March 16th, I landed in Japan. My life here has been incredible since then! In every single way, study abroad has been better than I ever expected coming into this. Initially, when starting my study abroad process, I was very stressed and worried that the expense would outweigh the positives, but I was very wrong. I could go on and on about how great it’s been, but that’s been said a million times. In this journal, I will talk about popular things people say about study abroad or Japan and comment on whether I think they are exaggerated or just right!
1: You will not learn more Japanese, if you surround yourself with other international students.
I heard this so much before coming to Japan, which worried me quite a bit since a big reason for coming here was to improve my Japanese. For my dormitory, I didn’t have many options, so I chose the international student dormitory. which worried me even further that I wouldn’t speak Japanese with friends. This was very wrong. As soon as I came here, I met so many other like-minded international students who all wanted to speak Japanese. I feel like this is actually a good way to get better at Japanese since we are all learning it as a foreign language and are all at different levels of proficiency. When we speak to each other in Japanese, it is far more comprehensible than listening to native Japanese speakers, and we can even teach each other things we have learned recently in class that are useful. Not only that, but I’ve made three great Japanese friends who live at my international dormitory. I believe living at an international dormitory isn’t only good for meeting people from around the world, but also for meeting Japanese students who explicitly want to speak with and befriend international students.
2: Study abroad in a big city like Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, etc.
This was honestly the piece of advice I heard most before coming here. While this advice does depend on the person, I feel like it can create a negative outlook on less popular cities or even more rural areas, which may convince someone not to choose them, even though they may have loved it. Right now, I’m studying in Nishinomiya at Kwansei Gakuin University and living in Takarazuka. While Takarazuka and Nishinomiya are far from being rural towns or villages, they are definitely less traveled, especially in comparison to cities like Tokyo and Osaka. I chose the most rural dormitory I could have possibly chosen, and I don’t regret it a single bit. Takarazuka is a suburban city between Kobe and Osaka, so I can easily access those cities in 30–40 minutes with only a single train whenever I want. The daily life of a suburban city like Takarazuka has been amazing. It’s far calmer than the big city, but there is still so much to do, and I have access to everything whenever I want. I want to go hiking? Okay, there’s a beautiful mountain hike maybe a five-minute bus ride away. Do I want to do some extensive shopping and experience nightlife? Osaka is only a $1 train ride and 40 minutes away!
3: Spring and Summer is the worst time to go to Japan
For tourists, this is one of the things you’ll hear all the time when talking about Japan. Tourism-wise, I may agree with the fact that summer is one of the rougher times to go purely because of how hot it is, but living here, I wouldn’t totally agree. I think when living in Japan, there is no “worst” season just because you get to experience everything a season has to offer. So far in Japan, I’ve experienced all of spring and only the beginning of summer. Spring was incredible, the sheer amount of cherry blossoms that you see everywhere is amazing. The weather was perfect and allowed for many great hikes around the Kansai region.
Summer, well, I haven’t experienced all of it but I can confidently say it is as hot as you have heard, and even worse. I’m from Illinois, and it gets pretty dang hot and humid in the summer, but the difference here is that you have to walk pretty much everywhere, so you are constantly baking in the hell that is humid heat. The reason I say I actually think it isn’t the worst season is because, in Japan, summer has a lot of cultural and societal significance. In Japanese, there are words like wabi-sabi, which is pretty much beauty in imperfection, and natsukashii, which is basically just nostalgia. Wabi-sabi is commonly tied to summer because of the imperfections of the season, such as the heat, the beaming sunlight, and the greenery. These things, which are often overlooked and imperfect, are seen as important parts that make daily life beautiful.
Natsukashii represents summer even more so. Summer in Japan is very nostalgic for Japanese people—it reminds many of the bright days of their youth, from the colorful fireworks of Hanabi to the nostalgic sound of chirping cicadas. It reminds them of times when life was simpler, melancholic, and beautiful. That’s why I think summer while living in Japan is actually amazing. Since we didn’t grow up here, we get to experience that part of the culture for ourselves, creating our own natsukashii memories and feeling exactly what they felt. The heat sure does suck, but I feel that once I’m home talking about what happened while I was gone, I will talk about my summer memories the most.
