There\u2019s only a few more weeks left and although I\u2019m anxiously trying to make sure that I get to do everything I wanted to do in Japan, I\u2019m still incredibly happy to be coming home. There\u2019s a lot of things that I\u2019m going to miss here, but I feel like Japan is like a second home to me and I hope that one day I can come back to explore all the places that I never got to visit.
\nI visited Kobe recently, which was a goal of mine. I got to explore the streets of the local Chinatown (which, for some reason, had a couple of Spiderman statues throughout it) and eat Kobe beef in the most decently-priced way that I could: as a hamburger. We browsed through a shopping mall on the way and I wished that I had a sense of fashion because the clothes are wonderful and the people here wear them well!
\nIn the subsequent weekend, I went to a section of Osaka called Nipponbashi, which hosts a lot of pop-cultural media and merchandise. My roommate and I visited a small animal caf\u00e9 where we got to handle creatures like baby mice, baby guinea pigs, rabbits, ferrets, hedgehogs, etc. I\u2019d been to a cat caf\u00e9 in Kyoto and I\u2019m planning on going to an owl caf\u00e9 as well. Japanese homes are so small that I\u2019m not surprised so many people visit animal cafes to get their animal fix!
\nThe next day, I went to Kyoto\u2019s Kiyomizu temple to see the fall leaves. It was freezing and raining, but I was still amazed by the view. There were so many colorful, bright red leaves all around. I constantly joke to my friends as I take pictures, telling them that I don\u2019t see this kind of thing in Florida at all \u2013 and because I\u2019ve never really been outside of Florida for extended periods of time, I\u2019ve never seen anything like this. I\u2019ve said it a lot before, but I really mean it! It\u2019s beautiful here, and I\u2019d like to spend more time in Japan at some point to see ALL the seasons that I\u2019ve never gotten to see before.
\nI\u2019m still practicing Japanese as best I can along the way, and I\u2019m noticing some decent improvement. It makes me kind of sad that I\u2019ll be leaving now that I\u2019m really starting to pick things up. When you\u2019re surrounded by people speaking it and signs showing the complicated symbols you just learned, it tends to sink into your memory a lot better. However, now that my language abilities have vastly improved and I can see it when I read Japanese media with a lot more ease, I\u2019m feeling inspired to continue learning it when I get home. Japan has reignited my passion for languages.
\nI accomplished what I set out to accomplish and more. I learned a lot of things about the culture, I learned about myself, I gained inspiration, and I improved my Japanese. I\u2019m super excited to tell people about my experiences when I get home and there\u2019s a lot of passion that I\u2019d love to share with everyone about Japan. Although I\u2019m going to miss it and I\u2019m sad to leave, I\u2019m still excited to be back home again where I can take these experiences and apply them to my life in a whole new way. I feel really blessed to have been able to do this \u2013 it truly is an experience that changes a person in ways that nothing else can change you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There\u2019s only a few more weeks left and although I\u2019m anxiously trying to make sure that I get to do everything I wanted to do in Japan, I\u2019m still incredibly happy to be coming home. There\u2019s a lot of things that I\u2019m going to miss here, but I feel like Japan is like a second…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kansai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6794"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6794\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15728,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6794\/revisions\/15728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}