Back on American Soil: Thoughts After Japan

After one week of arriving back in the United States, my sleep schedule has finally started to go back to normal and I’m no longer feeling the jet lag. It was definitely easier to adjust to going to Japan rather than returning to America for me since I could just stay up later instead of needing to go to sleep earlier. 

The differences between Japan and America are some that I hadn’t noticed before, such as how expensive the food is here at home and how spacious the cars and roads are. A sandwich could easily go for $10 while in Japan it could be about 600 yen ($4), and the trucks in the US are giant, they’re so tall and big compared to Japan's smaller square cars. A few things that I'll be missing that I had in Japan is how easy the public transportation was and all of the vending machines on the streets. I’m sad to have to start driving everywhere again! It was also super convenient to have a vending machine every few hundred feet, especially while running because the drinks were always cool and I didn’t have to worry about getting dehydrated. I only needed to keep a few 100 yen coins on me and I would have water and sports drinks ready. 

After coming back, I started to notice how much more Japanese I’m now able to understand just by talking with old friends and old students in Japanese. I’m now able to understand the contexts of sentences and recognize different words. It’s also much easier to pick out the words that I don’t know or understand. I also feel more confident speaking Japanese to others and have a better understanding of different kanjis. I’m excited to see the progress I made in Japanese class this upcoming school year!

Looking back, I wish that I had packed less long sleeved clothes and less clothes in general. Since I was going to Japan in the summer, the heat picked up quickly and I really only needed one hoodie, and a couple pairs of pants. The rest could have been shorts/shirts which I ended up wearing a majority of the time. I also ended up buying a lot of new clothes and souvenirs which took up more space than expected and then had to throw away some clothes to make space for them. One thing that I’m glad to have back in the US is using a bigger washer and having a drying for clothes. In Japan, the washers are very small which requires you to wash every few days or even more frequently if you’re an athlete, since my clothes were often wet from sweating in the heat. Not only that but, it's much more convenient to also have a dryer instead of drying them outside since all of your clothes are dry within an hour and you don’t need to hang them up which in turn takes up less space. I would recommend saving one suitcase for new souvenirs and clothes and saving the other suitcase for everything else. I would also say that exchanging a few hundred dollars at the airport once you arrive is worth it so that you don’t have to worry about going around and finding a 7/11 to get more money! 

Some of the most memorable moments for me were travelling to different prefectures, going out of my comfort zone and joining a club, and hanging out with people. I'm going to miss my host family and all the people I met along the way lots! I would recommend trying to get out as much as possible and doing what you can while you’re in Japan! But remember to take care of yourself first and have fun!