Chicago O'Hare International Airport

I've been studying Japanese for about a year and a half and today will be my very first time getting a chance to actually use the language in the country of Japan! I recently took the N4 level JLPT exam and am fairly confident that I was able to pass it, although I won't find out the results until late January. I know I'll be able to communicate at a basic level but I'm super excited to attempt to make new friends and visit the friend's I've already made through the language learning experience.

One of my main motivations for learning the language has been to be able to make connections with people who I would never have been able to otherwise. It's a wonderful feeling to know that my work put into learning the language can result in making lifelong connections that may have been otherwise impossible to make! Japan is a country that is easy to get around with only English but the average English fluency level is not super high. My goal is not to visit Japan but to be part of it while I'm here. I want to be a part of the everyday culture and experience it rather than visit to take a glimpse of the history, nature, and structures the country has. Although the main reason I haven't traveled abroad yet was my goal of becoming financially secure first (and coronavirus), I think that I also have strayed away from it because I'm not very interested in visiting a place just to see it, I want to be able to integrate with it. Japanese culture is so much different than my own culture, so it's an excellent way to see how society works outside the American bubble I've always lived in.

Prior to my flight out, I went to a convention on friday, had the Japanese language test on Sunday, flew back to Pittsburgh Monday, and then left for Japan on Tuesday. I did not sleep at all on Monday mostly because I needed to quadruple check I had everything but also because I wanted to reset my sleep schedule. As I write this, I think I've successfully avoided jet lag! It's 9AM in japan and I've already done all my sleeping for the night during the day parts of the flight. In about seven and a half hours I'll be in Tokyo!

Roughly my trip will include
⁃ Travel around Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Hiroshima, Mt. Fuji with my coworker and a friend for the first two weeks, then it's a solo journey
- Find something fun to do for my 30th birthday
⁃ Christmas celebrations with a family friend I have not seen in ages
⁃ Travel to Fukui for New Years celebrations with some of my native Japanese friends
⁃ JmoF Convention
⁃ About ~2 weeks of time I haven't specifically planned out. Since I haven't been here before, I want to be able to make spontaneous choices when I learn about exciting events and such.
- Make lifelong memories :)Read more