I’ve talked about this in a few posts before this, but tonight, I’m heading to the airport to leave the country! I’ll be spending a week in Korea, three and a half weeks on a study abroad program centered in Kyoto, then a month of solo travel in Japan (mostly in Tokyo). I have a lot of feelings running through me right now, from excitement and nervousness to a bittersweet happiness about leaving things behind to test my independence. I’ll be having a ton of fun while missing home, but it’ll be a great experience overall.
Wait, but why?
At school, I am studying Marketing with a double minor in Music and Japanese. I’ve wanted to go to Japan for a long time, and though I initially wanted a semester or more abroad there, I realized that my graduation would be pushed back even further by doing so. I’m already on a 5-year plan for school, and I do not want to extend that further.
So, I did some research and asked some friends and learned about a summer faculty-led study abroad program in Kyoto. A professor from my college is leading it, and it’s a three and a half week deep dive into Japanese culture. My minor has a culture requirement, and this class covers it during the summer when I’d otherwise be doing nothing. In other words, I’m actually getting extra progress on my graduation while simultaneously being able to go to Japan.
Although the program itself is only three and a half weeks and I wanted much more than that out of a Japan trip, I found ways to extend it. First, I decided to spend pretty much the remainder of the summer (with 5 days before the next school year begins to recover) in Japan to make the most of my time there. That adds up to around an extra month after my program. During that month, I’ll be able to make the most of my remaining JR rail pass and try to see a city or two more, meet with friends in and around Tokyo, and eat so much Japanese food.
Then, when booking flights, I ended up using Korean Air, which had me on a layover in Seoul. I, on a whim, decided, If I’m in the area, why not stay there?, and that layover became an extra 7 full days in Korea. This is the part of the trip I’m most nervous about, since I don’t speak Korean and I won’t have any friends to see while I’m alone there. I think I’ll have a great time making friends with people from around the world at my hostel, wandering around the city, and eating so much Korean food.
If you can’t tell, I really like food, but I also want to lose weight (thanks to smaller portion sizes and healthier food overall) while I’m there. I’ll have to tread a thin line of enjoying food while not overeating (too often).
Language Learning
I waited until I had two years of Japanese classes under my belt to go there so that I’d be able to make the most of this travel as a language-learning experience. I can carry myself in basic conversations as long as it’s not too fast and doesn’t use advanced grammar I don’t know, and this trip will more-or-less be taking my language training wheels off.
In America, my Japanese speaking friends all speak English, either as a double-native-speaker or at least comparably better than my Japanese. On the other hand, in Japan, there are very few fluent English speakers, so I won’t be able to fall back onto English to fix any confusion in communication. I’m really looking forward to this challenge, and I hope that by the end of my trip, my Japanese will improve significantly.
Korean, on the other hand… I know nearly nothing, and I don’t have time to learn. This will be a great experience being in a foreign country where I don’t speak the language and will have to either learn really quickly or do my best to stumble my way through with traveller’s sign language (which isn’t a language at all, it’s just disgruntled pointing on maps while using a bit of Google Translate).
I’m excited for testing my skills in Japan and leaning more towards nervous for my time in Korea, but I know that when I get there, I’ll have a great time and (after navigating to my hostel) my fears will drift away.
But Andy, you play Ocarina. Are you bringing one to Japan?
Yes, I’m bringing a few with me! Two of them are the Night by Noble, one is for my personal use, and the other is a gift for my host family in Kyoto! My trip coordinator sent me information about them, and two of them are musicians, so I’m hoping an instrument I can teach is a decent gift for them.
I have an Amazon Affiliate link with this product, so purchasing through me helps support the blog and gets you started on Ocarina at the same time!
That link is HERE (if you missed my aggressive linking throughout)!
In short
I’ll be gone for a while, but this blog won’t be! I’ll do my best to post at least weekly updates. If I have any extra-special experiences, I’ll make special posts about those. This is a major, new, scary, exciting experience for me, and I hope all goes well! I’ve had plenty of other travel experiences before this, but none so long term or isolated. Here’s to a great first (more than one day) time out of the country!
Best of luck,
-Andy
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Andy Cormier 