As this fifteenth post marks the official end of Japan Study orientation (15 posts in three weeks! Phew!), I thought it might be appropriate to reflect a bit on the orientation process and how I have changed since coming to Japan. I won’t go in depth, mostly seeing as I just wrote an essay on this very topic, but I did come to one realization.
Before coming to Japan, I had absolutely no idea what to expect from Japan itself, but I did have clear expectations on how I would conduct my time here. While I wanted to get to know the other Japan Study students, before arrival I decided I didn’t want to spend all of my time with them, rather separate myself and cultivate relationships with other Japanese students and sink into “ordinary” Japanese university life. Post arrival, however, I feel much differently. Certainly I still feel that relying too much on the Japan Study students would be a mistake and really limit the growing experiences I could have here. However, I have expanded my idea of what being here really will mean to me. I realized that I have such a wonderful opportunity to not only learn about the Japanese way of life and improve my language skills, but to also get to know other students from all around America and the world and learn about their world views. Each of the Japan Study students is so varied in terms of their life experiences, nations of origin, languages spoken, and reasons for coming to Japan that I have really appreciated getting to spend time with them, and feel that we have all helped each other push ourselves and achieve the goals we set. Some of these students are becoming really great friends, and I love spending time with them.
Also, getting to meet the other international students has been fantastic and also really humbling- most can speak at least three languages and have traveled extensively. Lots of opportunities to learn a lot about the world we all live in!
El fin of orientation
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