October 10-26
New Word/Phrase I Learned:
This time I want to talk about a word/phrase I didn’t learn while in Japan: you’re welcome. Every time I thanked someone, they would either thank me back or say “iieh, iieh” as in no, no or no worries.
Something Surprising/Interesting:
I got pretty used to driving on the left side of the road 🙂
One of the school visits we did was a school in a small town outside of Kushiro with only a few students in each class. We saw an English class with two students, a science class with 3. It was so interesting. I think there were around 18 students total? It was crazy! You can teach so differently with so few students, constantly involving them in the learning and teaching processes.
Something I tried:
We tried Yakiniku (Japanese BBQ), Genghis Khan (grilled mutton dish that’s a Hokkaido specialty), and deer meat. Hokkaido honestly has so many awesome foods.
In Kyoto, I also tried a fancy multi-course meal (I believe this is called Kaiseki ryori). We had 10 courses! Every single dish was so delicious, beautifully made, and beautifully plated. It was just so impressive to think about how much work went into it all.
Highlights:
On one of our last days, Chris, our liaison for Kushiro campus organized a nature tour for us with a few of the tutors. We went to the crane sanctuary, for a walk in the marsh, to lake Kussharo and Bihoro Pass, and then Mt. Io to see and active volcano and its sulfur deposits.
We finished off that day by attending a tea ceremony at the HUE Kushiro campus hosted by the tea ceremony club. It was such a cool and amazing experience. Please try to attend a tea ceremony if you visit Japan!
Overall, an absolutely amazing day!!
I also got to explore Kyoto and Tokyo a bit before I headed back home. So awesome too. Overall, I’ve felt so lucky throughout this entire experience.
Challenge I Faced & How I Handled It:
It was quite difficult finishing all my online schoolwork while trying to do some final Japan exploration and preparing to go home. There were a few times I really had to put my head down and force myself to finish assignments. I should’ve stuck to my schedule and breakdown of work better, but I still finished everything! So I will be proud of myself regardless 🙂
Piece of advice:
Ask for what you want! I knew I’d be pretty burnt out by the end of my trip, so I asked for the last week off and was lucky enough to get it. I really needed that last week to relax and take some time to explore more of Japan before leaving.
Something I’m looking forward to:
While it is sad that my time in Japan is over, I am looking forward to being home, seeing my cats, my family, my friends, and sleeping in my own bed!
Goal/Desire:
I want to try teaching a second language at some point (I speak Spanish) and make fun activities similar to the ones I saw during the English classes in Japan.