A few months later

Its been months since I've been to Japan and I still find myself reminiscing back to the days I spent in Tokyo. I really enjoyed it there. I look forward to the day I return. (Hopefully, it will be with next summer's group to Osaka)

My friends who have known me for a long time told me that I've changed. And they like the new me. I'm more outgoing and more importantly, I've become independent. I left my parent's house in the suburbs and moved to the "big city," if you can call Honolulu that. It has been hard to adjust to living on my own. Some days are great because I am free to do what I want. Other days I barely get through because the feeling of loneliness sets in. These are the days I'm thankful of the people I met during the trip. All I have to do is get on the phone and call Travis, Stacy, Bev, or Aja and talk. Or I pick up my camera and walk around the city taking photographs. I think about the time we walked through the streets of Ginza and imagine what it would be like to do something similar in the streets of Honolulu. I think about the typhoon and how we didn't even care it was coming.
-A couple of months ago, we had a hurricane headed to the Hawaiian islands and the people here started stockpiling on water and canned goods, you know, the necessities. I'm glad to say the hurricane was downgraded to a tropical depression by the time it got to Oahu. The reason I bring this up is because we got nervous. When we were in Japan, we didn't feel the same way. The typhoon was coming and we just went along with the trip.

I think about it now and I feel somewhat empowered.