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We had already set foot in the land of the red rising sun but until this very moment,

I am not really sure what I had hoped to experience.

Occasionally, I stumble upon the phrase live as if it’s your last. When I tried to know what it really means, I realized that the only time I ever have to do anything is this moment, because this is the only moment any of us ever gets. The future is not guaranteed. For 11 days; roughly around a week and 3 days [since one day is dedicated to our plane flight], I tried to exactly do that. If I’m honest, it wasn’t all that hard. The long train rides, the angst of meeting a stranger, the euphoria of saying a foreign word correctly: all of which came like a flood and I fell in love with the feeling.

I fell in love with the circumstances I’ve been through. I’ve seen how different catastrophes made Japan a resilient and enduring country. I can never be happier that the Japanese people got to share their culture with me as an exchange student.

On the following days, as we continue to discover what’s more to look forward to in this beautiful country,

I am sure to experience a lot of great things that I will only experience once.

I should better make this experiences worth the while