Hi everyone!
Today I will give you an insight of my six month study abroad experience in Japan.
I stayed for the whole six months in a private student accommodation called ‘Hakusan House – Uninest Student Residences Japan’. This accommodation is both for students, or for those who are doing an internship in Japan. Hakusan House is located in the heart of Tokyo, where it was really easy to travel to any location from my halls. This location was very convenient for me as it had many convenient stores nearby (stores that are open 24/7 which sell all of your daily needed equipment, such as deodorants, food, etc). You can even print documents from USBs and withdraw money from debit cards in convenient stores, which is very convenient! Some of the most popular convenient stores in Japan are 711, Lawson and family mart.
A twenty minute walk was all I needed to reach my campus, called ‘Hongo Campus’, belonging to the ‘University of Tokyo’. Studying at the University of Tokyo was a pleasure, and I could experience a whole new different education system to the one I have had in England. Some interesting facts about the University of Tokyo include being eighty percent male and twenty percent female, half of the students are undergraduates and the other half are post graduates, and the University of Tokyo has the most research groups out of all universities in Japan. At first I was a little nervous to step into the University of Tokyo, as it has a name for being the number one university in Japan, and some even say in the whole of Asia, but it was full of fun experiences and people. I managed to make friends with people from all over the world from my classes, including Vietnam, Taiwan, Poland, and Canada.
In Japan you can experience many things that you cannot experience in the UK. One amazing thing I saw were Mario Kart drivers, literally people dressed up as Mario characters, and driving in small race cars on the main road. A lot of things I found astonishing were in a place called Akihabara, a place for anime lovers and in general animation lovers, arcade lovers and café lovers. In Akihabara, I witnessed many kinds of cafes, such as hedgehog cafes and owl cafes. The name says it all, they are cafes with literally animals inside, and you can hold and pet the animals anytime you want. I had the privilege to hold a hedgehog for the first time in my life inside a hedgehog café.
At the beginning of my stay in Japan, I was lucky enough to come just in time for the Sakura, a special time of the year in Japan, where Sakura (translating to cherry blossoms), are these beautiful pink flowers that bloom from trees around Japan. Every year the time for Sakura blossoming changes, and there is even a calendar that will tell you when the next time they will blossom. People come to Japan especially for this time as it is probably the most beautiful time of the year for Japan, and witnessing these flowers is really mesmerising.
Before my studies even began at Tokyo University, I was able to take a quick four day trip to Beppu, a city located in South Japan’s Oita. Why did I go here? As well as the city life, I wanted to experience the countryside of Japan, and I felt Oita was the best place for this, as it is very well known for having the most famous hot springs in the whole of Japan. Oita was very beautiful as it is by the edge of Japan, so I could look out into the ocean if I were somewhere high. Oita is very well known for its ‘Kabosu’ production, a fruit sacred to Oita, and I was amazed to have tried the biscuits that have kabosu paste inside as they were truly delicious and only purchasable from Oita.
At the end of my studies in Japan, I decided to go on a little trip outside of Tokyo again. I went on a two day trip to a place called ‘Nagano’, a more countryside Japan place just like Oita. This trip was actually a tour, where I travelled by coach to various places just outside of Tokyo, and ending up at Nagano for a night. Tokyo has many tall buildings, and if you want to find nature in Tokyo, you have to go to certain places just to see some nature, however, on this trip that I went on, it was purely nature. When I arrived at Nagano on the night, I got to see the stars, but in an almost magical way. I took a cable cart to the top of a mountain, where there was a hut serving hot beverages, and many open spaces to lie down on a patch of grass. After waiting for half an hour, all the lights on top of the mountain turned off, and all everyone could see were the stars in the sky, and there were many.
After the star show, I stayed at a standard hotel for the night and woke up early in the morning for an early 8 am leave. The second day consisted of going to many places again, and more hills and mountains, but this time I could see everything since it was in the day time. The view on top of 長野県の千畳敷カール mountain was truly spectacular. It is said that this mountain looks completely different depending on the season. After returning back to the coach, the journey continued back to Tokyo, seeing a lot more nature along the way through the coach windows. Overall, this trip was a blessing and a privilege to be a part of, as I have never experienced anything so beautiful in my life, and I am truly happy that I could see this while on my study aboard in Japan. I definitely recommend a trip to Japan for anyone who has some time off, as it is a completely different life there with many new things to try.