Leaving it all behind, but not really. My last day in Nara.

My last day in Nara and of course I got sick. From the stress of leaving so many people behind, and the endless list of things I was supposed to do before I left.

Just an irritating sinus infection, but enough to keep me down a little on my last day with the people I had spent so much time with, the places and scenery I had adored so much for four months and I was leaving it behind.

At Nara University of Education near the library.

For my last day in Nara I did not go to tour the Asahi Shinbun (a really prestigious newspaper), nor did I go to the theater as I had planned. I slept and tried to get better, and got a little lost in my thoughts. 

That's alright though. There's a lot I would have liked to have done in Japan, but I am leaving feeling accomplished, I set out and did what wanted to do. 

And I can remember all the interesting things I have done and experienced, and I'm not sad that I didn't get to do every little thing. But it made me more aware of just how much you can accomplish just by trying, and setting goals and then taking the first steps.

One of my favorite corridors at NUE near the Art offices.

I got to climb a mountain,  be a photojournalist abroad for a while, tour a tea factory, cut rice with Japanese farmers, go in the rural mountain areas and hunt for chestnuts, seen a corpse wheeled from a home for a funeral, go fishing on an island and catch delicious fish, ride down marshy canals in a house boat, make traditional pottery, paint a sunset, catch goldfish that were decedents of goldfish raised by local Samurai in Yamato-Koriyama- with a tissue paper net! ... and the list goes on.

Near the library at NUE during construction.

Later that night I watched Harry Potter with some close friends since the film had a weirdly familiar feel to it. A bunch of young people on a magical journey of self exploration, all leaving their families, friends and partners behind to come to a new place, live together, eat together and learn together?

It may not look like much but I love walking here at NUE and looking at the art bulletins.

Yeah, it felt like we were all at Hogwarts, a Japanese Hogwarts. And we were there with one another having formed deep bonds because nothing shows bonding like trying to explain what an enema is to your Hungarian friend.

Someone even left us all Christmas presents at our dorm doors.

So we watched and felt a little sad because we were leaving. But unlike when Hermione said "It feels strange to be going home, doesn't it?", and then Harry said "I'm not going home...not really" I actually would be going home.

View of the river in the western part of Nara city.

But it's different when you're the only one going home.

However leaving Nara wasn't the end of my journey in Japan! I still had Tokyo and Nagoya to visit. The next posting will be about my journeys in Japan after I left Nara.

Arielle in Yanaka Ginza in Tokyo. Courtesy photo from Boglarka Kiss.