Study Abroad in Tokyo: A YSJ Student’s First-Time Experience Living in Japan

Hello, I’m Harry, a 22-year-old student at YSJ, but I am currently in my third year of Japanese, TESOL, and linguistics. Therefore, I am currently residing in Japan doing my study abroad at Sophia University. I am writing this in December, so I have been in Japan for about 3 months or so and have been really enjoying my time here so far. This is my first time out of England, and so it’s been a really crazy ride and lots of new feelings and experiences. 

Tokyo is wild and crazy. There are lots of new foods, drinks, and people that I have experienced up until now. For example, I tried sushi for the first time yesterday ( I was not a huge fan), I tried highballs for the first time when I arrived, and now I mostly drink them, and also, the arcades here are amazing! Arcades in England are rather boring and the same a lot of the time, but so far in Japan, there’s been some super fun games in arcades, such as retro games like Street Fighter and newer games like Initial D. Oh, and talking about crazy experiences, Akihabara is a wild place with lots of random events going on.  

Now, I have been here for 3 months as I said previously. My favourite place in Japan, so far, is a place called Shimokitazawa. This place has such a cool, trendy vibe with everyone dressed fashionably. So much so that I am jealous and I have to visit the vintage clothing shops in Shimokita to find myself some quality pieces. There was also an event a couple of months ago that was a curry festival. Although I was unable to attend, I heard the crazy curries were delicious. There are also live music events fairly often, which are not too expensive and are a great place to go with friends. 

Next, I am going to speak about the personal experiences and feelings I have felt leading up to the study abroad and while being in Japan (a foreign country) for the first time in my life. Leading up to studying abroad is a weird feeling. You are going to spend a whole year studying abroad away from some friends and family, and you don’t know whether you are going to be comfortable or not. Furthermore, as it was my first flight, I felt a lot of uncertainty about the events of getting through an airport onto the flight. Then, when I first arrived in Japan, I had to sort many small errands such as getting data and a Suica card. Then, figuring out how the rail system works to take my 20kg of luggage in the 30-degree heat, and that’s rather stressful. Then, waking up the next morning with no sleep because of jet lag and walking around the area next to my dorm, I can not describe the weird sensation and feeling I got from the realisation that I was in Japan.  

Find out more about studying abroad at York St John