Blog #2 First Weeks in Japan

My first week in Japan has been a whirlwind of new sights, sounds, and experiences. Who knew so much could happen in just my first week in Japan.

Day 3

Before I left for Japan, one of my new friends from Shidler suggested we go to a music festival called Head in the Clouds, and I’m really glad we did. It ended up being a surprisingly fun and memorable experience. Even though it was a little scary at first, learning how to navigate public transit, traveling so far from our dorms for the very first time, and jumping straight into a concert on just our third day in Japan, we pushed through the nerves and had an amazing time. The music, the atmosphere, and the feeling of exploring something new together made it one of those early experiences that set the tone for the rest of the trip.

City Hall

One of the most important things we had to do after arriving in Japan and moving into our dorms was getting our residence cards. At first, it was scary and intimidating because there were so many people and the process was entirely in Japanese, but the university basically took care of everything for us. They provided the paperwork we needed to fill out ahead of time and walked everyone through each step. All we had to do for that was listen and fill in our personal information. There were even a group of Japanese students who translated everything for most of us during the entire process at city hall. When we got there, all we had to do was sit with the other exchange students and wait for our turn. While waiting, a lot of us ended up making new friends since we were all stuck there together and in the end, it wasn't that bad.

Exploring Japan

I explored different areas of Tokyo with the other UHM Chuo University exchange students and did some shopping. Going clothes shopping was fun, exciting, and honestly a bit overstimulating but I got used to it pretty quickly. The other UHM Chuo Students and I went everywhere in Tokyo from Harajuku to Shibuya to Shinjuku and almost every day before the first day of school started. Every day we would go somewhere new in Tokyo together, and I’d end up walking over 10,000 steps. It was kind of insane. In the beginning, there were a few days where I went off on my own to shop and explore. Japan felt so huge, overwhelming, and overstimulating that going out alone was a little frightening at first, but eventually I got used to it and started feeling less intimidated.

Conclusion

The first couple of weeks in Japan were a bit overstimulating and exciting, but overall I had a great time, experienced so many new things, and had a lot of fun. It was also really nice having other local students from the same university around, since we all stuck together in the beginning. We hung out when we didn’t really know anyone else yet, and we helped each other whenever someone was struggling or needed support.