Zennosuke’s ISE Experience in Japan

By Zennosuke

Introduction
Hello! My name is Zennosuke. I’m originally from Seattle, Washington and I am currently studying abroad, doing an exchange year in Japan.  I have been placed in the 2^nd year of high school. My mother is Japanese American.  I had always been exposed to bits and pieces of Japanese culture from a young age. I fell in love with both the traditional and modern pop culture of Japan. It felt that an exchange year would help me take my learning to the next step and help me to strengthen my grasp of understanding. It has been 1 month since my arrival. While my Japanese is still far from perfect, I would like to share the experience so far!

Host Family
I got in contact with my host family a little while before Christmas. It was about five(ish) months before I left in April. Despite the time difference between Japan and the U.S., my host family and I were able to keep in good contact. We slowly got to know each other before I left. Ultimately though, despite the pre-communication helping quite a bit when we finally met in person, I admittedly knew very little about them. So, I spent the first two weeks before school started with my host family just playing and talking. During that time, the main thing I learned was how much Japanese people rely on context and “reading the air”. In other words, sometimes they want the exact opposite of what they say. While this has been a difficult adjustment coming from such a low-context country like the United States, I am slowly getting the hang of life here and look forward to learning more during my stay here in Japan.

School
Even in one’s home country, being the new kid is scary. Who will you sit with at lunch? Who should you talk to? Does your hair look okay? Now, if these questions are hard to tackle in your native language, imagine having to deal with them in a foreign language as you study abroad. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say I was sweating bullets on my first day in class. However, something I wish I had realized earlier is that as much as I was nervous to talk to my classmates, they were nervous to talk to me. In other words, just because people are quiet at first doesn’t mean they have no interest in you!

After putting myself a little out of my comfort zone and being the first to reach out, I was met with welcoming arms and everyone slowly started to open up more. One thing that helped me get over my fear of speaking was to imagine myself in my classmates’ positions. If there was an international student at my school who didn’t speak English, I would try my best to help. I would not laugh at their mistakes. In assuming this nature with my classmates, I was able to ask questions and make mistakes in a way that only furthered my grasp of Japanese.

Homesickness
After the busyness that came with moving countries died down, I started to feel a little homesick. Since it’s only been a month since I left the U.S. to study abroad, I haven’t found an amazing remedy for my homesickness to share with you all. At least I have some advice for what has been helping me. All right, so it sounds dumb, but I found scrolling through my usual Instagram/TikTok feed and listening to music that I listened to in America really helps me stop missing home. It’s like a pseudo-trip to America.  I’m able to trick my brain into thinking I’m just in my usual bedroom scrolling on my phone.

It’s a great quick fix, however, I will warn you. While it’s nice to indulge in things from your home country from time to time, you’re on exchange for a reason. Your purpose is to learn about life in your host country. So, if you spending entire days in your room scrolling and trying to simulate home instead of integrating into your host country, it is a recipe for disaster. I would recommend limiting it to a couple hours a week.  Slowly wean off of it as you become more used to the surroundings around you.  You will no longer feel as homesick.