[(o^^)-o*(x_x)*]

Spoiler:

Just watched the raws. The one year thing doesn't sit with me all that well, though I can sort of relate, since my girlfriend travels to Korea every year and is away for 3 months.

And as Yukinokesshou pointed out, did Ryuuji go out and travel to where Taiga was during that time, or did he just sit on his ass and waited all that time? If the latter, I know Ryuuji's not rich and all, but god damn, she's your girlfriend for god sakes. Take the god damn initiative. It wasn't like she was like halfway across the world, judging by her uniform at the end.