Hello all!
My name is Titus Foster, I am a creative writing major who is going to study abroad at Komazawa University in Tokyo, Japan. I chose Komazawa because I am also minoring in Japanese, and I was told by my language professors that attending there would help improve my ability to understand and apply the language because the classes are taught in Japanese. Although, I also chose this school because I would get the experience of living in a massive city like Tokyo, which would be unlike anywhere else I have lived.
I’ll miss being around my family and friends, along with getting to spend time with them playing and working together. A part of Arkansas that I’ll miss specifically is the scenery, especially in Spring and Autumn with its rolling hills of green or yellow and red that come with the comfort of being not too hot or too cold. But leaving is going to give me the chance to be as far out of my comfort zone as possible, which I think will be helpful in becoming the best version of myself I can. I’m also looking forward to just getting to experience new sights, new food, and fully immersing myself in the language that I’ve loved studying while at home.
I don’t know what I can predict when I get to Tokyo and Komazawa University, but what I am expecting is a lot more people. The image of my college life there, both on the streets and in classes, always ends up including an insanely exaggerated number of people in one place. Classrooms with rows of desks going from wall to wall and crammed with chairs, or sidewalks flooded with commuters. While I know that it probably won’t be that crowded, Tokyo is still more populated than anywhere else I’ve lived. That, along with the cultural differences, means that the standards of what is respectful that I bring over there could be incredibly different to what is considered common sense. After all, I’ll be coming from what I’ve been taught about Christian morals into a country with predominantly Shinto and Buddhist beliefs practices, if what I’ve read is correct.
The differences, however great, are the main reason why I am going on this journey. I am nervous about whether my language abilities or understanding of culture may affect my classes, but I also recognize that those kinds of hardships are what help me improve in those areas. I’m also looking forward to how the differences between home and Tokyo will show themselves in the environment. I’ve started picking up photography recently and my favorite kind of photos to take are ones that show the little scenes that captivate me, two examples being a near-empty parking lot during a rainstorm and the darkened sky during the eclipse last year. I’m taking my camera explicitly to find more scenes like these, and I can’t wait to share them here.
– Titus
