I'm not dead!: A long overdue update

I know I haven't posted in a long, long time.  Sumimasen! Moushiwake gomenasai!  But as my date of departure approached, there was just too much to get done (and by get done, I mean too many adventures left on my list).  I took full advantage of my last few months in Japan to travel, eat, and visit as much as I could.  There were many, many sayonara parties as well as all the trips down memory lane.  There was also the incredibly difficult moving process.  I thought moving to Japan was hard, but it was nothing compared to the hurdles involved with leaving!  Trying to squeeze everything in to just a few weeks left little time for writing.  But fear not, I took lots of notes (and pictures), so this is not the end of Okashi!

Now I am back in South Dakota with Anata and the fur babies after spending some time with Otosan and Okasan in Texas.  It is really great to be home.  I am missing Japan, but so happy to be back with my loved ones.  And they seem pretty pleased to have me back too.  After I get settled in, you can expect to see a lot more activity here.  There are so many things I wanted to write about, but never found the time or right frame to do so.  I also held back on many posts that involved my trips and my job for various reasons.  I hope to share a little more of what my life was like now that I have time to reflect and polish my ideas.  Stay tuned!

Thank you so much to everyone that followed and supported me during this amazing journey.  Since I have been home, I have had many people ask me how my experience was.  They don't understand what a loaded question that is.  In the end I usually go with amazing, fabulous, or wonderful, but these just don't cover the true impact this experience had on me.  I haven't quite figured out how to put it in words, it was something so special and ... I just can't do it.  But when I do figure it out, I will post it here.  Minasan, itsu made hotoni arigatou gozaimashita!