(no subject)
... that is, unless you really don't feel like it, then it's up to you. But I think that it would be pretty funny if I turned this in, as it is based on my true emotions of how I feel about my stay here in Okinawa.
My Study through URSEP Program in the University of the Ryukyus (2004-2005)
Jon Todd
The United States of America
Michigan State University
1. Introduction
Well, Okinawa is definitely not how I expected it to be from the brochure… both scenically and culturally. I was pleased to see that the size of my room was quite acceptable, but I was devastated that we had no personal internet over the course of the year that we would be studying here. No, life at Ryudai is not perfect by a long shot. But life in Okinawa can truly be enjoyable if you have transportation, so I recommend finding some way to get a car (whether you split it among your friends or whatever, because Japanese people sure as heck won’t offer to involve you in their lives).
2, What I expected for URSEP and student life in Okinawa
I expected to come to a tropical paradise for 11 months. I thought I would be mixed right in with the Japanese people, and in no time I would be interacting with a whole new group of Japanese friends. Boy was I wrong. After 10 months, I still don’t have any friends that I can count on, and I still haven’t made anything other than acquaintances despite how much I have tried to make friends here. Okinawans are very nice people, don’t get me wrong… But they are not very comfortable with accepting new people into their every day lives. Most people here still live with their parents, and they have lived in the same area with the same friends for their entire life. Change is not widely accepted here. Children still stare at me in disbelief and High School students still find it the most amazing thing in the world that I understand the word “konnichiwa”. This sort of treatment would never happen in America. Which brings me to what I have learned…
3. What I have learned through URSEP and through student life in Okinawa
Life is hard here. Unless you make friends with people on the base, which, in my opinion, is impossible, you will not be able to get food from any western country. This means Europe and America. Anywhere that is not considered Asian, good luck finding the food that you are accustomed to eating. I came here with open arms accepting the food, but trust me when I say that after a few months of not being able to eat the things that have been readily available back at home, eating becomes an obstacle that is quite a feat to surpass (though this is coming from a person who has never really consumed more Asian food other than the stuff the local Chinese restaurant will batch up in a box for you). By the end of my stay here in Okinawa, I have found myself unable to eat more than one meal a day. Not because I think I’m fat, or want to be skinny… I just can’t take the food anymore. It’s all made of the same things: Rice, pork, and noodles. Of course there is bread too, and loads of all seafood; though I was surprised to see how sparingly they use fish over here. The point is, food has become a tremendous problem for me here, and I don’t think I will ever be able to complain about the food back at home again. (It’s funny; the guys all have a tendency to lose a ton of weight, but the girls gain a TON of weight. Go figure. If you compare pictures of your arrival to your departure, you will be questioning how these can be the same people, because the girls look like balloons and the guys … well they look about normal (except for me, I lost about 20 pounds because I just can’t eat here). (There are a few exceptions, naturally.))
Another thing I also learned is that Okinawa rains or has cloudy weather probably close to 90% of the year! That was something that I definitely did not expect. Typhoons are strong in the fall, it gets cold, muggy and rainy in the winter time, and it rains all spring. Say good-bye to that great feeling that spring gives you back home when coming here, because you most certainly won’t be attaining that emotion here. So far summer has been quite gorgeous; quite blazing hot, but quite gorgeous.
I also learned so many things about people from every country but Japan, because we were stationed to live in an “International Exchange Building” as apposed to actually interacting with Japanese people. To be honest, I have used English 90% of the time I have been here, and Japanese 5% of the time, and French swear words the other 5% of the time. Suse ma bite, sallope!
4. My future Plan in my country
I have been contemplating this very question quite nervously lately. Nervously, because I think that my experience here in Okinawa may have influenced me to give up on Japan altogether. I loved Japan before I came here. I loved Japanese history, I loved Japanese music, I loved Japanese video games, cars, animation, movies; the whole 9-yards. After coming here… I now still love all of those things, but I now have a bit of reluctance to think about living here. I came here expecting this to be the best year in my life, and it seems like the gyakuten (reverse) characteristics Japan/Okinawa seems to pride itself on to be as far from America and English as humanly possible, I don’t know if I could survive here any longer. There have been times where I wanted to give up and go home, and if my friends weren’t here calling me a pussy, I definitely would have. I don’t know if you have ever spent Christmas alone, and then spent New Year’s Eve alone and without food, because you didn’t know that all ATM machines close for the first three days of the new year or not. Well, that was what it was like for me. I e-mailed some of the few Japanese people I knew for help, and they all either ignored me, were traveling, or “off with their friends at a party right now”, and wished me a happy new year, despite the fact that I had no food, no money, nor other friends to bail me out. You tell me how that sounds to you, and tell me if you would ever like to experience something like that for yourself. This has been the worst experience of my life in terms of pain, patience, and sorrow; but what does not kill you can only make you stronger… And to tell you the truth, this experience damn near killed me, so I should be a fucking tank by now.
Oh wait, I still haven’t talked about the future plans in my country. Well, I have concluded many things of what I am not going to be doing, but haven’t really been able to pinpoint a future occupation yet. Perhaps I will give up my dream of making a career out of Japanese and focus more on business. To tell you the truth, I couldn’t be more confused right now about my future plans.
5. Conclusion
I still find it unbelievable that I went through all that I went through over the course of this year, and came out of it with practically no progression in the Japanese language. I couldn’t be more disappointed with my life here… and to be honest, if I knew how things were here before coming, I would have told them to shove the 80,000 yen a month scholarship right up their ass holes and made some real progression towards my academic future at home at MSU. I’m still trying to pry the steel tipped boot out of my colon, because Okinawa lost it there the last time it kicked my ass hole. Ow. Maybe I would have enjoyed life here if I had a car, or met a friend with a car… But, it’s not like I didn’t try to make friends... I wish I would have stayed home. Get me a motherfucking WHOPPER with cheese, niggers!
My Study through URSEP Program in the University of the Ryukyus (2004-2005)
Jon Todd
The United States of America
Michigan State University
1. Introduction
Well, Okinawa is definitely not how I expected it to be from the brochure… both scenically and culturally. I was pleased to see that the size of my room was quite acceptable, but I was devastated that we had no personal internet over the course of the year that we would be studying here. No, life at Ryudai is not perfect by a long shot. But life in Okinawa can truly be enjoyable if you have transportation, so I recommend finding some way to get a car (whether you split it among your friends or whatever, because Japanese people sure as heck won’t offer to involve you in their lives).
2, What I expected for URSEP and student life in Okinawa
I expected to come to a tropical paradise for 11 months. I thought I would be mixed right in with the Japanese people, and in no time I would be interacting with a whole new group of Japanese friends. Boy was I wrong. After 10 months, I still don’t have any friends that I can count on, and I still haven’t made anything other than acquaintances despite how much I have tried to make friends here. Okinawans are very nice people, don’t get me wrong… But they are not very comfortable with accepting new people into their every day lives. Most people here still live with their parents, and they have lived in the same area with the same friends for their entire life. Change is not widely accepted here. Children still stare at me in disbelief and High School students still find it the most amazing thing in the world that I understand the word “konnichiwa”. This sort of treatment would never happen in America. Which brings me to what I have learned…
3. What I have learned through URSEP and through student life in Okinawa
Life is hard here. Unless you make friends with people on the base, which, in my opinion, is impossible, you will not be able to get food from any western country. This means Europe and America. Anywhere that is not considered Asian, good luck finding the food that you are accustomed to eating. I came here with open arms accepting the food, but trust me when I say that after a few months of not being able to eat the things that have been readily available back at home, eating becomes an obstacle that is quite a feat to surpass (though this is coming from a person who has never really consumed more Asian food other than the stuff the local Chinese restaurant will batch up in a box for you). By the end of my stay here in Okinawa, I have found myself unable to eat more than one meal a day. Not because I think I’m fat, or want to be skinny… I just can’t take the food anymore. It’s all made of the same things: Rice, pork, and noodles. Of course there is bread too, and loads of all seafood; though I was surprised to see how sparingly they use fish over here. The point is, food has become a tremendous problem for me here, and I don’t think I will ever be able to complain about the food back at home again. (It’s funny; the guys all have a tendency to lose a ton of weight, but the girls gain a TON of weight. Go figure. If you compare pictures of your arrival to your departure, you will be questioning how these can be the same people, because the girls look like balloons and the guys … well they look about normal (except for me, I lost about 20 pounds because I just can’t eat here). (There are a few exceptions, naturally.))
Another thing I also learned is that Okinawa rains or has cloudy weather probably close to 90% of the year! That was something that I definitely did not expect. Typhoons are strong in the fall, it gets cold, muggy and rainy in the winter time, and it rains all spring. Say good-bye to that great feeling that spring gives you back home when coming here, because you most certainly won’t be attaining that emotion here. So far summer has been quite gorgeous; quite blazing hot, but quite gorgeous.
I also learned so many things about people from every country but Japan, because we were stationed to live in an “International Exchange Building” as apposed to actually interacting with Japanese people. To be honest, I have used English 90% of the time I have been here, and Japanese 5% of the time, and French swear words the other 5% of the time. Suse ma bite, sallope!
4. My future Plan in my country
I have been contemplating this very question quite nervously lately. Nervously, because I think that my experience here in Okinawa may have influenced me to give up on Japan altogether. I loved Japan before I came here. I loved Japanese history, I loved Japanese music, I loved Japanese video games, cars, animation, movies; the whole 9-yards. After coming here… I now still love all of those things, but I now have a bit of reluctance to think about living here. I came here expecting this to be the best year in my life, and it seems like the gyakuten (reverse) characteristics Japan/Okinawa seems to pride itself on to be as far from America and English as humanly possible, I don’t know if I could survive here any longer. There have been times where I wanted to give up and go home, and if my friends weren’t here calling me a pussy, I definitely would have. I don’t know if you have ever spent Christmas alone, and then spent New Year’s Eve alone and without food, because you didn’t know that all ATM machines close for the first three days of the new year or not. Well, that was what it was like for me. I e-mailed some of the few Japanese people I knew for help, and they all either ignored me, were traveling, or “off with their friends at a party right now”, and wished me a happy new year, despite the fact that I had no food, no money, nor other friends to bail me out. You tell me how that sounds to you, and tell me if you would ever like to experience something like that for yourself. This has been the worst experience of my life in terms of pain, patience, and sorrow; but what does not kill you can only make you stronger… And to tell you the truth, this experience damn near killed me, so I should be a fucking tank by now.
Oh wait, I still haven’t talked about the future plans in my country. Well, I have concluded many things of what I am not going to be doing, but haven’t really been able to pinpoint a future occupation yet. Perhaps I will give up my dream of making a career out of Japanese and focus more on business. To tell you the truth, I couldn’t be more confused right now about my future plans.
5. Conclusion
I still find it unbelievable that I went through all that I went through over the course of this year, and came out of it with practically no progression in the Japanese language. I couldn’t be more disappointed with my life here… and to be honest, if I knew how things were here before coming, I would have told them to shove the 80,000 yen a month scholarship right up their ass holes and made some real progression towards my academic future at home at MSU. I’m still trying to pry the steel tipped boot out of my colon, because Okinawa lost it there the last time it kicked my ass hole. Ow. Maybe I would have enjoyed life here if I had a car, or met a friend with a car… But, it’s not like I didn’t try to make friends... I wish I would have stayed home. Get me a motherfucking WHOPPER with cheese, niggers!