As the Summer Intensive Language Course came to a close, most people left to go back to their home countries, but a few of us are sticking around for the year. We had a grueling last three days of class, with an in class essay, then a final exam (mine took 3 hours) and then a speech. We all said goodbye to our senseis, one who was incredibly sweet, and the other who was slightly insane.
But we were finally finished and we got to enjoy ourselves. The three helpers in the Cultural Program Lounge put on one last activity for us: a benefit barbecue. We paid to get delicious food out in the nature of the campus under a thunder and lightning sky, and most of our money went to help out the disaster victims. Then on Friday after classes were officially over, we had a farewell party with everyone, and later on a large group of us headed out to an izakaya to celebrate. Izakayas are essentially smallish restaurants known for having cheap drinks and small appetizers, mainly built for a night out with friends or winding down after a long day of work.
Joyce and me at the campus' farewell party. She went back home to Hong Kong after the Summer course ended :[
At the isakaya. Kim, me, Miranda, Joyce.
Kim is my room mate for the rest of the Summer, as well as my travel buddy!
Miranda, Joyce, Laura (also went home after the Summer course, unfortunately), and Na.
Some of our delicious foodstuffs.
I was sad to see so many great people leave, especially since after 6 weeks you finally start feeling like you're getting to know people. But I hope to stay in touch with at least some of them. Now that the Summer Intensive Language Course is over, one chapter of my time abroad has ended, and I have moved onto chapter two: Summer Travels.
This blog has been dormant for too long. I've tried to write a few posts since returning back to America from Japan, but I couldn't figure out why I never kept up with it. I love to travel and explore, and I love to write, so what was the problem? When I created this blog I did so partially to keep my friends and family in the loop while I spent a year of my life exploring a foreign country, but my biggest driving factor was providing information. I researched every corner of the web before I set off on my year abroad in Japan. I wanted to soak up every bit of information I could about life in Japan, the culture overseas, what my school would be like, and everything in between. Looking at pictures, watching videos, and reading everything there was to read consumed me and heightened my excitement immensely. So, I had decided that I wanted to make my trip informative for future study abroad students who would likely be doing the same scouring I had don...
Before I jump straight into this list, I want to clarify that some of these points may be generally incorrect, or could be exclusive to Tokyo. I could also have some of my reasonings wrong. This list is simply something I compiled based off of my own experiences throughout the year that I lived and traveled throughout Japan. This list is also not, in any way, a complete one. I'm sure if you search the internet you can find many other very true facts about Japan that I have forgotten to list here. In urban areas there will, at any given time or place, be at least one コンビニ ("conbini" / convenience store) within walking distance. Japanese people don’t usually have middle names . Japanese people are very interested in each others' blood type - it's like astrology in America, except people take it very seriously. Expect to be asked what your blood type is at least once. Japanese deodorant supposedly doesn't work very well. I brought my own deodo...
On November 25th I got on a bus headed toward Iwate, a coastal prefecture in Northern Japan located half way between the Northernmost part before the Hokkaido island, and Fukushima, where, on March 11th a powerplant encountered many difficulties and became dangerous to the surrounding area. The city we went to was called Rikuzentakata. Rikuzentakata is a unique place, because it is located in a nook of land with the sea accessible on two sides. Before I go any further into this story, I want to explain why I am bothering at all. Unless you were very young on March 11th, 2011 or have no access to the media, you are fully aware of what happened in Norhern Japan, and realize the destruction it caused. So, why bring it up again? It is true that, by telling you about my experience in Iwate, I will not change what happened. But that is not my purpose. What I ask of you is that you simply never forget what you know. As of now, eight months a...
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