By Meghan Stelzig メガン スタルジック（もえ）

 

I had been excited to go to Japan since my first year of Japanese class. I looked forward to it for four years! When it came down to actually going, I was a little apprehensive though. I was a little nervous about the people in the group that would be going. I had had class with these people all four years, but none of them were very good friends of mine. I was a little nervous to be going half way around the world with people that were not very close to me. On top of not knowing the people in my group, I was about to be surrounded with strangers that did not even speak my language! Although I have studied Japanese for four years, I do not consider myself very sufficient at it.

 

Despite my concerns, when the time came to meet at the airport and depart for Japan I was looking forward to this awesome opportunity. Everyone was giddy and excited to just be in the airport, we were all having a good time. I expected that when we were actually there that we would have an even better time.

 

Now, I started out being afraid of the people in our group, but when we got to Japan I was presented with a new fear—host families. Did I really have to stay at these people’s houses? I didn’t want to leave the comfort of my English-speaking group and stay in a strangers home, especially one that I was not even sure I could communicate with!

 

As much as I had feared staying with these strange families, it was by far the best experience of the whole trip. I absolutely loved staying with them. The first time meeting each one was hard, but I didn’t want to leave them when it came time to move to the next city. Every single family was so excited to have my staying there and to learn about my country. What surprised me was that were also were equally as interested in learning about me—I didn’t expect that. I feel I gave them an inside look at America that they could not have gotten had they not hosted someone from there. In return they gave me an inside look at Japan. If it had not been for the host families, I might have known things like what a normal Japanese teenager did with her friends, but I would not have been able to experience it. And that is what was so awesome.

 

I also loved all the touristy things that we did. I loved seeing different temples, like the love temple, and the daibutsu. I loved walking through the Imperial Gardens, and seeing Osaka Castle. I liked that we did things that even Japanese tourists did. I thought that was really cool.

 

Although I loved doing all the aforementioned things, my favorite by far was going to Hiroshima. There was just something really cool about learning more about something that my country did to Japan and learning about it in Japan. It fascinated me to be at a place that I had only read about in history books. I took probably a dozen pictures of just that atomic dome. It was a sad place to be, but very interesting. I could have spent an extra two hours in the museum if we had had the time. I’m also very glad we got to walk through the Peace Park. Because of the weather it was a possibility that we would not get to, and I am so glad that we did. I definitely feel that a big chunk of our trip would have been missing if we had not gotten to see the Peace Park.

 

Something unexpected did become an issue for me on this trip. I got homesick. I thought that there would be too much going on and I would not even have time to think about home. I missed eating my bowl of cereal for breakfast or sleeping in my own bed. I also missed my friends and family a lot. I also don’t think it helped that a lot of my friends were in Spain together. I was a little jealous that they got to experience an awesome trip abroad with people that were close to them. I ended up calling home maybe four or five times in the two weeks time. I also took advantage of any Internet time to email people back home. The phone calls and emails helped a lot. Even though I was homesick, I did not let it effect my trip. I still had a wonderful time!

 

All in all this experience was amazing! I cannot believe we got to do as many things as we did. I am amazed that sensei pulled it off with $2,000! I am so grateful for all her hard work. I want to go back again and again. I am going to be studying Japanese in college and hopefully I will have that opportunity, although I don’t know how any other trip can measure up to this one. Thanks to everyone for all the wonderful memories.