of the Japanese tutors, Norihiro being one of them. So Norihiro and I met up early and went to Nanba, which is near Shinsai Bashi. While we were waiting for a train I was able to convince Norihiro to open his email. He finally did and all he said when he saw it was: "I passed". We just grabbed each other and hugged and I realized he really had been scared he would fail because his heart was beating so hard from relief! We were so happy! So in the Fall Norihiro will be attending Snow College :) Before meeting for dinner Norihiro took me to Ottaku Lane which is a road full of nerdy Japanese fan shops, Anime, Manga, figurines, and Maid Cafe's. It was really funny and we had a good time together. I ended up asking about Hiroki and that's when I found out Hiroki has yelled at an old woman. Norihiro said that Hiroki is just too troublesome and he doesn't want to be friends with him. I was relieved of course but it really made my day when Norihiro said he also didn't want to see my sad face due to Hiroki anymore either. While we were walking to meet up with Sarah Norihiro got a disturbing phone call from Maho, the other Japanese partner who was coming to dinner. Hiroki had found out about our dinner plans and invited himself! Norihiro told her plainly, I understood him, that he, Sarah, and I dislike Hiroki. He told her that if Hiroki comes we will leave. Luckily Ismail was with Maho and was able to explain to him that we would leave. But Hiroki, being the jerk that he is, said he didn't care if we all left he was coming anyways. They were able to get him to leave but, later during dinner, he text Maho to say he was in Shinsai Bashi and wanted to know where we were. Norihiro advised her to ignore the email and she did. Sadly, Ismail was true to his usual character as well this night. He got WAY too drunk and ended up furious at Maho for not being willing to go out with him one-on-one after we were all going home. He ended up yelling at her and swearing which made her cry and made all of us mad. So my final day with Ismail was negative as well, sadly. He and I had become pretty good friends so I'm sad to see such a bad side of him on my last visit with him. I had a final goodbye with U-chan, Fefe, and Xay after dinner.
Sunday, today, I had lunch with Sarah and her host family. We planned a final visit before both Sarah and I leave (Sarah will be coming back but I won't). Sarah and I played with the little girls for a few hours and we all ate cake. It was a lot of fun as I haven't been around little kids this whole time and I realized how much I miss it. Sarah's family was very sad I'm leaving and made me origami as a farewell present. Her host mom is absolutely so wonderful and kind. I was really sad to say goodbye to them. As Sarah and I walked to the station she took my hand because we were both so sad to be parting. At the station we turned to say goodbye and both of us had to take a deep breath before hugging because it was really difficult. She was my best girl friend here and has been nothing but perfectly wonderful and kind from day one. We both said that our time in Japan would have been completely different and not as good without the other one. Sarah is the first one that it was REALLY difficult to say goodbye to. I cried my eyes out, which made people stare at us even more since we both were crying at the train station. We promised to meet again soon. Sarah is the last exchange student I said goodbye to and the most difficult one to part with.
I've cried more times in my final two weeks in Japan then the 4 months before combined. . . Goodbyes are impossibly hard. Some of these people I know I will never see again and that is just too much to bear.
Tomorrow I'll be having lunch with Ooki chan and some of her students as a small farewell party. Tuesday I'll be taking a bus to the airport with Norihiro, Akane, and Tomi, to spend my last few hours in Japan with them. I'm hoping to have a REALLY big cry, in my bed, alone, the day before so that I can try to keep it together at the airport. It's just too sad to say goodbye to these three! I have really loved spending time with all of them and will miss them like crazy. At 6 PM, I'll be up in the air and returning to America. Sadly, January 31st will be one of the most difficult days of my life and, due to the time difference, I'll be living that day twice. I'm leaving Japan at 6 PM January 31st and landing the US at 4 PM January 31st.
Luckily, while organizing my things to pack, I found my cell phone charger, so I won't be running blind when I'm back in the US. I knew I couldn't be so beautiful and smart for nothing ;) lol just teasing.
Sorry that my final email was VERY long and kind of strange. I look forward to seeing you all again. Although I'm sad to return I'm very happy to see all your faces. I can't wait to hug you all and, yes, with my high emotions right now, I might just cry when I see you all again. Love you all forever! See you in a few days :)
Sayonara Nihon!

Taleah