Hello everyone!
My name is Cindy, I am a senior at Linfield majoring in International Relations with a minor in Japanese. I am currently studying abroad in Yokohama, Japan at the Kanazawa-Hakkei campus of Kanto Gakuin University. I have been in Japan for a bit over a month now, and it has been quite an experience. I was feeling very anxious over the summer, especially because I was the only Linfield student going abroad to KGU for this semester. In late July I was notified that I was actually the only student from the United States that would be participating in the program, which only made me more anxious. The only thing that I was feeling confident about at that point was being able to navigate the actual traveling by myself. I have had quite a bit of experience traveling internationally, and even though this was my first time doing it alone, it was an easy process for me.
I left Oregon on August 28th in the early morning but arrived in Japan on August 29th. The travel was very long and exhausting and I didn’t get to my dorm until around 7 pm. I was a bit surprised because I noticed that the dorms look pretty much exactly as they do on the website. The room is pretty small, but it is comfortable. I had one week to get adjusted and rest before my classes started, though it was actually quite a busy week for me. The day after I arrived, I had orientation. The orientation consisted of reading through a welcome packet going over the guidelines and plans for the program, as well as some procedures and information about transportation. I also had to go to the local immigration office to get some paperwork done regarding pension and health insurance.
The next day I met my host family for the first time. They are a family of three who own three dogs. I was only able to meet my host mother and my host sister; I believe that my host father was most likely working. They seem like a very nice family, though I was a bit sad to find out that my host sister will be gone during my homestay. She is now studying abroad in Switzerland. The day after meeting my host family, I had a free day, so my host sister took me to explore Shibuya. I experienced the Shibuya Scramble Crossing for myself, which was pretty cool. We visited some stores, got some bubble tea from Gong Cha (apparently a very popular boba shop), and ended the day by going to Kura Sushi for dinner.
The same day that I met my host family I met a group of KGU students that gave me a tour of campus. I think that KGU is smaller in size than Linfield, or at least the area of campus that I was given a tour of was smaller. There is a 7/11 on campus, but it was not going to be open until September. After the tour and lunch, I was asked to choose between Kamakura and Yokohama for a mini tour, I ended deciding on Kamakura. Kamakura is known for having lots of temples and shrines and one of the most popular tourist attractions is a huge statue of the Great Buddha. We went to a popular Shinto Shrine named Tsurugaoka Hachimangu, which was really close to the bus stop that we got off at. After that, we went to Komachi Street, it is a popular shopping street that has apparently been featured in TV shows. I tried some sweet soy sauce dango, which was really good but almost too sweet for my taste. Lastly, we took a train to Enoshima. There was a very nice beach and apparently the location is famous because it resembles an opening scene in the anime Slam Dunk, so there were lots of people taking photos and waiting for the train to pass.
I did experience a few culture shocks during my first week. Though it’s not necessarily a culture shock, the first thing that I noticed was that the weather was much hotter than I had expected. The humidity is no joke and makes the heat uncomfortable. It made me realize that I didn’t pack enough summer clothes. Though I knew that most people use public transportation, I was not expecting to see so many people riding bikes. Japan is known for being clean, but one of the things that surprised me were the cars. All the cars I saw were spotless and looked brand new, I have only seen one car with a small dent. This surprised me because in the US, or at least in Oregon, most cars have at least some kind of scratch or dent (including mine).
Besides the culture shock, I was also a bit homesick. After all, this is the first time I am away from home and family for an extended period of time, in a foreign country whose language I am not fluent in, and as the only student from the US. That’s it for my first (and very busy) week in Japan, next time I’ll talk about some of my adventures during September!
Cindy