...just because you know that it'll be waiting for
you when you get home to the States!!  :)  C'mon
-- Teppei's worth coming back here for, right?

I'll also tell you a little story, although I'll
make it much shorter and less angsty than it was
in real life -- I went through just what you're
feeling now, right after college.  Not only was I
moving all the way across the country, from
Florida to Washington, leaving all of my wonderful
friends behind, but I was also losing the man who
I can really describe as the One True Love of my
life.  My last year of school was very stressful,
we'd had a bunch of minor (and not-so-minor)
disagreements, and the change to a long-distance
relationship was the final blow.

There wasn't a damn thing I could do about all
this except cry.  Which I did, on and off, for a
long, long time.  Afterwards, I did the best I
could to move on with my life.  I made some new
friends, got involved with the same sort of
activities I'd enjoyed down south, even had a
couple of (albeit short) relationships... and
after three years, I really did consider this new
city to be "home".  :)

And then, one of my old college friends got
married, and I had to fly down for the wedding. 
Which meant seeing all of them again -- some of
the best friends I've ever had in my life.  And it
meant seeing HIM again... no matter how much you
say that you've "gotten over" somebody, running
into them again will bring back all the memories
in one major maelstrom of emotion.

I was not exactly looking forward to it.

Here's where I make the rest of the long story
short.  I flew down, spent several days with my
wonderful old buddies, during which I swear it
felt like we'd never been seperated for a minute,
enjoyed the wedding...

...and came back home to Seattle with my One True
Love.  *grin*  A year later, all our college
friends assembled again for one more wedding --
ours.  And as of next month, we'll have been
married for ten wonderful years.  I still don't
pretend to understand how it happened, just that
once we saw each other again, there was simply no
question in either mind that we had to try again,
and had to make it work this time.  And it has.  :)

So why am I telling you this?  *grin*  Just to say
that in my experience, if something is meant to
be, it happens no matter WHAT obstacles might be
in its path.  And that sadness, much as it sucks
to live through, doesn't last forever.

So have a really big **HUG**, make the most of
your remaining time in Japan, and know that all
your virtual friends here are sending you happy
thoughts.  :)  AND don't forget to email me when
you get back to the States, so I can ship off this
pretty chap here!