Traveling to Saitama

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Kobby Tran

<i>"Hello" in your host country's language:</i> ใ“ใ‚“ใซใกใฏ(Konnichiwa) <i>Home Institution (your U.S. University/College):</i> California State University Channel Islands <i>Expected graduation year:</i> 2024 <i>Destination city & country:</i> Tokyo, Japan <i>Program provider:</i> California State University International Program <i>Major/minor:</i> Liberal Studies in Education <i>Demographics:</i> Asian/Asian American, First-Generation American, First-Generation College Student, LGBTQ+ <i>Future career aspirations:</i> I aspire to become a foreign language teacher to impact student's lives in a positive manner. <i>Top 3 goals for your time abroad:</i> My top three goals would be to expand my world view through exposure of different cultures, increase my comprehension of the Japanese language, and to learn more about Japanese culture through sight seeing.

I realized some time ago that I tend to be an extroverted introvert, I find energy hanging around people whose energy I enjoy being around, that’s why I find myself socializing so often. I also treasure my alone time dearly and need a lot of it to mentally recover so that I can continue socializing. That’s why I decided to take an entire day to myself to travel to a place completely different from Tokyo completely alone. Although Saitama is only one prefecture away from Tokyo, the differences which I noticed are endless. It was kind of a taste of my old home back in California, where I was raised in a relatively small farming town. I had no particular destination in mind, just where ever my legs decided to take me that day. I initially did have a destination in mind but as it turns out, since it was New Years weekend, the place I wanted to go to was closed for the week, so since that was the case, I decided to just walk around the city. It was very quiet and quaint, with not much going on compared to the city life of Tokyo, I could enjoy the fresh air and the cooling wind brush on my sunkissed skin. The inner peace I felt was immense and it was truly an enlightening experience to just explore nature for an entire day, a complete change of pace from my day to day life. Along the path I was walking on I stumbled upon a very massive lake, to which I stared at the surface for around half and hour, just taking in the sight, allowing myself the liberty to feel whatever emotions I may have been feeling, think whatever thoughts I might have been thinking. After staring at the lake, I was able to visit a random shrine which was surprisingly well kept for the size of the shrine. The scene of everything I saw that day was completely mesmerizing and truly an experience that I would like to go through again in the future