Author: marias@rollins.edu

As of today, its been a little over a week that I’ve been back in the states after my study abroad experience in Japan. It’s been quite hard adjusting back to American life for me, and the jet lag was definitely my least-wanted Christmas gift this year. Even though I saw them less than a…

As I have been caught up in so much school work, traveling, and fun I have forgotten that the end of November is here and I will be home in 23 short days! This month I’ve been to so many new places and I’ve really been making the most of my time here as much…

As of today, it’s been a little over a week since my trip to Tokyo, and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since! Before I came to Japan, I knew that it was one of my top destinations, and I had spent the entire semester looking forward to when I would be…

Despite my disbelief, the time has come for the midterm exams for my classes here at Kansai Gaidai. Although in the past I’ve felt confident about my exams at Rollins, I feel a new sense of anxiety knowing that this semester I will have exams in Japanese. I usually like to spend my weekends traveling…

As of now, it is officially my birthday in both Japan AND back home in the US.  Before coming to Japan, one of the main reasons I had been so excited about this semester was that I knew I would be able to celebrate my birthday while I was in Japan, and that I would…

As of now, I’m happy to say that we have successfully learned both Hiragana and Katakana (2/3 of the languages used here in Japan). Compared to the level at was at when I first arrived to Japan (no prior experience learning Japanese), I feel that I have come such a long way. It is so…

I did not get to post yesterday about my hike (after being so tired), but I just recently had the best day climbing Mount Kurama in Kyoto! I had known about the mountain and about the Buddhist shrine (Kurama-dera) that you are able to visit while you are there, and when the day of the…

After many months of planning, today is finally the day I leave to study abroad in Japan! Going to Japan has always been a dream of mine, and to get the opportunity to be there for a semester has been pretty exciting for me. This last month of August, I’ve been visiting a lot of…