The downside

I'm not gonna lie. Some aspects of this whole year abroad thing are really hard! The main thing being having to leave my lovely boyfriend :(

For two people who have almost literally lived in each other's pockets for the past two years, the prospect of spending a whole one apart isn't exactly the greatest thing. The time difference, along with uni commitments and social schedules is going to make it very challenging for us to talk anywhere near as much as I'd like.

What makes it even worse is that he has a year abroad in the US next year (2012/13) - the year I get back! Not exactly the best news for someone who's so addicted to cuddles that I genuinely think there's a possibility I may have been a teddy bear in another life.

Some days the thought of all this makes me pretty wobbly, and on those off-days I have sometimes had thoughts like "do I really want to do this?"...but at the end of the day, I guess you at least have to try things in life, or you'll never really know how it could have turned out and learn to regret it (as much of a terrible cliche as that sounds - apologies!!). I do think I'd be disappointed with myself if I didn't seize this opportunity, I mean come on, it's Japan. It's going to be amazing. It's just going to make it a damned lot harder!

I'm not going to lie and pretend Tokyo will all be fine and dandy just for the sake of a scintillating, witty piece of blog journalism, but I'm hopeful. On the days where everything doesn't feel impossibly scary, I'm even sometimes a little bit excited. I'm just going to miss waking up in the morning and seeing his face a hell of a lot.