Three Days in Tokyo

Happy Election Day to my friends in the United States, today is a day that we are all able to practice our rights as citizens of the freedom country by electing the representative that will represent us as a people for the next couple years.

As for me, just a Tuesday after Culture Day yesterday (November 3) in Japan, the day of Emperor Meiji's birthday (look him up if you do not know him, he is one of the reasons we have the super modern Japan that everyone knows!). I can say that all I did for Culture Day was sleep to recover from three days in Tokyo, and boy were those days ones to remember!!!

This trip started last Thursday when I took an overnight bus from Sendai (where I live in Japan) down to Shinjuku, Tokyo. Upon arrival, I found a local bath (sento: せんと) to wash up for the travel gunk and set off exploring the city. I started with Ueno park, which was the best decision I ever made on a trip in my life!!! I didn't realize that Ueno Park was a cultural center of Tokyo! I spend many hours exploring the city,  I saw the Tokyo National Museum, National Museum of Western Art, Ueno Zoo, Kaneiji Temple, Kiyomizu Kannon Temple, Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, Ueno Toshoku Shrine, and too many statues to count! I really need to come back with friends to enjoy it fully!!!

After the highlight of the trip already on the first day, I then went off to Hamatsucho Station to visit two places that I have been meaning to visit ever since I knew I was going to come to Japan. First off, I found the Tokyo Pokemon Center!!! I was very lucky in visiting it at this time as it was going to be closed soon for the opening of the new Pokemon Center Mega Tokyo in December!!! After that, it was a nice long walk to Tokyo Tower, probably one of the most beautiful structures in Tokyo, even after being a common sight for so many years. I enjoyed seeing the city while enjoying a parfait and drink from the observation deck, and found the curry place my mother mentioned (mom!).

After that, I took the long walk back to the train station to head over to Akibahara so see if anyone was dressed up for Halloween. Sadly, I did not do my research to realize that people gather in Shibuya during Halloween, so I was rather disappointed, but either ways, I enjoyed some time exploring the shops and headed off to Shijuku to crash in a capsule hotel for the night.

So, Saturday was a day of meeting up with family and friends!!! I met my cousin Chloe for lunch, the first time we met in 15 years!!! After that, I met up with multiple friends at the Tokyo Skytree. Sadly, it was cloudy, so we elected not to go up to the observatory, but we enjoyed the mall right underneath the Skytree having dinner and buying many souvenirs from the specialty shop. Heading back to Akihabara, my friends and I spent some time at the huge arcades they have here, and then went to an internet cafe to spend the night.

Sunday arrives, and the exploration continues. We headed to the Meiji Shrine, Shibuya, and Shinjuku, and since we did not see enough of Tokyo yet, we rode around Tokyo in the Yamanote line of the JR. After being tired from all of the exploring and sightseeing, I finally decided to throw in the towel and took the late night Shinkansen back to Sendai.

TLDR; I had a great time in Tokyo and would love to visit again! Tokyo has captured me with it's special culture and design, and I can't wait for the next time I come back for another adventure!

The Study Abroad Burnout - How do you take care of yourself abroad?

So, ten days since my last post, I guess I need to write about something, but I am all out of ideas.

Let's see...... since two weekends ago, I have had class, went on a field trip, and been tired. Oh yeah, I also was sick the past few days, so there went a few of the days as well.....

Ideas, ideas...... Oh yeah! This was not the first time I made myself sick studying abroad, so I might as well talk about it - Study Abroad Burnout.

So what is Study Abroad Burnout? From my experience, Study Abroad Burnout is an extended period of tiredness usually paired with being sick with something simple like a cold or sore throat due to extended periods of over-engagement due to Studying Abroad.

Now I think many of you will ask the question: "If you know that you are overextending yourself, why don't you simply take a break?" My answer is that the solution to this is not a simple as taking a random break, as many times people studying abroad will have to make a choice between resting or going to a once-in-a-lifetime experience, with the latter of course being the answer the majority of us will choose. The sad truth of the matter is, those of us travelling are just as human as everyone else, and we can't spend all of our free time experiencing something new in the culture we are exploring, as much as we wish we can. For example, I had to miss an Imoni lunch gather with my lab because I was sick this week.

Sadly, the best solution I can give to this problem will be to plan ahead when you will take a break. If you want to go on a trip to some remote section of the country one weekend, maybe you should reserve the weekend before and after that trip in order to rest and properly prepare and debrief from the experience, as during the week we are still students and have all the responsibilities and duties every student has.

That being said, I think that rather than limiting the amount of experience we all attempt to attain while we are abroad, we should instead look to ways to get the best quality rest whenever we can to allow us to push harder to gain all of these experiences. The foremost way in which you can increase quality of rest is with the sleep you get every night. Always make sure that you are getting the recommended 8 to 10 hours of sleep a day. I prefer 9 hours myself. I have had many experiences abroad when I would sleep less than this amount multiple nights in a row and cause myself large amounts of anguish at the end when I really wanted to go to an event or festival.

Another way to stay well rested abroad is to become proactive about your duties while abroad. While you are a student and do need to study classes that will keep you on track for your plan of study, you should work to minimize these requirements while abroad to both allow you to take fun classes that you can only take abroad and minimize the amount of effort you need to put forward for your student responsibilities. This doesn't mean to fail class, but to minimize the amount of effort your "waste" on classes during your time abroad to give you time to be explore the amazing place you traveled to along with getting the sleep needed to keep you going.

The last way I know to keep you going while abroad is to make friends with people from where you come from abroad. This might seem strange for me to say so, but a lot of the burnout you experience comes from culture shock in some portion, and having friends who came from a similar culture you came from and understand the experiences you are obtaining really helps to alleviate a large amount of the stress you experience while abroad.

Well, five paragraphs of writing done. I really need to get all of the pictures I have taken while I am here. Thus, I will elect to go quiet the next week or so to get everything cleaned and posted.

Yosakoi - A Japanese Treasure

Happy Columbus Day America, and happy Health and Sports Day Japan!

Another passing weekend has brought another new experience to me that I will never forget. This weekend, I went to the Michinoku Yosakoi Matsuri (みちのくよさこいまつり, or Michinoku Yosakoi Festival). The event details that I found online basically said "Spectators will be entranced by the dancers who have added their own dynamic movements into their dance and are attired in unique costumes", and I have to say, they were right!

The best way for me to describe these dances are as mesmerizing chaotic, colorful, and exciting performances. The stage and streets flurry with the constant movement of colors and the clacks of their naruko as each team switches between costumes mid-stride and awestruck me with a visual and auditory spectacle.

There are no words that can describe the spectacle of Yosakoi to its full extent, so I will instead post pictures and videos in the coming days.

All this excitement aside, this experience made me think about how I find so much fun in traveling abroad. I do not simply attempt to experience their daily lives, but also what is special for the people here as well. This Yosakoi matsuri was an example of that. I didn't know what to expect from such a simple description of a dance, but was absolutely blown away by the energy and spectacle of the event.

How to deal with the Inevitable Culture Shock

So, I am settled into my second week of classes here in Japan, and things could not be going better for me. All of my classes are set for this term and pretty much everything is going according to plan for me. You can pretty much say that I have set for myself a relatively normal life in Japan. That being said, I do miss home like always, but I think that rather than describing what I miss of home, I should talk about culture shock, how it affects everyone who travels, and how to deal with the problems.

So, let's start off with a definition. Culture shock as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary is "a sense of confusion and uncertainty sometimes with feelings of anxiety that may affect people exposed to an alien culture or environment without adequate preparation". I will slightly alter this definition by saying these effects can occur even with adequate preparation. 

This first thing to know about culture shock outside of the definition is knowing that culture shock will affect almost everyone to some extent. The effects can range from slight discomfort that might just cause you to shake your head every once in a while to extreme shock, causing one to want to return to their home country.

I can say from my experiences now that I have experienced both ends of this shock spectrum. In Hong Kong, I experienced quite harsh culture shock. This culture shock lead me to hid in my living quarters in Hong Kong multiple times a month, pretty much the opposite of what you want to do when you visit another country. I can't exactly describe it except from anxiety just like in the definition, but it certainly can make your life quite uncomfortable and sometimes scary.

The worst part of this culture shock is the fact that I did not realize that I was experiencing culture shock. This brings me to the most important part of this article: HOW TO COPE WITH AND OVERCOME CULTURE SHOCK. The first thing you can do when you experience anxiety or discomfort in a foreign place is to understand and accept you are experiencing culture shock. Every person you meet might tell you that the best way to experience a culture is to become a local, but you also need to respect that you are a foreigner in many ways and need to give yourself a break every now and then. In a way, this step was the hardest for me to make as I went on exchange to cultures where I look like a local, and thus can not create that barrier to take care of myself every now and then.

The next and basically most important and final key to overcoming culture shock is to share your problems with friends. You might feel that this is a problem you can deal with this problem by yourself, but I will tell you from experience, friends make this nearly impossible problem a lot easier to cope with. Understand that friends that you make both at home and internationally are your friends, and will understand your problems even if it seems something as meaningless as culture shock to you.

I can say from practice that these two methods have been quite fruitful for me in Japan. Even if it is a culture I have been familiar with due to my heritage just like in Hong Kong, I did experience culture shock yet again. I accepted that I was experiencing culture shock and shared it with friends, and as a result, I have enjoyed pretty much every single day I have spent in Japan exploring and experiencing the culture (pun intended).

Talk to you another time!

Been gone, been busy.

Okay, time to get back to writing......

Since I last wrote, I have finally moved into the place I will be spending my year in Japan in the beautiful city of Sendai, the City of Trees (杜の都). 

I have spent two weeks here now, and I have to say that I am enjoying myself quite a bit. I am in an international house of Tohoku University, meeting many students from around the world, and we regularly enjoy the town which is only 15 minutes away by bicycle (that is right, I said bicycle).

Not trying to sound biased, but Sendai has many qualities that I was looking for in a place to settle. Downtown Sendai is a bustling city with many shops and just as many beautiful parks that regularly hold events, while the residential areas surrounding Sendai are close and quiet. Along with the modern conveniences of a developed nation, there are also many temples and historic places connecting this city to the past, including Aoba Castle, countless temples, and the mausoleum of the famous Date Masamune.

Alright, I currently love living in Sendai right now, though I do not know if I want to live here for the rest of my life, that is a decision I will have to make after a year of studies and research here. Nonetheless, I feel that I am maximizing my experience here hope that I will continue to create new experiences that will allow me to grow as an engineer, a geek, and as an individual.

Time to get to posting pictures and vlogs!!!!

May I say I am enjoying my time in Japan already?

Another two days in Japan since I last wrote, and the beginning of my fourth day in Japan. I have to say that I am beginning to understand the basics of Japanese culture and their common sense.

It is probably premature for me to state this, but I am starting to like Japanese culture as a whole. There is a lot I can talk about everything about the culture, but it can be boiled to how they treat interactions both formal and informal. While I understood from anecdotes and other people's experiences that Japan is known as a very polite culture, I didn't understood the depth of this courtesy across their culture. Everyone here appears (emphasis on appears) to value hard work and going "above and beyond" and this clearly shows in the world they have created around them. They value the small details of everything they do and make, which I experience from how they pack shopping bags to the way they handle money. I can understand now why Japan created so many innovations that required large amounts of precision and quality, their culture allows them to pay attention to these details at a depth that I have not seen in other cultures.

That being said, I am also getting a perspective on the cost of this quality. I see that the Japanese people have to work very hard to maintain this culture and their relative lack of inflexibility and pride in their culture makes them understandably inflexible in the international scene. This shows up in their international politics with topics such as the Senkaku Islands which is quite a stalemate as neither Japan or China are willing to approach a compromise.

Enough with all of the analysis and social science. All I really have to say right now is that I am enjoying my time in Japan quite a bit and learning quite a bit about Japanese culture and about myself through that lense. I can't wait to see what's the rest of the year brings into my perspective.

Japan is already costing me a &%#@ ton of money

Day Two in Japan, and Japan is already leaving an impression on me.

Of course, all judgements are not final, but I am starting to understand why everything costs so much, alongside the sheer fact that I just spent $250 on a phone yesterday to get me connected in Japan.  (There is just no other way in Japan.)

The cost of living in Japan has astounded me more than I was expecting. Costs are a little over double what I was paying for the equivalent in America, which is saying a lot. That being said, the cost does pay for quality of service. The mythical good service of Japanese culture is such a thing and it is a level of service I would expect to pay for back home. That being said, I have a hard time believing so many people could afford such a lifestyle. I guess there is a good reason why Salary Men work so hard and for so many hours in Japan.

Like always, the culture shock has settled in on me, but I feel that it is not as bad as my time in Hong Kong for the moment. I guess I know what to expect in culture shock, so I have a better understanding of how to cope.

Well, I am out of ideas of what to write about. Oh yeah! I just happen to have arrived in Japan just before the weekend of the Tokyo Game Show! I think I will be able to go. I never thought I would get such an opportunity!!!

おやすみなさい、アメリカ。 

It Begins!!!

So, first off...... Good morning from Japan!!! Land of the Rising Sun!!!

I am getting adjusted to the time difference here. Got up early this morning, but I think I should be over any jetlag in a few days.

Either ways. superfluous topics aside, I would like to start off by saying Thank You (ありがとうございます) to Takenori and Kumiko, family friends, for helping me get settled in Japan and letting me stay at their place for a few days before I move to Sendai in Northern Japan (not quite sure of my geography quite yet for Japan....).

Either ways, today's plans will be an interesting visit to the past. I am going to visit the nursing home that Takenori's family owns and runs. The last time I visited them was when I was a tiny five year old! I can't believe it has been that long (in a way)!!! 

Apart from that, settling in Japan has been a lot easier than expected. I got a great exchange rate at the ForEx at the airport, so I have money to spend. (Mom, don't stress yourself out with worrying!) Apart from that, the only thing I really need to take care of before going to Tohoku University (都北大学) is getting a cellphone so I can get reconnected while outside of the house. 

I can't wait to see how things turn out!!!