The end: Goodbbye Japan! I will Miss you!

It was hard to say goodbye to Japan and everyone in this group. Japan brought me much unforgettable experiences through friendship and culture tours, which have lifelong affects to me. I can not forget each conversation with my professors, other participants and alumni, even some unknown people I met in Japan. Because of interaction with them in the two weeks, I adjusted my personal values and changed my understanding of life with being clearer of what I should pursue in my rest of life. Honestly, to have a distinctive experience on my resume and making my class schedule more advanced was the only things that first motivated me to go to Japan. However, after this trip, I found that the most valuable things were what I learned by listening to personal stories from other people and how I adapted to different culture, rather than academic and career purpose.

Every participants have different stories which allow me to re-think my purpose on the way of life. We were studying in as an international group, in which people come from different countries and cultures. They always shared their own stories with me during the trip. On the train returning to Kyoto, Dr.Ross introduces his family by showing his daughter’s pictures to us and told the stories about his family. Although some points I did not understand, I could feel how important family is for him. After listening to his stories, I began to be more concentrate on family because they always brought supports to me during difficult time. Furthermore, I also was influenced by how open Ashley is to different culture and what Theresa told me about the communication skill in western style. In addition, I was glad that William could share his stories of how he had a spark of interested in Japanese culture and what he made him so confused in Asia. There are still a lot of conversation with other participants that I could not write down all of them. Anyway, I treasure their generosity when they share their experiences with me. Their stories made me have new understanding and perspective on friendship, family and culture.

During trip, I participate in group discussion and plant tours more than when I was in school lecture because of encouragement from Dr.Ross and other participants. I can read poems in Hiroshima mesuam, ask question in plants tours and have discussion with my partners. I have to say that my confidence of speaking English has been much improved in Japan. Although I only knew two words in Japanese, I can go anywhere by take train, shikansen and the subway because I have already figure out how transportation system work and what the signs means after the two weeks. In last day, I took the train with wei hsu and wenbin to return to Tokyo. And we went to see Fuji Mountain by taking train. The fact proved that I could get involve in life in Japan if I understand their characters and love for Japanese food.

We form deep friendship in short the time. The trip in Japan made my 2009’summer different because of you guys. I tried to record every moment during Japan. This is why I was working hard on blogging. I will miss last the night in Japan we hung out together and our last meeting outside the hotel. I believe that I had build a lifelong friendship with you guys.
Japan 2009, I would miss you!