Japan
Story________________________________________Mike Mallon
I,
personally, had never considered a study abroad program in my
life. That sort of thing always came off as sort of one of those
unattainable luxuries for people that had money to burn. I was
mistaken.
During one of my JPNE 121 classes, a representative from MSU came
to tell us about several different study abroad programs that
were available through EMU. She explained how easy it was to apply
for them, all the methods of financing them (not unlike normally
attending a university), and where to get more information about
said programs. After my classes, I swung by the Office of Academic
Programs Abroad (103 Boone hall) and got everything I needed.
Of all the steps of the application process, getting the recommendations
was probably the most difficult thing. It was hard to think of
who I could get to write my recommendations. My suggestion is
to, obviously, try to get one from your language instructor, and
then another teacher that may
know you fairly well. I selected an art teacher of mine, since
we talked a lot during class, so she knew more about my character
than most of my other professors.
Finally, after all the interviews, passport photos, visa applications,
phone calls, and 15 hours in an economy class seat, I was in Japan.
The unattainable had been attained, and I was ready for 8 months
of apologizing for not knowing how to speak to people properly.
"Sumimasen, watashi wa warui nihongo no gakusei desu…"
Living at JCMU was great. Classes were right next door to the
dorms, which were more like apartments. You could ride your bike
or take a bus to Al Plaza, the 7-story department store to get
groceries, or just go to CoCo’s, the on-complex restaurant
that serves all sorts of Japanese and American foods.
Classes at JCMU consisted of 3 hours of Japanese language courses,
Monday through Friday form 9am to noon, as well as an elective
course for 2 hours, once a week. Other than that, and the occasional
field trip, we had the rest of the time to ourselves. Everyone
was on the same schedule, too, which made it easy to make plans
with other students to go on trips and such.
There were other things to do in Japan than just go to class and
buy groceries, though. During the month-long break between semesters,
a fellow student and I decided to hitch-hike to Tokyo.
While ordinarily hitch-hiking is considered a bad idea, our culture
teacher had told us that friends of his did it all the time as
a means of getting around Tokyo for free, so we decided to give
it a try. We walked out to a nearby highway entrance and waited
for a good while before deciding to head back to a small truck
stop we had passed to try our luck there. On the way back, we
were stopped by a guy honking and pulling a U-turn to tell us
that if we were heading away from the highway. We told him what
we were doing, and he offered to take us to a rest stop a little
ways away where we should have better luck.
He wasn’t joking. Within ten minutes, we were offered a ride
all the way to Tokyo by an elderly couple. Coincidentally, the
wife had actually studied English at JCMU, so we had a lot to
talk about on the ride.
They dropped us off at Shibuya, a city in the Tokyo area. From
there, my friend and I went where my friend and I parted ways.
He went to stay with a friend of his, while I went on to back-pack
around Tokyo for a week.
I found a capsule hotel, where I would be spending my nights for
the rest of the week, and got myself situated with the hotel a
bit. You had a locker to put all your stuff for the night and
a tag that had your “room” number on it, plus a small
locker where your shoes were kept. There was also a public bathroom
with prepackaged toothbrushes with toothpase, a shower room, massage
parlor, and a lobby with TV and crazy vending machines with robotic
claws that picked up whatever you bought.
If
you wanted to go out, you had to turn in your key to get your
shoes back. Once you did that, though, there was quite a bit to
do. There was an internet café and arcade located right
next to the hotel. The “rooms” themselves are basically
just holes in the wall with a bed in the bottom, but they had
all sorts of things in them, like an alarm clock, radio, cable
TV and little shelves. The were large enough for you to comfortably
sit up in them, and closed with a little privacy gate in the front.
While I was in Tokyo, I did all sorts of things. I traveled to
new cities every day, seeing what there was to do in each, and
even went to a party on the Tokyo University campus for international
students. Every night, I’d head back to Shinjuku, check into
the hotel, get some dinner, and hang out in the arcade until closing
time. My stay in Japan didn’t teach me as much about language
as it did about people. The strangers that I happened upon in
Japan were amazing, doing things like personally leading me to
places I asked for directions to and taking me to concerts. They
were always kind and willing to help with incredible patience.
The
biggest challenge by far was the language barrier, but that was
only at first. After a while, you learned to do things on your
own, and how to ask about those things that you couldn‘t.
Memorizing how to order "the usual" at CoCo’s helped,
too.
I believe that the experience from studying abroad is critical
to understanding the world. It gives you the ability to learn
about another culture's way of handling situations first-hand,
and allows you to have a broader view of people in general. People
get used to the idea of how people act around where they live
and never think about how differently life might be somewhere
else. You really need to step outside your own world and into
someone else’s to truly see and understand the differences.
I constantly heard people telling me about how I was going to
be hit with culture shock both when I arrived in Japan and when
I returned home. Perhaps the former was true, but I didn't really
have a problem getting back into the swing of things when I got
off the plane. If anything, I was glad to see a normal bed after
8 months, but it took some getting used to; it just felt way too
soft compared to those cloth-lined rocks I’d been using.
That, and not having to say "onegaishimasu" after ordering
something at McDonald's.
My best advice to someone going to JCMU would be that you should
never forget to go out and explore. Even if you're there for the
entire academic year, that's only 8 months; not a very long time
at all. Wander around town, travel to other cities, and just do
as much as you can.
Academic
Programs Abroad
Eastern Michigan University
103 Boone Hall
Ypsilanti, MI 48197
Voice: 734.487.2424 or toll free 1.800.777.3541
FAX: 734.487.4377
E-mail : Programs
Abroad
