What an Adventure!

Winter vacation came and went along with all of our final papers and now I finally have time to make my final post.

The last few weeks of school at Tokiwa had been very busy with our classes, EC, and TA that we hardly had time to do much of anything. Which was difficult for all of us because we had become so close with many of the students and all of them wanted to spend as much time with us before we left. This of course, was my biggest fear, as I wanted to make many friends during my stay in Japan but leaving them has possibly been one of the more difficult things I've had to do. I think all of the students here have come to finally get used to our lifestyles in Japan, only to be flying home. I can only speak for myself but I have surely been experience some reverse culture shock even before returning home. But it's unavoidable.

I spent my winter vacation in Tokyo for a week, as my friends from Los Angeles came to visit me. In all honesty, I can't begin to explain how nervous I was, because I knew that I would have to really become a translator for my friends and I wasn't sure just how capable I was in doing so. I knew that the week in Tokyo would possibly be my 'final exam' in a sense. But overall the trip went smoothly and I couldn't have honestly asked for me.

We went to Yokohama and Kamakura which are both in the neighboring prefecture, Kanagawa. Kamakura happens to be the first settled Samurai city in the Kanto region (from what I recall) and because of it there were plenty of old architecture to see. The Big Buddha that you see in that picture is perhaps one of the more famous sites within Japan. We also visited Asakusa Park just before New Years and were able to see all the preparations that go into one of the biggest events of the year in Japan. As far as I'm aware, many people visit a temple on New Years Eve to shed the troubles of the year past, and a Shrine on New Years day to ring in the New Year with a cleansed spirit and free of worries. We did in fact visit Meiji Shrine for New Years but because of clock troubles, we missed to New Year by two minutes. Still, it was amazing to see how many Japanese people uphold this tradition, easily there was over a thousand people.

During our stay we were able to visit Ueno Park which is famous for its Zoo as well as museums that encircle the park. Though we weren't able to visit any of the museums we did get a chance to visit the zoo which is one of the first established in Japan. The zoo itself was pretty big considering how it was centered in the middle of a city and it was well kept with lots of visitors from all over the world.




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This surely has been an adventure with not a moment wasted. I can't express how great of an opportunity t for encouraging me to join the program.

In our final days I had a lot of time to think about everything that I had been able to experience and I think some of my best memories I have are from traveling with the other exchange students around Ibaraki and Tokyo together, as we discovered new places and experienchis was and I couldn't have done it without the help of all the Japanese professors at CSUN, especially Hirota Senseied a wide range of things within Japanese culture, traditional and modern.

I promise to give a more in-depth look into Japan on my return to America which is in less then 24 hours.

Thank you Japan, you have honestly been too good to me and I promise to visit you again.