Epilogue

Dear all

I am writing to you from Seoul airport and in less than 12 hours I will be reunited with my home country. Despite all the highs (and lows) of this year gone, I have to admit I have been craving this moment for a long time.

I don't have too much left to say in this, my final post. I think followers of this blog will already be well aware of my love for the japanese countryside, my longing for Tokyo, and my discontent with Kobe University.

Instead, in these 45 minutes I have before boarding, I wanted to write about studying abroad in general.  On reflection of this year I think it would be fair to say I came to Japan with slightly unrealistic expectations of what my life would be like here.

There is a stereotype about studying abroad in the UK. It is very much along the lines of 'a year abroad is a chance to have loads of fun, chill out from studying, get really drunk and mess around in [insert name of host country]'.

No doubt I certainly had this idea in mind when I made my way to Japan a year ago. I set myself up for inevitable disappointment with the life I would lead on the other end.

The truth of the matter is, moving abroad at the age of 19 (for most people the first time in their lives that they have spent a significant amount of time abroad), was never going to be easy. I do not believe you can summarise every single year abroad in every possible host country under this largely misguided stereotype.

I worked harder on my Japanese this year than I ever had before. I had no choice since I needed to obtain a certain level in order to live.

In Oxford, many students have stories of having travelled, either in the holidays or on a gap year ("this one time in....."). Having heard so many of these stories I think it is easy to underestimate, in this globalised world we live in, the extent to which culture and values of other countries can clash head on with your own. It is one thing to 'travel', but moving abroad, learning that language, engaging with the culture head on and dealing with homesickness, is an entirely different ballgame.

My advice to anyone undertaking a year abroad would be as follows:

1) Dont try to recreate your life in the UK. In Japan, this meant for example instead of going clubbing most nights since this is all we know back home (Japanese students do not go clubbing very often), try forms of entertainment in that host country (for me this was karaoke)
2) Make friends of the host country's nationality and don't fall into the trap of hanging out with expats all the time as this is not conducive to language learning.
3) Don't complain. There will be many times you see things you don't agree with, or you can't understand. There will probably also be times you feel very frustrated ("why is this language so hard!?" "why do people treat me like an outsider?" "why don't Kobe university listen to any of the feedback I give them!?") etc. The best thing to do is to accept it for what it is. You can never be happy living abroad if you spend your whole time being critical of what's around you.

Of course I can only speak from this one year abroad and I don't know to what extent a year abroad in e.g. Europe would be different from Asia.

I wish you the best of luck.

Now I must attempt to reintegrate back into my own country which sounds kind of strange but being in Japan for this long has definitely left a mark on me.

I do want to come back here after I graduate. Now I love the country for what it is and not for my idealised vision of what is was when I was back in the UK.

Seoul airport is huge so I have to get a move on. If you've been following this blog all year, thank you very much!

For the last time, sayounara.

Sean

The final month

As I write this post I have less than two weeks left in Japan. I am happy and sad at the same time. Happy because I can't wait to see all my friends, have some rest time away from Japanese for a couple of months and then get stuck into 3rd year back at Oxford. But this is also tinged with sadness since I know that when I get back so much will have changed. My two best friends are leaving the country almost immediately, I will be 3rd year not a fresher, and a good proportion of my best friends will soon be away next year on their years abroad.

Despite it being so soon I can barely think about going home at this point because there is an enormous amount of stuff to sort out next week. On Monday and Tuesday I have my end of year exams, Wednesday I have a mock presentation, Thursday I am going to see a baseball match with Chizuko, Friday I am seeing my host family and at the weekend I was planning to go to Osaka for a day trip. In between that I'm supposed to cancel my internet, phone, electricity and water, pack my own stuff, pack a box for my college daughter coming next year and arrange to have a load of books shipped home.

The following Monday is the 'speech/presentation' day at Kobe Uni and then the Farewell party which I will be showing my face at then going out for many drinks.

I know Oxford will be asking for my feedback on Kobe University when I get back and to be honest I have no more fucks to give. Giving feedback that will never be taken on board is a waste of my breath since I'm just told everything is 'bureaucratically impossible' to change. Never mind. I do feel slightly sorry for the group coming here next year who won't even have the same level of funding we did apparently. As far as this program goes, I don't think the future's bright...

There are more trips to update you on. The first is a weekend trip to Gangnam (Seoul, Korea) at the end of last month with two Oxford friends. To be honest we mainly just went for the clubs since Kobe is horribly lacking in this department. It was the same weekend that my college ball back in Oxford which only comes around once every four years. I was quite upset to have missed this but being in some of the best clubs I have ever been to in Gangnam made up for it nicely.

We did do some cultural things such as visiting the imperial palace (gyeongbokgung)

changing of the guard

And painting in traditional Korean style at the Hanok village

We also spend a lot of time taking advantage of Seoul's amazing shopping districts. If any of you have been to Seoul before you'll know I'm talking about Myeongdong.

But as I said, it was mainly a clubbing holiday, and Seoul delivered. I don't have any photos but the clubs we went to (called Answer and Ellui, both in Gangnam) were definitely the best clubs I've been to in Asia and Ellui is probably one of my favourite all-time clubs. It was a welcome break from the rather dire scene here in Kobe.

Last weekend I visited Helen in Tokyo for the last time. Not too much to report on this. We had a meal, did some shopping, had a stroll round the imperial palace and an art gallery. I went mainly to see Helen but also to kind of say goodbye to Tokyo since I have completely fallen in love with this city and certainly intend to go back in the future. Perhaps after graduation?

I have been blessed to have done so much travelling this year and seen to many beautiful places that each occupy their own space in my heart, from the untouched beauty of Takayama to the energy and cosmopolitanism of Tokyo. My only regret is not having been able to see Hokkaido and Okinawa, but perhaps its better that way since now I have even more of an incentive to come back when I move to Tokyo (I say tentatively).

Tomorrow I am going to the countryside with Chizuko and some of her friends so I must be going to bed now because it's an early start. 

I will compose one last post of my final thoughts on this year when I am at my hotel in Kansai airport on the verge of flying home. 

I look forward to that moment.

Sean