My year abroad in Japan has finally come to its close; this last semester seemed very long and very short at the same time. At the start of the semester, I was quite sad to go back knowing that my best friend would not be there to greet me and go on more adventures with me as she was only a semester student and had returned to her home in the Netherlands. However, with the close of that door brought new students, who would become part of our family, to the dorm. That is one of the beautiful things about studying abroad, in this past year I have met more lifelong friends from so many unique backgrounds than I have in my entire life. I now know that there are homes across many countries just waiting for me to come to visit and reconnect with my friends.
The excitement of starting new classes last semester also helped me move past the sadness of missing my friends. I continued to progress with my Japanese language abilities by taking Comprehensive Japanese 4 and Kanji 4. I also took a beginning Korean language class taught in Japanese which was quite difficult at times but helped me to reinforce both my foreign languages. In the SILS lecture department I took a Korean Media course, a Korean literature course, and a Gender Studies course—this being my favorite class I took at Waseda; I had taken gender studies courses before but this one was unique in that it focused on Japan and offered me new insight. In the extracurricular field, I joined a dance circle called WIF (Waseda International Festival). The branch of WIF that I joined focused on learning Kpop dances which was really nice for me as it was similar to the club I am involved with at UCSD called KOTX. This circle was one of the first opportunities I had to interact with the Japanese students and allowed me to use my Japanese language skills outside of the classroom setting in a more colloquial way. Outside of school, my weekends were filled with going to fun events held in the city such as Tokyo Rainbow Pride, a Taiwanese festival, fireworks in Asakusa, and going to an amusement park.
Looking back at my life before coming to Japan really shows me how far I have come not only with my language skills but also as a person. I feel more independent, confident, and mature. I have come to see the truth of Japanese culture is far more complex than the crazy anime culture of Akihabara or super traditional ways of the past as primarily shown on television. I have also noticed a lot about America and have come to a newfound appreciation of my home country through studying abroad. While my experience was not 100% what I had expected going into it, if given the chance I would do it all over again and would encourage others to study abroad as well.