I studied at Toyo University in Tokyo Japan! My housing was in Akabane, which was about a 30 minute subway from the school. I had always wanted to go to Japan to experience the culture and how the political structure worked being so similar in creation to the US but so different in practice.

I took eight courses which were two credits each to maintain a student visa requirement of sixteen credits. Four were language courses that taught "Survival Japanese", including daily phrases and basic grammar, reading, and writing. The other four were politics courses to learn about familiar topics from a new and unique perspective

These are three of the many assignments that I did over the semester. The left paper was for Japanese Reading as a "cheat sheet" for a story we had to translate and explain to classmates. The middle was my final for Peace Studies, where I had to respond to multiple essay questions from the material. The right most one is from Japanese Practice where we were learning basic sentence structure and how to use new vocab. 

Throughout my time at Toyo, I learned how to be more independent through being alone in a foreign environment thousands of miles from my support network. Navigating a new environment as previously said,  was being in a new place with new cultural norms and different systems. These new systems improved my self-advocacy as I had to speak up when something was wrong on a form, class schedule, or being sent to the wrong place returning Health Insurance. 

This is what made the trip and I was lucky to make new friends all over the world. While I couldn’t include everyone people in these photos are from Japan, England, California, Germany, Norway, France, China, Australia, and Vietnam.

It was hard to narrow down the photos, but I saw all different sides of Japan. From the spiritual side of Kyoto, the second tallest mountain in Japan, to the nightlife of Osaka, a village of foxes, and random mountains on the way to Yamagata, each side had a completely different vibe, with people passionate about their differences from other regions of Japan.

One of the biggest draws of Japan is the food, and while I understand the irony of not having any photos of sushi or seafood I promise you I ate my fair share. In the top left we got to see what an actual wasabi plant looked like. Other food on this page is dipping noodles, Japanese curry, ramen, udon, and a style of a restaurant called "ya-ki-ni-ku," in which you would order meat and cook it in front of you.

Overall, I would highly recommend anyone study abroad, as it's an amazing opportunity to grow and explore. My biggest takeaway, summarized, is that you should be okay with being nervous or scared, but do not let that fear keep you trapped in your room the entire trip. You can and will find your people; you just have to give it time!