A Year in Japan

I wanted to do one last post to sum up the rest of my time in Japan.  I had very little free time during this last month so most of this was written on the plane back to the states.  

During the past two months I lived with a family named the Nagaishi’s.  

My host mom and sisters were going to a concert in Fukuoka.  Nanako is on the left followed by Shigeru, Ririko and my host mom Yukiko.

I had so much fun with this family and out of all of my families, I ended up becoming closest to them. My host dad, Shigeru, works for a bank in a city about 2 hours from Nagasaki and only came home for the weekends.  This was the first time I had ever lived with all girls but it worked out just fine.  During the weekdays, Nanako, Ririko and I were quite busy with school and other clubs so on weekends, going out to do something fun seemed to be a constant.  

Here are some pictures of my time with the them:

The Nagaishi's minus Ririko.

This was taken on top of the building that the Nagaishis live in.

My host dad, Shigeru and I went mountain climbing one day in his home town.  Behind us is a volcano that erupted about 20 years ago.

Starting this August, Nanako is going to be the next exchange student from Nagasaki going to St. Paul. It will be fun to see her during the times I'm home from school.

Fukuoka

This is called a yatai.  In Fukuoka, these little outdoor food shacks can be found all over.  They only seat about 8 or 9 people but the food is really good.

School

High school in Japan was a very interesting experience but it was the hardest part of my exchange. There were a lot of days where all I could do was study Japanese by myself.  The rules are very strict and not many exceptions were made for me.  Eventually I was at the point where I felt that I'd be learning a lot more if I had been able to do something else during the weekdays.  With that said, I'm glad I was able to see first hand what Japanese high school was like and that I had great classmates throughout the year.

This was my class for the first half of the year.  I ended up being a lot closer with them than with my second class.

All of the classrooms look just like this.

Here's the main entry to Minami Ko.  

Tokyo

My last week in Japan was spent living with a previous host family’s (The Hondas) daughter’s family in Tokyo.  While there, I was able to do a lot of things that I didn’t get to do when I was there last month as well as revisit some of the places that I wanted to spend some more time in.

Here are some highlights from the trip:

Tsukiji

This is the biggest fish market in the world. Every Saturday morning there is an auction selling all sorts of fish.  The most popular and high priced are the tuna.  I was told that a few years ago the most expensive tuna to date was sold for the equivalent of 1.3 million dollars.  That's one fish.

This frozen tuna was sitting in the back of a truck

We wanted to see the auction so we all got up and 3:30 A.M. and took a taxi to Tsukiji.  Once there, we found out that the auction was already filled up.  My host said that the auction is a popular place for foreigners to go and it must fill up a lot faster than it used to.  Apparently a lot of people stay out all night at bars and then head to the auction at around 3:00 A.M. to guarantee a spot. 

Luckily, there were lots of things going on outside of the auction so we had plenty to see. People were hauling fish all over the grounds on these little motorized carts that are supposedly unique to Tsukiji.  There were lots of little open air shops selling fresh fish and other sea creatures. Out of all the places that I visited while in Tokyo, it was here that I most felt like I was in a movie.  I took pictures in a 16:9 aspect ratio setting to try and show it in that way. 

Those yellow things facing the camera are the carts that I mentioned earlier.

Octopus

There were a lot of little shops like these surrounding the fish market area. 

We ended up getting sushi at one of the fish market sushi shops.

Shinjuku

I had wanted to go to Shinjuku last month during the exchange student trip but we didn’t have enough time.  Shinjuku is one of the busiest parts of Tokyo and I wanted to see the night scene. Each one of Tokyo’s main hubs is known for a different thing and Shinjuku is typically a place where businessmen go after work or on the weekends to eat and drink.  It's filled with all sorts of restaurants and bars. While there I didn’t do much besides take pictures and go in a few stores.  Here are some pictures of Friday night in Shinjuku:

Shibuya

I had visited Shibuya last month during the exchange student trip but I thought it was worth going back to see the parts I hadn’t been to before.  I ended up going several times throughout the week.

Shibuya Crossing from above

This is Natsuno, one of my previous host family's daughters.  I stayed with her and her husband while in Tokyo.

I was able to meet Mizuki one night who was previously an exchange student in Northfield.

*I just wanted to note here that everyone not sleeping on the plane was just given a turkey sandwich and a cup of ice cream.  Next stop America.

I had a really good time during my last week and it was a nice end to the exchange year.  By the end of the week I felt satisfied with how much I was able to explore Tokyo.  Going to Tokyo was good also in that it served as a bit of a taper on my year in Japan.  When I left Nagasaki, I was only saying goodbye to the people and city rather than Japan all together.  

Leaving Japan after this year is and was a very strange feeling. I’m not even sure exactly how I’m feeling about it now but I definitely haven’t experienced it before.  I’m over excited to be able to be home and see my family and friends.  I look forward to hearing what everyones been doing during this year apart and getting back into the swing of things.  Also, being around people who I can express things to sufficiently at all times will be nice.  That’s not something that was always possible in Japan because of my Japanese. 

On the other hand, leaving Japan and all the people I’ve met and become close to isn’t easy.  In most ways, it’s way harder than leaving the U.S. was because of the fact that I knew I’d be returning, (Unless I were to die of boredom in a Japanese high school which I now know may actually be possible.) and that isn’t the case with leaving Japan.  Unfortunately it’s not that easy to pick up and go there, especially for the poor college student I’m about to become. So, I suppose the hardest part is that in leaving Japan, I’m saying goodbye to something that I don’t know I’ll ever get back.  With that said, I do believe I’ll be able to return one day.  Hopefully more than once.  

The relationships that started while I was abroad were as good as any I could have asked for and some are as strong as the ones I have in The U.S.  This goes especially for my host families.  A host family is something that can make or break an exchange student’s time abroad and I'm glad that I had such great ones.  Leaving these people was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do but I’m excited to see what these relationships bring in the future.    

Here are some extra photos that I took in my last two months:

I took a short glass blowing class one day in Nagasaki and made a cup with Shigeru.

I was able to meet Chihiro and Miharu once before leaving.

This is Tokyo Tower.

In Tokyo, I tried ramen with some sort of citrus broth.  

I was able to go camping with the mountaineering team once more before I left Nagasaki.

Here is the entire mountaineering team.

This is tsukemen.  It's like ramen only the noodles are dipped into the broth rather than sitting in it.

Back in America

One of the things I was most scared about before leaving for Japan was how coming back home was going to be.  I'm used to sharing experiences with close family and friends.  It's hard going to another country for a year and not having anyone to talk to about it once back at home.  While in Japan I experienced so many new and different things but everyone that I shared these experiences with lives in Japan.  I want to be able to tell people all about the year but it was an experience that is difficult to share with someone who wasn't there with me.  The more time I've spent in the U.S. the more I've realized that this past year in Japan was a personal journey that I embarked on by myself and that it's something that's a lot more important to me than it is to others.  Although it was expected to some extent, it's something that I'll have to get used to.

The fact that I became accustomed to and now feel at home in a place like Japan is still a bit hard for me to grasp.  I’m very glad it happened and I couldn't really have asked for a better exchange year. I was able to do all the things I wanted to do when I originally left for Japan.  It was an incredible time and I feel lucky it happened the way that it did.  I hope to be back soon.

Thanks for reading!