New Word/Phrase I Learned:
I can’t think of any specific new ones, but I’ve definitely been using Daijobou desu (I’m good) a lot! People have been very polite here, and offer to help me with quite a few things, so I often tell them I’m alright and thank them.
Something Surprising/Interesting:
How often I’ve seen the red-crowned cranes every time we drive out of the city! They’re really everywhere, but always in the hardest places to photograph.
We also had the opportunity to see one of the top high schools of Kushiro. It is a special science school and we got to see the students working on their independent research projects. It was insanely impressive to see them design their own projects and produce presentations and scientific posters for the university professors to come and see.
Something I tried:
We tried Japanese-style pasta and it was delicious! It’s made with spaghetti noodles and the sauce is a little sweet.
Highlights:
I’ve been lucky enough to hang with my best friend and travel around Eastern Hokkaido outside of class. Specifically, we’ve been visiting the marshes, lakes, and forests, plus we drove North to see the Coral Grass and it was amazing! While Lake Notoro is the most famous spot, Lake Saroma was actually way more red. What a cool and unique thing to see.
Challenge I Faced & How I Handled It:
Lately, it’s been hard to balance online school with everything in Japan. With the school visits, I often come home tired (especially when we have a one hour commute each way), so it’s very difficult to muster up the energy to work on my online coursework. Plus, I sometimes have things to do for our school visits in Japan that I have to prioritize over coursework. I’ve been using focus helping apps and trying to go to bed early and do more homework in the mornings. It’s mostly been helping.
Piece of advice:
I haven’t mentioned it before, but the sun sets and rises SO EARLY here! Definitely have to plan day trips around that.
When driving in Japan, we used the saying “little left, big right” constantly to remind us which lane to turn into since driving on the left side of the road feels weird at first.
Something I’m looking forward to:
I actually requested the last week off for some personal time, so I’m looking forward to resetting a little bit before getting home and thinking about placements (especially with the ongoing strike).
Goal/Desire:
Get the rest of my assignments finished and handed in early!!! Wish me luck and motivation.
