I think that being homesick has been the worst part of being abroad. With every new experience, I think of ways I want to share it with my family and friends. Not only am I homesick for my family and friends in Florida, but I am so homesick for American food. It has been amazing to be in Japan with all of the delicious food here but American style pizza is something I have not been able to find. I also miss American snacks like soft pretzels or Skittles which are nonexistent in Japan. It has been hard to be away from home because I’ve never been away from my family for this long. However, I have been lucky enough to find ways to connect to my family from Japan. My mom has sent me a lot of boxes filled with snacks and pictures I can only get from home and I write letters as well as postcards back home. My family writes me letters and sends cards too. This all helps me feel connected to my home and my family even though I am thousands of miles away. It also really helps that the internet and Wi-Fi was created because I call my friends every other day and I FaceTime my family almost every week. This way I can stay in the loop with everything that’s happening back home. This is one of the main things that has helped me feel connected to home while in Japan. To make my room at my university feel more like home I have put up all the pictures my mom has sent me and I have displayed all the cards from my family. This has really helped me with homesickness because I see my family and friends every day before I leave for class, and every time I come home. One of the ways I have tried to connect to my host culture is pizza nights every Friday. This is a ritual my family does at home and knowing that I am keeping the tradition, even in Japan, has made my host culture feel more like home.
