hairfish

First time on trains without my host family but with a friend who is also doing a home stay. We get to Temple University Japan Azubu campus no problem. We get back to Koshigaya no problem. We part ways. I get lost walking home for forty minutes. I call my host father. I wait for an hour and thirty minutes…at the wrong exit to the Kita-Koshigaya station. Somehow, I decide to get up and walk to the East entrance only to run into my host mother and younger host sister.

Jet lag is KILLING me. I need sleep now. Actually, I needed it four hours ago, but still. Pictures tomorrow!

First impressions of Tokyo:

• Tokyo is so big, it might as well be it’s own country
• What am I doing here?!
• Riding the trains and being stuffed in them with 817,675,354 people and baggage during rush hour is NOT FUN
• Why is it so intimidating to convert USD into YEN in my brainsz? Why? It took me three tries to get eighty dollars out of the atm.
• Speaking of ATMS, why are they so amazing? And easy to use?
• Vending machines are EVERYWHERE
• Although Tokyo is known for having incredibly stylish citizens, there are some hot messes walking around the city.
• Attempting to speak Japanese is not as hard as it seems. The Japanese are very accommodating and willing to help you get your point across if you just try.

I have a serious case of homesickness though. It only really hit me after I landed, and it’s making me physically ill. Although, I have a feeling the airline food probably has more to do with it than anything. After a fourteen hour plane ride and a horrific albeit very interested hour long commute with my host family to their abode in Saitama, I am worn out. I have orientation tomorrow at ten am, Japanese time. Mataku…

There is word I hear often when I watch anime: 懐かしい (natsukashii), an adjective describing a feeling of nostalgia or a fond memory. For whatever reason, many anime characters are filled to the brim with feelings of 懐かしい. I believe I am suffering from this issue of nastukashii. I’m leaving tomorrow to go a million miles away from home!

Although I’ve been in college for three years now, I have family in Chicago, so I always have someone I know well. I usually have some form of familial support so now I’m really going to be “on my own” and, to be completely honest, it’s sort of scary. I think about how I will miss hearing my father’s laugh or how I took for granted be able to call him three times a day just to talk about whatever is on my mind. Or hugging my mom just because. I’ll even miss my brother bugging the crap out of me for no reason.

Adventures, I suppose, have to begin like this. A little bit of hesitation and a lot of excitement with a tinge of nostalgia for good measure.

I’ll be reporting from Tokyo tomorrow! Yatta!

Three days before Japan:

• Did all of my shopping save for school supplies
• Packed my suitcase, finally
• Chose a book to read on the ride there (Barack Obama’s Dreams from My Father)
• Still working on my nerves
• Almost ready to ikimashou!

Packing.

I’ve packed and moved all of myself on five separate occasions over the past eight months, hence, everything I will (or should) be taking with me to Japan are sitting on top of my suitcase. I wish everything would just pack itself! I guess packing should be the most fun part of traveling but when you do it so frequently, it sort of turns into a choir and no one likes doing choirs. I’ve still got some things to pick up to hold me over for the first three months in Japan, too. Maybe this is anxiety. Perhaps. But you know, looking at my suitcase isn’t really getting the job done.

If only I could use my mind to will my belongings to fold and pack themselves neatly!

Fifteen Thirteen days until departure and now I’m nervous. The first thing people ask when I finally fess up and tell them I’m moving to Tokyo for five months, some nine thousand miles away from “home”, is “are you nervous?”. And I wasn’t, oh, five months ago. I was nervous about other things: applying to Temple, waiting to be accepted (or denied), attempting to finish up my junior year of college, working on my language skills; things like that made me nervous.

Now that I’ve acquired my passport and my visa, now that I’ve exchanged a few emails with my host family, now that I only have fifteen days left in the United States of America for the next five months, I am very, completely, totally nervous. Studying in Tokyo is single handedly the most ambitious thing I’ve done ever. I’ve only just reach the age of majority in Japan (that would be twenty) and the farthest abroad I’ve been by myself (i.e. without my parents) was when I went to Quebec that one time almost thirteen years ago. I’ve been dreaming about life in Tokyo for so many years and now that it’s only a few weeks away, I not only find myself nervous but in utter disbelief that it has actually happened.

That’s the coolest thing about dreaming because when that dream becomes reality it still feels like a dream, only you are very much awake during the entire episode. My nerves, however, are not just a result of going so far away from home because that’s very appealing and well needed at the moment, but I still have so much to do! I didn’t take into consideration that it may be difficult finding shoes that fit me (I wear an eight and a half) or jeans that fit my shape correctly or just having a few comforts from home like peanut butter, my favorite movie theater candies, and Doritios Blazing Buffalo and Ranch. These are the things you don’t think about when applying for a study abroad program but when you start to feeling Tokyo knocking on your door, it’s rather hard to to think about all the things you’ll be leaving, if only temporarily. At the same time, I’m really anxious to get to Tokyo and be in thick of it.

Although I haven’t left yet, I have a few tidbits of advice for anyone planning on studying abroad in Tokyo.

1. Practice the language! And do it in anyway you can. I have a habit of keeping textbooks and drills from my Japanese courses. I even have my kanji books from high school which will serve as a kanji dictionary and a way to practice reading and writing kanji. My textbooks allow me to practice basic greetings, learn important vocabulary, and studying grammar so I feel more confident that I can have simple conversations in Japanese so I am not completely lost and not entirely annoying to those I meet.
2. Talk to other study abroad students: This should be a bit of a no brainer. Get to know other people who have studied abroad as they will have a wealth of information to give you. Good, insider information. And if at all possible, get to know your current classmates. You’ll feel a lot less shy and nervous if you get to know a few people before leaving.
3. Make copies of all important documents: This includes state and student IDs, your ISIC, passport, visa, health insurance card, other health related documents and identification documents. Keep one with your parents and keep a copy with you just in case something happens. I’m copying everything this week and I’m also planning on leaving some copies with my study abroad office at my home institution…just in case.
4. Keep a copy of your academic record: Make sure you know what classes you’re taking and pick fun stuff! There’s no point in taking classes abroad that you can take a home, so use this time to explore some facet of your education you can’t explore at your home institution, or delve deep into an interest of yours. I’m taking more anthropology related classes because I’m working on anthropologically based project and because I have a long standing interest in it. I’m also taking a break from photography classes and allow myself to shoot freely without the impending doom of critiques and six prints due on Monday or else.
5. Be excited! I’m so excited, I talk to myself in Japanese. A bit extreme but hey, at least I’m practicing. I’m even planning little photo trips and shopping trips I’ll be taking. I look forward to getting to know the neighborhood I’ll be living in and I’ve begun to correspond with my host family so we’re all excited to see each other. Tokyo is a big adventure for me and it starts before I land in Japan.