Sayonara, Nippon

Here we are at the end of our Japan adventure.

It is been an incredible ride, which of course is what we had hoped for.

When we made the decision to come to Japan, we were looking for many things - adventure, new friends, exposure to a new culture, and experience overseas, so we could get other work with NGOs, the UN, or international agencies.

Well, we've gotten everything we were looking for and more.

We have made some life-long friends, which in the end, is the most important part. Ancient shrines and strange food are exciting, but it's the people in your life that really matter.

We swam in the sea and hiked in the jungle on Okinawa's Ishigaki and Iriomote islands.

We sat in steaming natural hot baths (onsen) in Oita prefecture, and climbed the lovely Mt. Yufu (Yuku-dake) with dear friends from both Japan and California.

We ate strange foods like horse meat, squid, and seaweed, although my (Serenity's) school lunches likely topped them all.

We've explored the jungle of Tokyo and hiked the ancient stone steps of mountains, cheered at a SoftBank Hawks baseball game, explored ancient Buddha carvings in the forests of Utsuke, sat eye-to-eye with monkeys in Beppu, peered into ancient volcanic craters in Kirishima, rowed a canoe in the deep gorges of Takachiho, strolled the streets and experienced the remains of the atomic bombing in Nagasaki, and endured countless hours of struggling to use the Japanese language, or helping others to use ours.

Through it all, we have come away with even more love than we started with, and a courage and hope that has been cultivated in smiles and successes. Not that the last 16 months haven't been without misunderstandings, frustrations, anger, sadness and fear. But these things have helped us to stand where we do today - at the edge of adventure, peering through the eyes of growing understanding of the Earth on which we live.

For all of this I thank first and foremost our families for giving us the support we needed to take the first steps into the world both in our own lives, and together. Also, I thank everyone in Japan who has given us smiles and cheers when we needed them, listened to our gripes, and shared their own experiences with us.

That said, it's time to move on, and we can now bring the spirit of "ganbate!!" with us.

Sayonara, Nippon!

SoftBank Hawks game

Thanks to our friends Keiko and Katsume, we got to go to a Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks baseball game!

Here's the Yahoo Dome in Fukuoka City

Here's Will with friends at the game!

There's more photos! Click on this link to Flickr to see them!

Go Hawks!