And So It Ends

This is, failing something unforeseen, is the last post that I will write for this blog. While I do have gigabytes stacked upon gigabytes of photos taken in places like Kyoto and Hiroshima, I feel like they don't convey anything special that more generally available information about those sites cannot already.

So, if I am not going to relate my final travels, what does one write to end a a blog like this one? I decided after casting about that I will simply resort to a quotation here- Karl Marx's purported last words:

"Last words are for fools who haven't said enough."

I've seen any number of people flounder, both in writing or in conversation, while trying to get at the essential profundity of having had an experience like JET. Often times, they resort to hyperbole, or spin wearisome lists of impressions. I don't think either one is terribly helpful- I think that the full gravity of an intercultural experience is best and probably only appreciated as a narrative, which takes on its value with the sequential progression of events; and the evolution over time of both the setting and of the narrator.

And so, I'm going to take Marx's advice, and not bother to try to express what it all means, so to speak. I think the best way to feel this is to read the older posts (or even talk to me in real life!), and to try to compile a sort of cluster of ideas and images; a kind of cloudy truth that speaks to the complexity of experiences that are grounded in human relationships.

Thank you all for reading, it has been an amazing experience, and I hope that you managed to take something away from reading about Japan through my eyes. That being said:

Sayonara.