It’s been about two months since I first arrived in Japan for my semester abroad. Those two months, but especially since I first arrived, have been a nonstop learning experience. There was no way I could know everything about Japan, my host institution, or every encounter I would see when I came here after all, so I expected to be a fish out of water when I arrived. Unfortunately, there’s a bit of a difference between expecting the unfamiliar and then confronting the unfamiliar.
Actually traveling to Hirakata in Japan was fine, save being sick for most of the flight from San Francisco to Kansai International Airport. I overpacked by just a tad, which made navigating the airport more difficult, but it was bearable. The flights were comfortable, though I slept for most of both of them. The worst was just waiting on customs and such after arriving in Osaka. Myself and a lot of other exchange students were stuck waiting for a few hours on residence cards to prove we were in Japan for an extended period of time. We ended up missing our initial bus rides to the university, but we managed to fit in on the next ones.
The first week was easily the hardest out of my time so far. The first day was honestly not so bad, considering most of what I did was collapse into bed and sleep after I finally made it to the school’s dormitory. After that, though, came dealing with the massive list of things I had absolutely no idea how to do. Where do I get food? What about toiletries? I didn’t bring towels, so I need to find those too. Where are my classes? How do I use the public transit here? How do I get money once I run out of the cash I brought? And so on…
Before I could do any of that, I had to get to Hirakata City Hall. Kansai Gaidai, my host institution, gave us time slots to go to the city hall to update our residence cards with our new addresses (the dorm and room number) now that we had arrived. Where was Hirakata City Hall? No clue, at least back then. After very confidently walking in the complete wrong direction and needing an RA to point me to the actual way out of school grounds (great job me), I was fortunate enough to run into someone else just as lost and asked if I could join them so we could both be lost! And from there, my real experience with studying abroad began.
Slowly, I began to answer the questions that had been filling me with worry. I found my towels at a mall close by, figured out how to read menus and order at restaurants (I technically already knew that but sometimes you get stressed, ok?), got my class schedule and a campus map, added a transport card to my phone’s wallet, and figured out how to work the ATM nearest to campus. It’s unsettling to be in a totally new place in general, much less one where I can only understand a tiny fraction of the information around me at a given time. But, with time, it gets easier.
I had to take a placement test for my Japanese class since it would be a tad inconvenient to relearn things I already knew from class back home, and I ended up a level above where I expected to be. Combined with the kanji course I chose to take, it meant I had a pretty large gap to close. Speaking in class among peers who were far more skilled than I was (and continue to be, but I’m working on it!) did make me self-conscious, but like with the anxiety I felt before, it was an issue of time more than anything. At time of writing, I know a few hundred kanji and generally know how to read a lot of the signs I see walking around from day to day, and even if I can’t be entirely sure, I can intuit the meaning with at least a little bit of accuracy. It’s a nice feeling to read a sign in Japanese and realize that maybe I do know some stuff.
Of course, I’m still a student, and being in Japan doesn’t change that I still have plenty of things to do. I’m pretty tired most of the time just because whenever I’m not working I have plans of some sort, so the opportunity to relax with some time alone is a bit of a rarity, but great when I have the chance. Keeping balance is a work in progress for me back home as well, though, so I can’t complain too much. Besides, I don’t want to spend all of my time in a new place inside when the opportunities to experience new things are practically everywhere. Some of the best times I’ve had and the greatest friends I’ve met were totally by accident, just a matter of getting out there.
It’s nearing the end of midterm season here currently, and I’ve been really grateful for the opportunity to live and learn here. A lot of days have the same routine, but not much compares to studying Japanese in Japan. I’m trying my best to broaden my horizons while I have the chance, especially since times like these only come so often. I’ll be happy to be back home once December rolls around, but I’ll be enjoying each day I have here until then.
