From September of 2023 to August of 2024, I spent two semesters studying and living in Yokohama, Japan studying at Meiji Gakuin University through the CIS Abroad program. This was my first time leaving the country, and my first time living completely alone without my parents being in drivable distance. I had an amazing time and traveled to many places in Japan and learned so much about the country and its culture. But more importantly this experience really forced me to come out of my shell and grow. There were challenges I had to face and conquer on my own, knowledge of an unfamiliar culture and country that I gained, and multiple international friendships that I made.

 

There were many differences I found when studying in Japan. It would take too long to describe and talk about them all, so in this reflection I will focus on the differences in schools and academic life, and public transportation culture shock. The academic life between here at Clemson and the experience I had studying abroad were completely different. Here at Clemson, since it is so big, there are times when I feel like I do not know anyone in my classes and some of the professors have so many students it can be hard to build connections with them. But in the university, I went to in Japan, it almost felt like a high school. It was a lot easier to make connections with people and professors and overall, a lot less overwhelming. Another huge difference that I found was the amount of homework I received in Japan was almost none, but the class times are a lot longer. The class times are 1 hour and 30 minutes 2 or 3 times a week, and for my Japanese course it was 3 hours 3 days a week. Meanwhile here at Clemson, I am often overloaded with homework from all my courses, but I think the main reason is because the course times are a lot shorter here. The school in Japan was also one of the first challenges that I had to overcome during my time abroad. One of my goals was to make friends with natives, so I really had to overcome my shyness and be confident enough to speak with natives in their language. This really helped me grow as a person and be more confident in myself and ended with me making many friends in Japan.

 

The next difference and culture shock that I experienced was public transportation. As you know, in America everyone gets around with cars and there is not much public transportation, at least where I come from. Before I studied abroad the only public transportation I took was the Clemson red route bus to the campus and back home. So, I knew nothing about a train and was most definitely not prepared for the trains in Japan. I truly think the train system in Japan is amazing and wish we could have it in America, but the first time I had to figure out how to use the train system, and the norms while on the train were a complete culture shock. There was one specific experience that I still remember were challenges that I had to overcome, and I think had an impact on me. The first one was the very first time I tried to ride the train. I did not own any IC card which allows you to put money on the card and just scan to use the trains, so I needed to use the ticket system to ride the train. But I had no one explain to me how it worked, so I eventually bought a train ticket and put it in the ticket machine but had no idea I was supposed to take the ticket again on the other side. Thankfully a very nice old man behind me grabbed my ticket and gave it to me, if it was not for him, I would have been stuck in the train station of my final destination. This experience was really embarrassing for me as it really made me stand out as a foreigner but made me realize that being a foreigner is okay and the people in Japan are very nice even to foreigners. This was the real interaction that I had with a native in Japan, so it was really memorable for me. Another huge culture shock about public transportation for me was the culture of actually riding in public transportation. At Clemson the buses are usually talkative, with friends talking, buses playing music or radio, and someone on the phone with someone. But in Japan, on the train or bus the culture is that it is dead silent. If you are too loud on a train or bus that is considered disrespectful, so when I first was riding on the train and bus it was big culture shock to me.

 

There were two other specific challenges that I faced during my study abroad that I think really helped me grow and build my confidence. The first one was before I even got to my house, it was the entire airport system. This was the first time I ever flew outside the country, and I was alone. I had no idea how airports worked or what to do, so this was a real test of my confidence and ability to do things on my own. I asked the staff all throughout the process many questions and was able to successfully get through all of the airport processes to enter a new country, such as customs and immigration and getting my suitcases. This had a lasting impact on me as it helped build my confidence in myself and ability to talk with people when I am lost, and now in the future I am completely confident in my ability to complete the airport process. The next challenge was somewhere around the middle of my student abroad; it was somewhere around February of 2024. All of a sudden, one day my teeth really started hurting where my molars would come in, and it stayed like that for weeks, so I knew I had to try to go to a dentist. But scheduling appointments and actually going to the dentist and talking to them was a scary thought. But I knew I had to get it checked, so I started looking for a dentist near me, looking for appointments online and by calling. It would take me a lot of courage and time to actually make phone calls to the dentist’s offices, but I eventually found one that could get me in the same day, so I went as soon as I could to their office. I was really worried about my ability to speak about the problems I was having the entire way there. I spoke with the front desk lady when I arrived and was blessed that they had a dentist that spoke English as well. I think this is a positive of living in Yokohama one of the biggest cities in Japan. But this whole experience really helped me grow as a person and build my confidence once again. If this was a year ago in America, I would have called my parents to ask them to make all the phone calls and everything to the dentist’s office. But I did everything completely on my own and even had to use my Japanese national health insurance for the first time. These two experiences really helped me grow as a person and build my confidence to what it has become today.

 

I think there were many experiences during my study abroad that changed the way I think about myself and my relationship to society. For example, the three examples that I talked about earlier in this reflection really impacted me. These were very important experiences for me to build my confidence and helped me feel like I fit into the society more even the society in Japan. Before I studied abroad, I was really shy and besides my friends, I did not talk with people very much at all. So alongside with those specific examples I talked about and during my entire time studying abroad since I am a foreigner, I often got many eyes and attentions of natives, these experiences really helped me build my confidence to where I could easily communicate with people and fit in with society. I feel now that I am able to talk with anyone when needed or when I want, which really makes me feel like I fit in with society more, as before I was simply going to class and home with no other communication with society.

 

Before I began my study abroad, my goal was to simply just improve my language by immersing myself, making friends, and speak Japanese as much as possible. I always thought it would have been really cool to reach fluency, but it wasn’t necessarily a goal of mine at that time. But I can say with full confidence that my goal has changed after studying abroad. I fell in love with Japan during my time abroad, and my goal has completely changed. My current goal is to now reach fluency in order to be able to find a job so I can live in Japan. This study abroad experiences also enriched my general academic experience as my goal has now changed, I am not a lot more serious about studying Japanese. Everything I have learned and became interested in when studying abroad transferred when I came back to America and was a huge motivation in my studies to make sure I strive to do well, so I can one day achieve my new goal of becoming fluent and finding a good job in Japan so I can live in Japan.​​​