The opportunity provided to me during this study abroad period in Kobe is a unique one that I am extremely excited to undertake. I believe that studying in Japan will enrich me in multiple ways, including improving my Japanese language skills, increasing my understanding of Japanese culture, and by providing me with experience in daily life in Japan.

As a Japanese major, the opportunity to improve my Japanese language skills were first and foremost in my mind when I decided to apply for this study abroad. I have always heard that immersion in a country where a language is primarily spoken is the best way to efficiently and naturally acquire that language through constant exposure. My ultimate career goal by majoring in Japanese is to become a Japanese/English translator and as such, I want to become as close to natively fluent as I am able to. To pursue this goal, I believe that in addition to classroom instruction, the endless exposure to the Japanese language through recreational activities, making friends, and living with my host family will be incredibly valuable. While classroom instruction is still a vital part of learning Japanese, I believe it is these numerous opportunities outside the classroom that will help me transition from “learning” the Japanese language to “living” it.

As previously mentioned, my career goal is to work as a Japanese/English translator. However, the way I decided on this career path is probably the opposite of most people’s experiences. I have wanted to learn a second language since I was young, and after working with some translators I became interested in language as a career field. It was only after deciding that I wanted to be a translator that I chose a language to learn, and as such did not have the connection to or knowledge of Japanese culture that most other students had. Even after the Japanese classes I’ve taken up to now, I still often feel that my understanding of Japanese culture is lacking compared to most of my fellow students. Due to this, I believe this study abroad will help by exposing me to various aspects of Japanese culture I have yet to learn about. Learning about Japanese culture is important to me for two primary reasons. The first reason is that I think culture is an important part of learning any language. Culture naturally feeds into a language through things like idioms, expressions, body language, and slang, and as such is necessary in truly understanding a language. The second reason is that I plan to move to Japan after graduating. As someone who has lived overseas before, I have seen many people that make the mistake of not trying to understand the culture of where they are moving to, which often leads to one feeling isolated and out of place. Because of this, I want to learn and experience as much as I can about Japanese culture in order to better prepare myself to adapt to living in Japan.

While I said that my career plan involves moving to Japan, I have not actually been to Japan before. As such, this study abroad will serve as an invaluable chance to experience what daily life in Japan is really like. While the prospect of living in Japan is very exciting, it also makes me a little nervous. Because of this, I think the study abroad program has additional value in that it provides a chance to experience what it is like to live in Japan while also having the “safety net” of the school program, program staff, host family, and a resident director from my university. Compared to the prospect of moving to Japan on my own, I believe that the study abroad will provide an extremely helpful chance to experience living in Japan in a semi-structured manner that will ultimately leave me better prepared to move there on my own after graduation.

I have been living in Japan for almost four months now and am about halfway through my study abroad program. When looking back on my time so far, the thing that is on the forefront of my mind is the duality of this experience: time has passed faster than I could ever have expected, and yet the depth of my experience has left me feeling like the summer was a lifetime ago. In every area of my current life such as studying, living with a Japanese host family, and recreational activities in my daily life, I am practically overwhelmed with new experiences every single day.

The easiest place I can see how I’ve grown during these first few months was in my Japanese language ability. Of course, the frequency and detail of my classroom learning has assisted me greatly in increasing my language proficiency, but what has truly surprised me is the amount of learning and language acquisition I am doing outside the classroom. In my first essay, I mentioned several times that I had been told that immersion is the best way to acquire a language. My time here has consistently shown that to be the case, as I find myself constantly exposed to Japanese in the forms of writing in text messages and on signs and advertisements, listening experience from conversation and announcements, and speaking experience from any daily interactions I have. Another thing I expressed in my first essay was my lack of confidence regarding my speaking and listening skills, especially when comparing myself to students at a similar level as myself. Thankfully, this is the part in which I feel I have grown the most. Whereas before arriving to Japan I would require significant time to process both things I heard and any sentence I wanted to say, I can now much more naturally participate in Japanese conversation due to this language immersion.

Chief among the aspects of my daily life in Japan that help my language skills are my interactions with my Japanese host family. If there is one thing that I wish to express to future students enrolling in this program, it is to stay with a host family instead of residing in one of the provided dorms. Despite being a very naturally shy and introverted person, getting the chance to live with my host family has been by far the most rewarding aspect of this program. Getting a chance to reside in the home of a Japanese family has led to many benefits. It has helped me learn about and experience natural Japanese culture, daily life, and socialization. In addition to learning experiences, it has provided me with support that I’ve considered vital to my experience in Japan. Through communication with my host family, not only do I have a resource to see cultural aspects I may not understand through the eyes of those who have been raised with them, I also have a support system for any potential societal problems I run into that I may not even understand well enough to begin addressing alone.

Outside of spending time with my host family, there are also an unending stream of new experiences available to me every day. With encouragement from my home school’s study abroad program staff, I am trying to maintain a mindset in which I am open to trying new experiences whenever I encounter them. This has led me to various cultural sites like art galleries and museums, helped me explore Japanese nature through a growing interest in hiking, and allowed me to try a wide variety of new foods, both in Japan cuisine as well as that from other foreign countries. With new food in particular, I have tried to follow a rule of always eating somewhere new and avoiding repeat restaurants, but of course some meals have been too delicious to pass up going more than once.

When I consider my path going forward from here, it once again becomes difficult to imagine both that I am already halfway done and that everything I’ve experienced has only been in the first half of this program. In the spring semester of 2025, I am greatly looking forward to continuing my studies, both academically and culturally, as well as continuing to experience living in Japanese society. I wrote in my first essay that I hope to move to Japan after graduation and thought this program would serve as a chance to try experiencing that. While I’ve only completed the first half of the program here, my time in Japan has already cemented my desire to move here after graduation, and has allowed me to believe that I will be able to live on my own in Japan without issues.

It is difficult to believe that my time in Japan is already coming to a close. Even though I have been in Japan for quite a long time now, I still feel like my life here has only just begun. I have learned many things in my daily life here. From my experiences in my Japanese language classes, I feel that my Japanese has become much more natural. While I am still not at a fluent level, I can clearly see the difference in language skills when comparing myself now to myself before beginning this program. In my primary class, I studied parts of the language such as grammar, vocabulary, and kanji, and in my other, more cultural focused classes, I had the opportunity to learn more about Japanese history, cuisine, and society. Compared to before I arrived in Japan, I feel that my image of Japan and Japanese society as a whole has become much clearer.
Outside of class, I had many opportunities to travel throughout Japan. I had the privilege of discovering that seemingly wherever I go in Japan, there is always beautiful scenery, delicious local cuisine, and new experiences awaiting me. I have been able to enjoy travelling both in the local Kansai area, as well as to further destinations. These include solo trips to Tokyo and Ise, trips with my host family to Okayama and Naoshima, as well as trips to Mt. Koya and Hiroshima as part of the program’s class trips. I have cherished the opportunity to experience so many new places and things during my travels.
During my time in Japan, I have also been able to better prepare for my future goals. Before I came to Japan, I was thinking that this program would be a good chance to experience daily life in Japan before my eventual plan to move here long term. After getting to experience life here, I was able to confirm my desire to live in Japan after graduating. I think it is inherently nerve-wracking to move to a new place, but this program allowed me to get used to the unique aspects of life in Japan while remaining in a structured environment with a robust support system. In order to further improve my Japanese, my initial plan was to try and live in Japan for three to five years after graduating. However, after the experience of participating in this program, I now intend to live in Japan for much longer, and if possible, create a life here.
At the start of this program, my overall career goal was to become a Japanese/English translator. However, after recent developments of AI translation software, I have become less optimistic about the future of the non-AI translation industry. Because of this, I felt that I had to decide on a new direction to take my career plans in. While in Japan, I have had the opportunity to assist some English-speaking tourists who did not have any Japanese language ability. After that experience, I have begun considering work in the Japanese tourism industry. If possible, after graduation I would like to move to Hokkaido, Japan, and try to find work in Sapporo’s tourism sector, giving customer service to English-speaking tourists.
I have adjusted to life in Japan more than I ever could have expected, and have had the privilege of experiencing Japanese events, cuisine, society, cities, countryside, culture, and people. From these experiences, my biggest takeaway is this: If possible, I plan to continue experiencing more of Japan from now on.