Tokyo

Greetings, all!

My name is Pablo Cisneros and I make awkward introductions. Don't worry, I'm not that awkward! This was my first attempt at "vlogging." You will get to know me through my videos.

First off, I want to thank IES Abroad for allowing me to be a Video Correspondent for this upcoming Summer Tokyo program. I am looking forward to making videos so that students considering studying abroad get an idea of the study abroad experience. This is my second time studying abroad, and I am motivated to improve my Japanese language skills. I am also excited to make new friends and explore the massive city of Tokyo.

For this video, I wanted to make a personal list of pre-departure tips for studying abroad. Most of the things on my list are tips to enduring the long flight to Tokyo. This includes taking your Nintendo Switch and downloading content to watch on your flight. Other tips included on my list are helpful in preparing for a homestay and emergencies. Some of the common tips that I left out are things like packing lightly and bringing your passport.

Everyone, please stay tuned! I'm looking forward to showing my experience to prospective study abroad students, my friends, and my family.

Thank you for watching!

While my physical body may be back in California, my head and my heart are still back in Tokyo. (Especially my head, jet lag has made it extremely difficult to re-adjust to a normal sleep schedule on Pacific time).

While there is still so much more I want to see and do in Japan, I am happy with the choices I made and the things I did while I was studying abroad this past term. I may not have done all the things I put on my original bucket list (let’s be real, it was definitely a little ambitious), but I have no regrets looking back.

When I was looking through the hundreds of photos I took, I realized that there were a lot of things that I did during my time abroad that I didn’t write or post about. It was hard to group them together for a common theme to make a blog post about, but here on my last blog post seems like the best place to put them.

I went to four different animal café’s in Japan: a hedgehog café, a cat café, an owl café, and a shiba inu café. I would go back in a heartbeat.

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Akihabara: a must see for any anime lover or electronics enthusiast.

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Tokyo Disney was definitely a highlight of the trip! Disneyland was structured almost the exact way it is in California, but Disney Sea was completely new to me.

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I am a die-hard Studio Ghibli fan, and going to the Ghibli museum was a dream come true! If you want to go, make sure you get your tickets in advance, as they sell out fast.

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The Yayoi Kusama museum in Shinjuku is a nice way to spend the day.

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So is the Team Lab digital art museum in Odaiba!

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Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year, and the best place in Japan to celebrate it is definitely the Yokohama Christmas Market!

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Gotokuji shrine is on the far west side of Tokyo, and it definitely takes a while get there. It’s definitely worth the trip though.

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And Lastly, The Tokyo National Museum in Ueno is great place to hang out with friends and learn about Japanese art.

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Thank you for reading my blog over the past semester! I can’t wait to go back to Japan.

One Day.

またね