I’m not going to Japan this summer.

For the program that they’ve got, and the way it’s set up, I’d be going for the wrong reasons. I wouldn’t be going to Japan to experience the culture, or to immerse myself in the experience of 日本.

Instead, I’d be going to graduate a semester early. I’d be going because I could get the credits out of the way faster, and that is no motivation to go to JCMU.

Additionally, I need the break from school for the summer. I’ve been going straight on since I came back, and I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t felt symptoms of burnout months ago.

With the need for finding funding gone, and the summer opened up, a mountain of stress is gone from my shoulders.

As a side note, Japanese has two verbs for “to exist.” One is あります (arimasu), and is meant for inanimate objects. The other is います (imasu) and is meant for living, mobile objects. When we came upon this lesson, I jokingly mentioned zombies, and いおろい先生 (Professor Ioroi) immediately responded with, “Well, since they move around, they’d be います.” She then put her arms out and shambled a bit around the front of the classroom.