It's Almost Been a Year-Saying Goodbye to Friends

"That’s the reality of expatriate life. Someone is always moving on."- Robin Pascoe

Time certainly flies by. I've always felt this, but it somehow seems to accelerated since I've been in Japan. I've been reflecting on on the past a lot lately. For example, 10 years ago, I was a newly minted high school graduate getting ready to head to BU. 6 years ago, I was BU alum living in Boston. Last year, I just found out I was going to Japan, and frantically trying to get everything ready before I left. It feels like ages since I've come here, and yet, it still feels like last week I was stepping off the plane at Narita.

Nowhere have I felt this acceleration more than this past week. The contract for JET begins and ends at the end of July/beginning of August (depending on when you came to Japan). A lot of my good friends here in southern Fukui are leaving Japan very soon. We had a goodbye party on the Fourth of July at a beach in Tsuruga. It was very fitting, as it was at that beach that I met most of the people for the first time last year.

The party was great, we had a BBQ, and Bill ordered Orion Beer (the beer from Okinawa that we have been craving since we left there). We even had some fireworks to celebrate the 4th. After the BBQ, we did a last bash karaoke with everyone. It was so much fun, we all had a blast.

It didn't hit me until sometime Saturday night that this was the last time we would all be together in the same place. It got me thinking about where my friends from 10 years ago, 6 years ago, last year, are now. A lot of my good friends from high school and college have scattered across the world, and it will be a long time when (if, in many cases) I see them again. It makes me sad to think that I've drifted apart from people like this, and it is happening again.

I just think back to some of the fun we had here this year, like meeting a Japanese baseball player in Osaka, the Tsuruga Festival, going to Tokyo to see the Red Sox, going to Kanazawa, or going to Okinawa. Those were some of the best times I've had here, and almost all the people I did these with are leaving. Some I will see back in America, but I'm a realist. I know what happens when people move far away and get involved in their own worlds (like me).

I've been terrible at keeping in touch with people, as I've just been generally busy. I go to the gym a lot, take Japanese classes, visit friends, travel, etc. Things like Facebook help a lot, but it's no substitute for being there. Eventually, the e-mails wind down as you start doing mundane day to day things and move on with your life. I know it's not just me that this happens to.

I guess that's why it hit me: just the general thought of people moving on, that one stage of your experience together (really, your life, I guess you could say) is ending, and a new one is beginning. It's a few weeks shy of a year in Japan, and I still feel like I'm adjusting and getting into a routine. Now, as I'm getting adjusted and settling in, half of the group is moving on, and I'm not ready for them (or me) to move on yet.

Well, even if I'm not ready for them to go, they are leaving, most within two or three weeks, but a few earlier. We will have a dinner in Obama next week (it's being labeled the Last Supper), but not everyone can make it. So, the BBQ was the last event where EVERYONE in the south got together. Then, everyone will ship off to the airports on different days, and that's that. A new crop of people will be coming soon, and the whole process will start over again. Next year, it will end again, with people moving on to the four corners of the Earth.

So, Amy, Tim, Paul, Lisa, Scott, Bill, and Tesni, this is dedicated to you. I've had some awesome and unforgettable moments with you in our short time together. I hope that wherever life takes you, you find love, happiness, good health, and success. Keep in touch, and who knows where we might see each other next? I know for Paul and Lisa, I'll see you when I come home in August. As for everyone else, that is certainly unknown, but you never know. It's a small world, and life can be pretty funny sometimes. I mean, 10 years ago, I never thought I would be in Japan. Who knows where we will all be in 10 years? Wherever it is, I hope we stay friends in the meantime.


"Why can't we get all the people together in the world that we really like and then just stay together? I guess that wouldn't work. Someone would leave. Someone always leaves. Then we would have to say good-bye. I hate good-byes. I know what I need. I need more hellos." ~Charles M. Schulz



"Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes." ~Henry David Thoreau


Sayonara, everyone. I'll see you on the other side of the ocean someday.