So far, so good. I feel like my stay in Japan has become normal. But I can’t exactly define it as the same “normal” in America. There are so many things about here that are different from home like the train systems that get me to wherever I need, or the fact that I can walk to at least ten different stores/restaurants within ten minutes. I have to admit, I do feel crowded nowadays in Japan, but I guess that’s the charm of the beautiful and lively city life here. It lets someone like me, who can’t even read any of the map’s directions, explore as much of the city as I want without being limited by my transportation means.
Lately, I have had many weekends open to do whatever I want. For example, there was a day when I arrived back to the dorm. As I walked through the door, I bumped into one of the other exchange students who was planning to go to Sunshine City. He asked me if I wanted to tag along and I went along with him to this place I had never heard about before. When we arrived, it wasn’t exactly the kind of “Sunshine” City I had imagined. It turned out to be a shopping mall that I thought looked quite similar to the malls back in America. One cool part of the mall though was how the outside wind blew throughout the underground walkways. Although I got no photos of the inside since I was having too much fun, here’s a picture of what the front looked like. The mall had a great variety of restaurants and I ate a tasty lasagna dish at an Italian style place.
On a worser note (if worser is a word), sleep has been quite a struggle lately compared to my first three weeks. It may be that I have been staying up much later nowadays, but I tend to sleep randomly now as if my body can’t tell what time it is. The reason I assume for my longer slumbers as of late could be that I’ve got something on my mind. I know myself well enough to recognize that I don’t admit it when I am having troubles, but my Japanese friend pointed something out to me the other day. I may not be feeling tired, and I might not feel like something’s wrong but my body knows itself best. He explained using his own experience of when he was in America. It was not that he was getting tired from physical activity, but it was the additional mental burden that studying abroad in a new country had placed on him. One thing he had recognized was his extra napping helping him rest his body since he was stressed out. After hearing this from him and realizing I haven’t been feeling like myself, I think I should take some time to relax this upcoming week. Maybe the stress has gotten to me without my realization of it.
After the interaction with my friend, I realized how much he had changed since his time in America. When I first spoke with him, he was very indirect when he mentioned something about my appearance. However, he’s now changed to be much more direct with telling me these things, and it’s a slightly comforting reminder of American people. Although I love how polite Japanese people are and how they treat everyone with respect, I’ve missed the honesty of people back home when they’re direct with me. It must be a part of the culture that I haven’t gotten used to yet, but I still love Japan regardless (They’ve got so much great things like their food accessibility and street festivals). Welp… until next time!
Studying In Japan 