23 years I have walked this earth, as of two days ago.
"So far so good", I wondered as I awoke on the 4th of this new month. I slept in and missed the annual festival of Kitanotenmangu shrine, my newly acquired sunburns left me weak and tired so it wasn't until around 4 p.m. that I finally made my way down there after two bus rides in the suffocating heat. The festival began at 8 a.m. so I had completely missed everything, what remained were a few shrine employees drying nuts under pristine white tarps.

I did enjoy walking around the grounds and chatting with the people, there were these 2 girls from the U.S. that needed translation and the girl selling the おまもり talismans asked for help on spelling and properly pronouncing what I translated. I got to share some information I had learned about Buddhism and Shinto and of course Sugawara no Michizane, who the temple is dedicated to.
I found myself at the place where they sell the talismans in order to buy one for help with my studies, they do sell them everywhere but Sugawara no Michizane was a known scholar in his time and so the Japanese pray to him for everything related to studies. I thought I would too... it couldn't hurt, right?

I later met with Sabine and Edda and we had Indian food and went to the movies to see Inception, starring some of Hollywood's finest. Leaving the theater and stepping into the Kyoto evening I looked around the bustling streets, at the people enjoying time together by the river, pedestrians walking by and laughing, the steady never ending traffic of Shijo street, the neon signs, listened to the many languages (mainly Japanese) around me and the dark stones under my feet that had been trod by so many people for hundreds of years. I am so thankful for this, the most brilliant opportunity in my life, to have been able to live in Kyoto for almost a whole year, make friends, learn the language, see so many things, travel everywhere - it's way to huge to be condensed and restricted into a few words or sentences.
It has been the adventure of a lifetime and I am sad to be leaving, but I am also happy to be leaving one part of my life for another.

Life never stops, there is so much to see, do and learn. I will never do even half of what I want to do it in my lifetime even if I live to be a hundred so I know I will never get bored. My eyes glimmer and shine as they look to the future to see what it has in store, its going to be epic. :)

Thank you so much for everything, people of the I-House I have shared so much time with, Japanese people I have met during my stay, Japan - you have been so good to me, and everyone who is reading this.

I will be back one day for certain. :)