The last two days I don't have anything planned, so I figured I'd spend it recapping what I've done over the entire trip. In no particular order.
I first arrived in Japan surprised at the amount of English there was in the airport. The two hour bus ride consisted of me attempting to not fall asleep to avoid having jet lag. Once I arrived art the bus stop in Yokohama, I was surprised at how crazy everything became. People were taking pictures, asking in Japanese how I was, being astonished at my Japanese, and after that, getting on a train for the first time all while hauling all my luggage. I got to my house not really tired at all, but with no appetite, which would continue for a week. The next day I got all of my stuff ready, and unpacked.
That weekend I went with my host mother to the school meeting where I was to get my student ID and my schedule, and also to meet with my busy that the school had given me, in case I didn't know Japanese. My schedule was the same as my buddy's, so we had all of our classes together. The teachers told me to hold off on using my Japanese, so that my buddy can get stone practice in. Thus he scrambled around frantically trying to relay where to meet for school in English. It was quite funny, considering he didn't realize it was a set up until the last day of school. But nevertheless, he was an interesting person. He really loved Japanese baseball, but he was in the tennis club. But I guess they didn't have a baseball diamond, so he couldn't play if he wanted to. My school was really tall, but not very wide. Given that space is in a premium, they couldn't exactly make a sprawling complex, and instead made an 8 story school tower. Which you traversed by stairwell. Or elevator if you were lucky. But because my homeroom was on the 4th floor, the rest of my classrooms were easy enough to get to. I had to move classrooms for all of my buddy's electives, which turned out to be World History, Music, Information, Biology, and Freshman English. We had a weekly schedule, in where each day in the week was different, but all the weeks were the same. I was able to memorize some of it when I was there, even if it was for a short time. However, our Freshman English teacher was a guy from Hawaii who didn't speak any Japanese. I'm not sure if he was a JET or what, but they had another teacher in there who could speak Japanese. Except her English was limited, and at one point I ended up having to explain the concept of making a deposit in Japanese. But at that point Japanese had become what I was thinking in. It's weird, when I first came back I still remebered everything I said in Japanese. But now, looking back on it, I only remember what it meant in English. That's probably because I was still thinking in Japanese when I first came back, but I still find it weird. Anyway, after the meeting to get my student ID, me and another exchange student, Pratik, and our host mothers all walked around Yokohama and got coffee. I ended up translating for Pratik and his host mother, considering he didn't speak any Japanese. And after that we left, and the next day was school. After that I feel like I caught up with my posts, starting from Taiikusai.
That weekend I went with my host mother to the school meeting where I was to get my student ID and my schedule, and also to meet with my busy that the school had given me, in case I didn't know Japanese. My schedule was the same as my buddy's, so we had all of our classes together. The teachers told me to hold off on using my Japanese, so that my buddy can get stone practice in. Thus he scrambled around frantically trying to relay where to meet for school in English. It was quite funny, considering he didn't realize it was a set up until the last day of school. But nevertheless, he was an interesting person. He really loved Japanese baseball, but he was in the tennis club. But I guess they didn't have a baseball diamond, so he couldn't play if he wanted to. My school was really tall, but not very wide. Given that space is in a premium, they couldn't exactly make a sprawling complex, and instead made an 8 story school tower. Which you traversed by stairwell. Or elevator if you were lucky. But because my homeroom was on the 4th floor, the rest of my classrooms were easy enough to get to. I had to move classrooms for all of my buddy's electives, which turned out to be World History, Music, Information, Biology, and Freshman English. We had a weekly schedule, in where each day in the week was different, but all the weeks were the same. I was able to memorize some of it when I was there, even if it was for a short time. However, our Freshman English teacher was a guy from Hawaii who didn't speak any Japanese. I'm not sure if he was a JET or what, but they had another teacher in there who could speak Japanese. Except her English was limited, and at one point I ended up having to explain the concept of making a deposit in Japanese. But at that point Japanese had become what I was thinking in. It's weird, when I first came back I still remebered everything I said in Japanese. But now, looking back on it, I only remember what it meant in English. That's probably because I was still thinking in Japanese when I first came back, but I still find it weird. Anyway, after the meeting to get my student ID, me and another exchange student, Pratik, and our host mothers all walked around Yokohama and got coffee. I ended up translating for Pratik and his host mother, considering he didn't speak any Japanese. And after that we left, and the next day was school. After that I feel like I caught up with my posts, starting from Taiikusai.
So now that it's been a few months since I've gotten back, it's seemed kinda unreal what happened. That it was more a dream than a trip. But it really did happen, and it really was as amazing as I said it was. My only regret is a little bit of not buying things, but that was unavoidable because of the ATM fiasco. I am glad to be back in America, but I really do miss Japan. I do hope I can see everyone again in the future. But for now this white kids' adventure has ended.
Christopher Scrafford
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