Reflecting A Year's Past in Japan

 こんにちは皆さん (Hello everyone)！

For a short introduction, my name is Vivian Nguyen and, at this time, I am a senior at Hawai'i Pacific University (HPU) majoring in Public Health and minoring in Japanese. From September 2023 till August 2024, I had the wonderful opportunity to study abroad in Japan at Aoyama Gakuin University (AGU). I always knew I wanted to study abroad in Japan during college and I am so grateful to have spent a year in this beautiful country. Please enjoy my reflection and learning experiences now as I reminisce on my journey through the seasons... 

読んでくれてありがとうございます(thank you for reading)！

秋：Autumn/Fall

    Arriving in Japan feels almost like yesterday. Upon arriving at the beginning of September, the nervousness I thought I would feel stepping into a foreign country all by myself was surprisingly nowhere to be found. Even though this was my first time traveling alone, I felt a sense of confidence and responsibility as I was ready to take on this new chapter of my life. I may have gotten lost on the trains and was exhausted from dragging along my two pieces of luggage (which I did not know you could have delivered from the airport), but in the end, I made it to my new home. Next was figuring out how to get to school. 

学校の門：School Gates
    AGU has a beautiful campus. If HPU has its lookout towards the ocean and sunset at Aloha Tower,  AGU has its vibrant ginkgo tree foliage overlooking the main road. Every time I walked through, I would take time to admire the glorious yellow leaves up above and below as they scattered on the ground. 
    As I was getting used to my new class schedule, figuring out the school system, and how early I needed to leave to make it on time to places, it was of course a busy and challenging time. I still remember the first day of school was on a Friday (weirdly enough) and entering my first Japanese class. After the placement test sent out during the summer, I ended up in Level 3 out of 7. Thankfully, I met another person who was also in that class. She was coincidentally also the person in front of me when we sat at orientation and lived in the same dorms. As the 先生 (sensei) entered and started class, everyone was quiet and reserved because they, including me, were shocked at how she only spoke in Japanese the entire time. All of our heads were hurting by the end of it trying so hard to focus on understanding and responding with anything we could muster out. What a time indeed. 

冒険すること：Exploring
     Despite all my commitments to school, I did my best to make sure to explore as well. One place I visited in October was called Kamakura, located in Kanagawa prefecture. This trip was a fond memory as I got closer to my Japanese language classmates and it was the first time staying overnight in another region. The heat during this time was still sweltering and it did not help that the plan was to hike and walk around. However, the area and locations we visited were worth it. Pictured on the right is the Sasuke Inari Shrine known for its bright red gates and plenty of small white fox statues around the shrine. The highlight of the day was being able to relax in the Inamuragasaki Onsen and chat about whatever at our hostel for the night. 
    Whilst attending 10 classes, I would say it is about the same workload as an average HPU semester. I decided to challenge myself by taking a class taught in Japanese which was titled Japanology B. This class brought in experts from different aspects of Japanese culture each week to talk about what they do and what it is all about. I quite enjoyed this class since sometimes we had hands-on activities, like the picture below. That week was 生け花 (ikebana), the art of flower arranging, and we each got a small cup and a bunch of flowers/leaves to arrange for ourselves as a take-home gift. We love free, pretty things here :)

    Then as the weather grew colder, the color of the leaves deepened into their bright, autumn colors. Since I had only basically known Hawai'i my whole life, I had never seen autumn foliage before. The sight below at Mt. Takao was breathtaking and one of my favorite pictures I have taken during my time abroad. The fall season had its wonders and I wondered what winter would bring. 

冬：Winter

日本の誇り：Japan's Pride & Joy 
    As mentioned, I grew up in Hawai'i and as an island girl, I was a bit afraid of how cold it might get... Fortunately, I was able to gradually adjust to the weather, and in Tokyo, the average was probably around 10 degrees C (~50 degrees F) at the season's peak. 
    At the beginning of December, I had the chance to venture out with some dorm friends to Yamanashi prefecture to see the one and only Mt. Fuji. Its beauty was unmatched with its pristine snow-capped top and we were so lucky to see it so clearly. Although the journey was a bit rough being 2-3 hours away from Tokyo, it is definitely a must-see sight around the different 5 lakes of Fuji.

イルミネーション：Illuminations
    You will know when winter rolls around from the many illuminations that can be seen all over the country. Some of them last for a few weeks or even span over a few months. The picture on the right is of 青の洞窟SHIBUYA, otherwise known as the Shibuya Blue Cave Illumination, which spans along the road filled with bright, vibrant blue lights on the way to Yoyogi Park. All of the illuminations definitely also signal the coming of Christmas too. Before coming to Japan, I did understand the culture of ordering KFC for the holidays, but I did not know the extent to which you must book a few weeks in advance to have it on time to eat. 

学期末：First Semester's End
    The end of the first semester arrived quickly. Before I knew it, it was already time to say goodbye to some great new friends who were only here for one semester. I had always heard one semester in Japan felt so short and I'm glad I decided to take a year abroad. Although, that doesn't mean it isn't sad to see everyone go... This was also an end to my time at my part-time job as a chat leader at the Chat Room. The Chat Room at AGU is a space where students can join chat sessions to practice speaking languages they're interested in. These languages included ones like English, Spanish, Korean, French, and more. It was a great opportunity to get to know a lot of local students and other chat leaders also through daily chat sessions or special holiday events. Overall, this was a weird time because the dorm became empty as people left on trips or went back home, but then started to become lively again when the next semester started again. This was the halfway mark to the beginning of the end. 

                              

春：Spring

好きな花：My favorite flowers
    As the weather slowly gets warmer, this was one of the seasons I was looking forward to the most because of the beautiful variety of flowers that bloom each month. Besides the famous sakura cherry blossoms, my other favorites during this time were the wisteria, tulips, plum blossoms, and nemophila. The one I loved the most was the weeping wisteria flowers at Ashikaga Flower Park in Tochigi prefecture. This flower park has many other wonderful flowers but during the month of April, the array of purple and white wisteria flowers takes the cake. I could stay in the park and stare at the flowers all day if I could, but unfortunately, this was only a day trip. They were some of the most majestic flowers I had ever seen. The sakura were also quite beautiful and I didn't know how long the season was until I experienced it. Their blooming depended on the weather of each prefecture so the earlier blooms started from the very south of the island and made their way up to Hokkaido. In addition, there were different kinds of sakura, the most abundant being the slightly pinkish-white ones called ソメイヨシノ(Somei Yoshino), but my favorite was by far the bright pastel-like pink hue of the 山桜 (Yamazakura) that bloomed at the end of February into March. 

新しい学期：New Semester

    This time also was the beginning of the new semester when new people gradually arrived and made the dorms and campus come to life again. I was determined to make use of my remaining time and continued to do or go somewhere new each week. Making new friends, creating more memories with old friends, and seeing beautiful sights and new places were my joy. Hanging out at school, going to the gym, taking classes with friends, and more were in store. 

夏：Summer

暑い天気けど、楽しい：Hot Weather, but Fun
    The last and final season before the end of my full year abroad. Everyone says that Japanese summers are no joke, and they are right. Even coming from Hawai'i, the heat was insane. Since Japan is a country that revolves around walking, biking, or using public transport, it is especially hot when going to and from places during the day. I had heard that heatstrokes were a concern in the summer because of the heat so there are a lot of warnings and products that help you through it. I saw many people holding their small, handy electronic fans, putting on their neck-cooling rings, or wiping their faces with handkerchiefs to combat the icky feeling of sweat. Despite the hot weather, the bright sun cast beautiful rays of sunshine on the landscape. Some of the highlights were going to concerts, festivals, Universal Studios, and marking off other bucket-list items. As time was ticking down, everyone scurried to try to use their time to do all the things they wanted to do. 

日本さよなら：Goodbye, Japan
    Then before I knew it, it was time to say goodbye to everyone. I had booked my flight home near the end of August which was later than most people I knew. It was very bittersweet saying our goodbyes and reminiscing on good times throughout the year... I had made some amazing, one-of-a-kind friends that I hope to meet with again someday. This was an experience that I do not regret taking at all and I would of course do it all over again if I had the choice. It was so weird to think that the busy streets of Shibuya, which was right there, that was the last time I would see them that year. 
    During this time, I learned more about myself and what I was capable of. If you told me as a child I would be living and studying in Japan for a whole year later in life, I would think that's crazy and that there's no way I could do it. I'm so thankful for all of the people who were a part of my journey and thank you to those who decided to read all the way through. Best wishes to your future travels!

Recap

 Adventure is out there...

Each time something cool happens, I try to take note of it on my way to or from my experience. I find my solace on a bus, train, flight, river, or underground. This recap blog is a lazy composition of a few of my excerpts. Though it's hard to keep track of all this in a consistent and careful way, at least something is better than nothing.

5.27.2022

Trip to Cambridge, England. Saw the school.

5.28.2022

Trip to Edinburgh, Scotland. Had a cup of coffee, found a hostel, made friends in a pub, climbed many hills, cheered on marathon runners, got free drinks from Marta.

6.03.2022

Sooooo...I was on my way to afternoon tea, when I decided tea is not quite enough for lunch so I’ll get myself a pizza beforehand. When I got my pizza, I opened it up to find it was shaped as a heart. How sweet, I thought! They make heart shaped pizzas in England. Then, when I looked at the top part of the box I saw that THE ITALIAN BOY WHO MADE MY PIZZA HAD WRITTEN HIS NUMBER, NAME AND A HEART ON THE BOX. He made the heart-shaped pizza for me. Ohhh. The phone number he left was from Italy and I’m still hesitant to message.

After the pizza, I had my nice afternoon tea date with the girlies, and proceeded to spill more tea than I drank. If you know what I mean.

6.04.2022

Experienced a Mama Mia musical. SO CUTE. I am saying farewell to the session one students as they fly home tonight.

6.07.2022

I went to the Tate Modern Museum to see the 2001 Babel Sculpture, which I loved, but I took an interest in the Monument for the Living. The sculpture “Monument for the Living '' was made by Marwan Rechmaoui in the year 2000. This piece represents diversity as the intersecting of different identities and characteristics. The sculpture is made of concrete and wood, replicating the Burj El Murr building in Beirut, Lebanon. Burj El Murr was built in 1974 with the intention of becoming a large office building. The ravages of war left the building unfinished and the office plans were not carried out. During the Lebanese Civil War, it was instead used as a sniper post. The entire evolution of this eerily resilient building greatly represents its environment and people. 

First built to hold office space by a wealthy family in a time of plenty, then filled with ammunition and dead bodies, and later deemed useless and obstructing in the post-war era. Now that the unfinished building can’t be knocked down, it serves as a memorial for the unresolved conflict of the civil war. To me, the building is a great representation of the “elephant in the room”. It's a looming reminder of change that the city is unable to be rid of. 

This historic structure represents many things for the country. Money, strength, neglect, abandonment, unresolved conflict, and death. The prominent building is a display of wealth because it had grandiose expectations. There were constant renovations and a lot of money put into it in order to become a strong office building. Then of course, the war left it neglected and abandoned. The war also left a lingering unresolved conflict and death. In “Monument for the Living”, we see that diversity may be a vast range of experiences all happening at once. 

This was interesting to me as a viewer because I’ve never considered the relevance or depth a sculpture of a building could hold. When I first saw the tower, I noticed that it was tall, sturdy, and jarring. I scoped it out all around and couldn’t think of the beauty or meaning in a tall concrete building. Before I read the description, I didn’t understand it at all. The artist, Marwan Rechmaoui, is from Beirut, and chooses to express Lebanese history through his work. The Lebanese civil war and its interconnected complexities is far out of my world knowledge, yet Beirut’s story traveled all the way to London, and I met in the middle from Hawai’i. That is a diverse interaction in itself.

6.09.2022

Heads up, I wrote this on a train in present-tense speech. Today I am traveling along the sea-to-sea rail service from West Ham station to south end central, to see the sea. I am taking a round trip train for about 1.5 hours total. The ticket was £17.50. We are passing tall green foliage that sometimes let up to reveal a town or forest. The lavender fields have opened up at last, and I want to be in the country as much as possible to explore the fruiting terrain. The closer I get to Essex, the wider the fields get, as the blue sky opens up to accommodate fluffy white clouds. I first catch sight of the ocean at Chalkwell. To my right are beautiful white beach homes surrounded by trees. To my left, flat and glittering cold water. Its good to see the area where I’ll attend school in the Autumn.

6.12.2022

Traveled far south to the lavender fields today. Got lost, had fun. Loved every moment. I hope to buy a film camera soon and capture all this on 35mm so I can keep my phone turned off.

Darkness and the Galapagos

Throughout the Galapagos Island Archipelago, there are volcanic tunnels that have solidified into subterranean pathways. Peaceful and cool, they host a darkness that many people would fear. A lack of light that can only be really experienced underground, the hollow and craggy pathway lit only by our headlamps feels like the beginning to a horror movie. But like anything, if you enter a place with fear it will present you with something to be afraid of. We are quiet, not because we have to be, but because something about the tunnel feels holy. As if it is a cathedral to the secrets of the inner workings of the earth. It is surprisingly peaceful. The darkness and the sound of our footsteps echoing. We decide to turn out the lights and sit in silence. I decide to lay on the ground. In the darkness I feel more connected to the earth than I ever had. For a profound 5 minutes, I feel inexplicable peace. We then turn the lights on, but no one speaks for a few moments. As we explore the caves more, talking about volcanism and geology, there is a deep sense of content. As if our heartbeats have aligned to the movements of the earth’s core. I knew then, I would never feel scared of being underground again.

~Sydney Lewark
SIT Ecuador: Comparative Ecology and Conservation

Floating Down the Amazon

Miles and miles from any town or city, branches of the Amazon river basin wind through untouched rain forests. The sunlight here beams through the leaves of a thousand different plant species, and the sounds from the forest are not dominated by a single group of voices. There is balance here, no artificial mechanism has unbalanced the natural order. Capybara wade at the river’s edge, tarantulas hide beneath the wide leaves, and flocks of brightly colored birds dive across the water’s surface. In the early morning the sky is grey, and the long canoe cuts through the water as a soft rain falls. We count the numbers and varieties of birds as the hunt for food before the heat of the day arrives. After any hour we jump into the cold river water and let the current take us back to the research station downstream. The current is strong but not dangerous. I lay on my back and watch the rain forest pass by. We all hope we will be visited by a pod of pink river dolphins, but we know how rare an encounter is. Despite the cold rain, we laugh and attempt to swim against the current. We don’t want the float to end any sooner than it has to. You cannot see the bottom of the river, the water is murky. But you don’t fear what lies beneath. There is a sense of belonging, that maybe can only be felt in the depths of a protected rainforest. As if the creatures below and above you feel that we do not intend to harm them. And it is that peace of mind, that the sun rises and the day begins.

~Sydney Lewark
SIT Ecuador: Comparative Ecology and Conservation