These past few months have gone by faster than any in my entire life. Soon, those of us only staying one semester will be leaving, and we are collectively trying to ignore that fact. I’m holding on to the future and the last few travels we are going on together; namely Sapporo and maybe Seoul! And even those some of my good friends are leaving, I know that we will always have open doors for each other for a long time.
I did learn a lot of things about myself. Things that I thought I had never thought about.
1. It’s not that difficult to be in another country.
The fear of heart-wrenching homesickness and culture shock could’ve destroyed a lot of my confidence coming to live in Japan for a year. But as the weeks before flying came and as the months after arriving passed, I didn’t feel much of a difference. That’s not to say I don’t miss home or my family, but I certainly haven’t had to take a day off because of it. Perhaps moving from my hometown to my university 3 hrs away gave me a thicker skin. But a 3 hr drive is nothing compared to a 14 hr flight. Despite not being able to drive home for the holidays, I don’t feel isolated. After all, we have the technology to keep in contact so intimately with video chats and texting that homesickness becomes more about familiar foods and places than loved ones. Leaving the States behind was the mountain, the reality just a mole hill.
2. Language confidence over precision.
Native English speakers have no idea how challenging it is to learn a second language and to actually use it at the main form of communication. Sure, all of us have taken a few years of a second language in school (Spanish being most popular in the States at least), but if you’d leave the US there really isn’t a lot of speaking opportunity later in life. And I will add that speaking is immensely different from reading/writing. Trust me, I can perform quite well when it comes to texting, but try initiating a face-to-face conversation and I’m little more than a toddler babbling away. As for Japan, people are really excited and impressed if you’re able to speak Japanese, especially since English language skills are generally intermediate or lower. I love to speak Japanese with the store clerks (if they aren’t scared off by presuming I only speak English) and we often have pretty nice small talk. The students here are also hilarious and have a lot of patience for those of us struggling to find words at times. Conversations flow quite easily between English and Japanese, throwing in replacement words for unknown vocabulary and emphasizing anything and everything. It’s become a wonderful mutt language within the study abroad group.
Here are a few of my favorite terms:
- daijoubs (大丈夫=daijoubu) making a shortened version of the Japanese simply meaning “alright”.
- And to accompany with the opposite “naijoubs” (nai coming from the negation of Japanese verbs).
- Lastly, “konnichiwhatsup?” colliding the Japanese hello (こんいちは=konnichiwa) and “whats up”.
3. Don’t be shy
If you know me, you might know that it can take me a while to warm up to people, and perhaps even longer to keep me out of my room on the weekends. I’ve never had problems making friends, and honestly my dad was more concerned about my friendship making skills than I was. It becomes incredible easy to make friends when only some people speak Japanese and a lot are just learning. English is still our main form of communication within the study abroad students, but we’ve all grown a lot in our Japanese skills. Still, I was a bit shy when we first all arrived. Eventually, I branched out more and started going out with people, and I don’t know why I didn’t sooner! I love everyone here and they definitely make me happy. When we had our Christmas party, I was grabbing the last few dishes for the meal and when I came out of the elevator everyone cheered my name. Now that is a great feeling! Whether it was for me or the food, I’m not sure but I’m choosing to believe it was all for me! I’m really going to miss these people….
4. Don’t feel pressured to go sightseeing
There’s a LOT to see in Japan in terms of sightseeing. I’ve done my fair share of traveling while I’ve been here, but there are times when I’m lying in my bed playing computer games of lazy weekends that I feel I should be doing more. The thing is, you don’t HAVE to do more. Having the luxury of spending a year in Japan gives me the freedom to be more selective for where and when I want to travel. While I do want to go to as many places as I can, there’s just too much other stuff to do (like school, you know, the reason I’m here). We do go once in a while now, not so much as previous months when the excitement is still fresh, but we’ve graduated from historical sites to local. More often now, we go to restaurants and such than shrines or temples. Which is fine! Most of us have big travel plans for the upcoming 2 month long break so that’s where a lot of money saving has been going. It’s better to take your time between sightseeing, otherwise everything is just going to blur together.
5. Japan is not what you think it is.
There are a lot of misconceptions about Japan, particularly in the US, that are both good and bad. Most of perception of this foreign country comes from WWII and the “weird” stuff that finds it’s way onto the internet. Yes, there are some “weird” things in Japan, like idol and otaku culture, but Japan really is a very normal place. What really surprised me most if how lopsided the advance of technology is here in Japan, specially on and around campus. They are still stuck in the paper age where teachers handout’s end up taking over your backpack and online anything is basically unheard of. They turn in essays in class, homework is always a sheet of paper, and powerpoints are printed and handed out before presented in class. I still don’t understand how a nation so obsessed with recycling clings to the somewhat archaic overuse of paper materials. Also, in terms of wi-fi and internet, Japan is sorely behind. The on-campus wi-fi rarely works and most coffee shops and restaurants don’t provide any kind of internet connection. While I do have my own router at my dorm at an incredibly cheap price (about $150 for 1 year), there are certain hours where the internet drops to a snails crawl. Japan uses other outdated forms of technology too. Everything is paid with cash, although you can use your subway card to pay at some conbini’s, and ATMs are sparse (especially for international accounts). Japan just isn’t the technologically advanced, futuristic place portrayed by western media. But that’s not a bad thing.
There are many things about Japan I wish I could bring back with me to America. You’ve heard of my love for conbini’s and vending machine’s with warm beverages, but there’s a lot more that puts America to shame. Firstly, Japan is so clean. I’m almost confident that you could eat oatmeal off the sidewalk no harm no foul. The level of respect for others personal space and comfort is fantastic. This also attributes to how safe and how quiet it is. Now, Nagoya is the third largest city in Japan but you wouldn’t think it being here. Yes, the city is enormous and breathtaking, but it’s also so quiet–sometimes that suspicious quiet where you feel the hairs of your arm stand up. People don’t shout and speak loudly or talk on their phones everywhere they go. They aren’t standoff-ish, but they don’t want to make you uncomfortable by spontaneous conversation. (I can’t tell you how many times people have just started talking to me randomly in the US). They also generally have a nice perspective on other countries of the world. Where I presumed there would be some negative feelings toward America, as there typically is (understandably), those who I’ve talked to praise American’s kindness, confidence, and cheerful nature. They like our boldness and openness towards strangers, and many have expressed interest in visiting America (which of course swells one’s patriotism).
I could go on about the wonderful things and people I’ve encountered here in Japan these last few months, but I fear my list might grow too long. I’m incredibly happy. I’m content living in Japan, despite the hinderances I face when trying to cook/bake. While I am looking forward to returning home, I know that Japan is just another place I can call my second home.
A Little Slack in Japan 