Since my trip to Korea, the past couple of weeks have been kind of boring. I’m sorry to say this, but it’s true. I’ve been focusing on school and doing a little bit of sightseeing around Nagasaki in my free time.
One of the first things I heard about when I got here, was the incredible night view of Nagasaki City from Mt. Inasa. I even brought a package of post cards and half of them were images of Nagasaki City from Mt. Inasa. So naturally I thought that I would have to experience this myself. I went with a few people and we climbed maybe a quarter of the mountain. We hadn’t planned on climbing it at all actually. We had originally wanted to take the ropeway up because it’s free and because it’s kind of hot here. But we ended up taking a bus halfway up the mountain instead.

The view did not disappoint!

When I first got here, during Orientation, there was a presentation on this history of Nagasaki. There are two things that I took away from that presentation. The first being that there is a long history of Chinese culture in Nagasaki, as China was one of the few countries that were allowed to trade with Japan during its period of isolation. Second that there is a great Catholic influence (there are several churches and other Christian sites). We have yet to hit all of these sights in Nagasaki, but we’re working on it. We did however get to see the Confucian Shrine, Chinatown, and what was the former Chinese settlement:

I’m actually the worst at updating this thing because I keep meaning to update but then I always land up forgetting. So here’s a post, so I can catch you guys up on the last couple of weeks.
So the spring semester in Japan is from April until August. So while everyone else is done with school, I will be here all summer. Which is totally cool, but that means I’m gonna be posting throughout June and July!
During the last week of April, there was a festival in Nagasaki where there would be all different kinds of ships from different countries. It’s really pretty at night when the boats are all lit up. On Monday and Tuesday (April 28th and 29th) of that week, there were supposed to be fireworks signaling the opening of the festival. So a few friends and I went down to the harbor to see the ships and the fireworks on both nights. The ships weren’t very big but they were definitely impressive. They had all different kinds of ships, from places like Japan, Korea, Russia, and even America! Although I didn’t go on any of these ships (because I have an irrational fear of ships and boats) I heard that they were really cool on the inside. The whole experience was really cool because I got to hang out with some cool people, eat some great food, and meet a few new people. And plus, fireworks! Who doesn’t love those!
And I even managed to catch a few pictures of the festival:

From May 1st to May 7th, we had a few days off because of Golden Week (a holiday in Japan), so a few friends and I decided to go to Seoul, Korea. I was super excited because besides Japan, I hadn’t really traveled outside of the US. And here I was, in just a few months, traveling to another country in Asia!
It was honestly a great experience. I didn’t know what to expect when I first got to Korea, but it went beyond what I thought it was going to be. Seoul is a larger city than Nagasaki, so it was almost refreshing to get a change of scenery. We did a lot of things there, like trying new foods, shopping and sightseeing!
I had never really tried Korean food before (like maybe once or twice), but it was really cool to try different kinds of Korean food. The kimchi was amazing. But it was also pretty cool because they had things like pizza and Taco Bell (which I know aren’t very exciting, but after being in Nagasaki for so long, with only Japanese food really available, it was pretty great).

I also got to ride the subway quite a lot in Korea, which was pretty cool. Their subways are nothing like the ones in New York. They’re actually really clean (or so they seem) and pretty new-looking. I don’t ride the subway often in New York, in fact I avoid it unless I absolutely have to, and so I was a little nervous about riding it. Especially since I know absolutely NO Korean whatsoever. But it was actually very easy to figure out and a lot of the signs were in English.
We saw a lot of really amazing things while we were there. But two things that I need to mention are the Deoksugung Castle and the Jogyesa Buddhist Temple.
The castle was so impressive and absolutely gorgeous:

The temple was also really cool to see. Especially since on the days that we visited we actually went on a holiday celebrating Buddha’s birthday! So we got to see the temple on one day and then the festival on the following day! My friends and I even made a wish that they hung on a lantern at the festival!
Here’s some of the pictures:

Overall it was a really cool experience and I would advise anyone who is planning on studying abroad to try and travel as much as they can. I don’t think I would have ever had this experience had I not already been studying abroad!

I’ve lived on Long Island for most of my life, and in New York for all of it. I’ve been to other places, but not really outside of America or even off the east coast for that matter. So when I first arrived in Japan, I wasn’t really aware of how much of a different lifestyle is lived here. Starting with the fact that Nagasaki’s environment is completely different from New York’s. When I left New York it was snowing. I had my winter jacket, a scarf and boots. But when I arrived I was incredibly surprised by how warm and beautiful it was.  I guess you can consider Nagasaki to be a tropical environment. Its only April but I have found that the weather is usually sunny and warm, although it’s supposed to be very hot and humid during the summer.

I was absolutely exhausted from being on a plane for over fifteen hours when I first arrived. It was just after 10PM when I landed and nearly midnight by the time I arrived at the hotel. So being here didn’t really phase me until the following day, when we took a bus from Fukuoka to Nagasaki. That day was the first time that I interacted with the people in Japan. The language barrier is (and probably will be for the rest of the time I’m here) always an issue. But it’s not even just the speaking part that I found difficult, but the use of a completely different writing system (they have three different alphabets that are constantly used in signs and on menus and other things). I am constantly embarrassing myself because I don’t quite understand what people are saying to me!

Another thing. The food, obviously, is completely different here. But I don’t think anyone realizes just how different until you actually get here. Like everyone who has never been to Japan would think that our idea of sushi is what sushi really is. It’s not at all. Learned that the hard way. And I’ve found that the Japanese seem to have a strange love of mayonnaise and ketchup that I don’t think I can match to be honest. I like most of the food, but some of it I could do without. Two things that I absolutely cannot eat based on taste alone are mushrooms and fish, which for some reason seem to be included in absolutely every dish in Japan. I’m exaggerating of course, but trust me there’s a lot of these dishes here. The dorm’s food and the school’s food are okay, kind of like school food in general. But from what I can tell you about the restaurants here, the food is pretty great. I even had Champon/Chanpon (I have no idea how it’s spelled to be honest) which is a pretty big deal and had a pretty interesting history in Nagasaki. It was really good! I’ll talk about it more in a future post.

Bonus! Here are a few pictures that I did manage to take before eating.

I’ll do another post on food at some point, once I get more pictures. I don’t usually take pictures of my food before I eat it, but I guess I should start. But until then, thanks for reading!

First of all, I’d like to formally apologize for not posting sooner. I unfortunately forgot to bring a charger converter with me, and I only recently got one.

So I guess that means I’ve got to catch you guys up on a lot of things. I’ve been here for a little more than three weeks now, which may not seem like much time in the grand scheme of things (I’ll be here for about four months total), but I’ve done a lot of activities so far!

I’ll start with the months before I arrived in Japan. I left New York on March 25^th (and arrived the next day on March 26^th, got to love time zones!). That means that I had a little more than three months to prepare for my study abroad experience, go on an emotional roller coaster, and say goodbye to all of my friends, family and my home. I was really nervous to leave, but I was also really excited to experience something new.

In the months before my departure, a lot of people asked me why I had chosen to go to Japan. To be honest I didn’t know how to answer that question. As an Asian Studies major, academically it made sense for me to want to study abroad in Japan. And I’ve always been interested in the culture and arts of Japan, so why not. But to be honest I think I’m the type of person who just throws herself into things without thinking about it, and then just figures it out as she goes along. And I think that’s what I’m doing here.

I’m not experienced when it comes to travelling. I went to Puerto Rico with my family once, but that’s about as far as I’ve travelled. So I hadn’t really ever left the country before, let alone gone anywhere without the comfort of family or friends. I took two planes. The first was a little over twelve hours, and took me from JFK in New York to Narita Airport in Tokyo, Japan. The second flight took only a little more than an hour and a half, and took me from Tokyo to Fukuoka. The next day all of the new students took a bus to Nagasaki, which is where I am currently. From the moment we arrived in Nagasaki we were thrown straight into orientation for the next two weeks!

I was extremely unprepared when I first got here. I didn’t pack until the night before my flight. Let me tell you that was such a mistake. Not only was I extremely stressed out, but I forgot so much stuff! My suitcase was 52lbs, but I still had to have my mom send me a package with important stuff as soon as I got here!

Not only was I unprepared physically, but I could barely remember any of the Japanese I had already learned (and I’ve been taking Japanese at New Paltz for at least three semesters, so that should’ve counted for something). I mean, I had brushed up on my Japanese a little here and there throughout February and March, but not nearly as much as I should have. I was a bit of a mess when I first got here, because I could only remember a few basic words and phrases. But I think I’ve got the hang of it now that I’m getting used to everything. The language barrier has to be the hardest part of studying abroad (but only in places where they don’t speak a language that you know). I’ve embarrassed myself on more than one occasion, but I think that’s just a part of learning a new language. Besides that, everyone is willing to help you when you put in the effort. I’ve made a bunch of new friends, learned a bunch of new things in Japanese and am really excited to experience new things that I never thought would be possible!

So I guess that’s it for now, but I’ll keep you guys updated on things in Japan!

The climax of my trip was during this month. Time went by fast and I was already at the last month. By then, I knew I needed to wrap up things I have not done.  One of which was travel. I completed my exploration of  Tokyo after going to Odaiba with my Canadian suite mate that month. We wanted to go somewhere together before I left.

I went outside of Tokyo four times this month as well. First, I took the bullet train to Osaka to visit my friend who goes to New Paltz for a few days.  Then my senior from high school stopped by Tokyo for four days. We went together to Mount Fuji on one of those days but never got to climb the mountain because it would require us to stay there for a night and I still had school. Then my suite and two people who from the unit across from us went to Yokohama together. We checked out the Chinatown there and somehow ended up riding a roller coaster by the end of the day. Finally I revisited Kawagoe to meet the friend who picked me up from the airport. I biked with him around Kawagoe, met his childhood friends, and went into the hot spring with him.

View of Mt.Fuji from Level 5

Another thing I had to do before leaving was basketball. One of my friends made a basketball club at the new campus. By the time the club was approved and formed, there was less than a month left of school. During that month, everyone was busy with their finals, so we could not play most of the time too. At least there was one day that we got to play some full court games with the team from the other Meiji campus.

Yokohama

During the summer in Japan, there are Hanabi Daikai or firework festivals all over Japan. I attended the biggest one at Sumidagawa with my yukata that I bought from Donki. We waited for hours until it began, and when it did, it rained soon after. It was a memorable day for me, but terrible for some of my friends. The train station was closed and we had to walk to the next train station.

I had less than 4 hours of sleep on my last two days. I spent a lot of time packing those two days too. I bought an extra small suitcase and still could not fit everything I had.  For my last meal in Japan, my unit and the unit across from us ate at a nearby Indian restaurant together. Before leaving, I locked up my bicycle so that I would always have something else in Japan besides my friends. I think of it as a proof of my existence there. One of my friends I met in Japan drove me to the airport. Thanks to him, I was able to spend a little more time with my friends. We were stuck in Tokyo traffic until we got to Chiba though.

So that ends my story in Japan. It took me a long time to get home because I had a 7 hour layover at Los Angeles. I still remain in daily contact with all my friends from dorm.My summer vacation has just begun, but it will end in two weeks. It makes up for my long winter vacation since school started later for me. Even though I will come back as a junior in New Paltz, I still feel like a sophomore. I have not seen my friends at New Paltz in half a year. There are some lost times that I need to make up for.

One last thing. Before leaving I saw a poster saying  “Tokyo: Olympic 2020 Candidate city.” Then I came up with the idea that if Tokyo is chosen to be the site for the Olympics in 2020, we should all meet again then. But now it does not matter if Tokyo is chosen because we will meet wherever the Olympic will be held. By then we will all be working and doing what we each aspire to become. As for me, I wanted to become a lawyer. Now I want to become an international lawyer.

-Sampson