So I’ve been in Japan for a little over a week now. The first week or so was spent traveling by myself in Osaka, Kobe, Nara, and Kyoto and now I’m finally settling down in my dorm room for the next few months. For those of you not in the know I’m studying abroad in Japan at Tohoku University this semester.
I’ve found out that traveling alone is lonely. Traveling alone in Japan is even lonelier. I remember on my first full day I was walking around and this wave of sadness just came over me. Here I am all alone in a country where I know no one. My Japanese sucks. I want to talk to someone.
Good thing that I had a schedule, a plan, so I wasn’t stuck moping in my hotel room by myself. Though doing touristy things by yourself isn’t as fun as doing them with other people. I would visit all the shrines, temples, tourist attractions, and I would spend my entire day taking pictures and walking. Most signs describing the significance of things were in Japanese so I just took more pictures. And when something happens (good, bad, funny) there's no one else to turn to and be like “omg can you believe that?” I wrote postcards to fill in that gap.
At first I was really afraid that people that people couldn’t tell that I was a foreigner (btdubs I look asian). What if they assume I have a full spectrum of communication? What if I offend them by doing the wrong thing? Am I supposed to say thank you when the waitress brings me the food? How am I supposed to even order food!?
I had a lot of anxiety over this. But as time went on I’ve come to realize that as soon as I open my mouth people know that I’m not from here. Whether I like it or not, I’m probably saying things wrong and have a foreign accent. And while I’m still kind of panicky about stuff like this, I can survive.
It’s really easy to fake understanding. Sometimes when I’m in conversations it doesn’t make sense to let the other person know that I don’t understand every other sentence. It’s like the same thing you do when you’re listening but not really, you just smile and nod and go like “ohhhhh.” it usually gets me by most things except when they’re asking me a question, and it's like GOTCHA. It’s also bad when I’m trying to get answers to my question since having a clear understanding seems to be relevant.
Another thing that I’m thinking of as school starts is how comfortable will I be adjusting? I think most people agree that when you’re in a foreign country that you should try to immerse yourself, learn the language, learn the culture, make friends with the people there, but when you’re there in the context it’s a little different.
I’m scared, I don’t really know I can end up making Japanese friends (In what context am I meeting them? (by the way classes here are entirely in English, so I don’t know how many native students are actually taking these classes) How do we communicate?) It’s so easy to default back on making friends with the other foreign exchange students, but then I feel like I’m cheating, that I’m not really doing it right. But what if I find that the language barrier is too high, and all the exchange students are settled down in their groups and I’m left over?
We’ll see.
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