I have arrived safely at home in Pennsylvania after my six week trip to Japan.  I think the hardest thing so far was the time adjustment.  There is a thirteen hour time difference between my Pennsylvania hometown and Tokyo, Japan.  I left at 11am from Narita airport in Japan and I arrived at the JFK airport at 11am on the same day.  The twelve hours I spent on the plane seemingly disappeared. It was an interesting experience.  Technically, I had been up since 5am (when I woke up to get ready to go to the airport), had a twelve hour flight at 11am and, on Japan’s time, gotten off the plane at 11pm.  Then there was the three hour drive home.  When I got home at 2pm, I felt like it really was 1am since I was still on Japan time.  Over the next few days, I found myself being hungry at 10pm and 2am (around breakfast and lunch time for me in Japan, but very inconvenient times for America).  When dinner time came around (5, 6 or 7 pm), I couldn’t even be hungry if I tried.   I woke up at 5am everyday and could not help but to fall asleep at 4:30pm every day.  It took me about a full week to get adjusted back to America’s Eastern Time. 

Getting home, back to familiar places and familiar places, is nice.  However, I find myself missing the familiar view of the Sangubashi skyline when I wake up, and the easy access to far away locations via a widespread train system, and (of course) the great shopping.  Coming home made me aware of what I would miss about Japan, but it also made me aware of what I missed about home.  I realized I missed the openness of America – where people basically walk around with their hearts on their sleeves (compared to Japan that is).  I also missed the chivalry of America.  Yes, I am generalizing, but you won’t see a Japanese man offer his seat to a woman on a crowded train, however, you will see an American man offer his seat to a standing woman.  Small things like that, that we take for granted, are just not a part of the culture in Japan.  Therefore, arriving back home has been bittersweet for me.  I’ll miss the friends I made in Japan, but I am happy to see my friends here in Pennsylvania.  I’ll miss all I was able to do in Tokyo, but I am happy to be able to sit on the farm, feed the cows, go to the drive-ins here at home.  I’ll miss all the tempura, A-grade sushi, and yakiniku; but I am happy to be back to Red Robbin burgers and Sal’s pizza.  You can never have it all, but I was glad I at least got to experience it!

Overall, studying in Japan was a great experience for me and I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything – I’ll deal with jetlag any day for another trip to Japan!  But now I’m ready for my next vacation before college starts up again! =)

Location: Orefield, Pennsylvania