Study Abroad and Domestic Study Away

Studying abroad in Japan has been one of the most exciting and fun experiences in my life. However, studying abroad also means that there’s gonna be a lot of struggles that come with it. Living in a new county that is far away from home and everything that is familiar is not something that is easy to get used to. There is a big difference between vacationing abroad and living abroad and those were apparent right as I arrived here. When I first arrived, I felt disconnected from everything that I once felt connected with. Only being able to talk to friends and family over the phone added to that disconnection. Especially in the beginning, when I was desperate for human interaction.

At this point on, I had to push myself to make friends and find ways to immerse myself into the culture. It was a very slow start and took a little for me to remember why I came here, but as time went on, it became easier and I started feeling more connected. Through all these stressful and hard times, I gained so much experience with finding balance in my life between school work and my social life. Those alone are difficult to balance, so adding culture shock to that creates a whole new issue. However, even though it was painful at first, it was worth it in the end for all the amazing times I had and memories I made.

Some of my most fondest memories are from going to karaoke on the weekend and singing with the close friends that I made. It was such a nice way to bond and get closer to the people you meet here. One of my other fondest memories is going to the yakiniku restaurant that I live next to. I was able to meet some of the locals in the restaurant and use the Japanese that I’ve been learning and also allow them to speak some English. Restaurants such as yakiniku and izakaya are perfect for immersing yourself within the culture and the community. Especially if you go to the small ones.

Once I was able to find more balance with my daily life, I was also able to start really enjoying my classes. I especially enjoyed the electives. Besides Japanese, I took calligraphy, martial arts, and Japanese history. Calligraphy and martial arts were very relaxing classes and also taught me a lot about the subjects too. These classes allowed me to focus on immersing myself into Japan without getting too overwhelmed with homework.

Ingrid and George Speros,

Thank you for this opportunity to fulfill a long time dream of mine to study abroad and live here in Japan. Thanks to you I was able to grow a lot more as a person and come to understand and learn about a new culture along with developing more fluency within the Japanese language.

Luke inside Nagoya Castle: