In the summer of 2025, I had the opportunity to study abroad through the Clemson in Japan program. The program included both a weeklong cultural excursion through Kyoto, Kobe-Maiko, and Hiroshima from 5/27-6/02 and later a short study program at Kansai University in Osaka for roughly a month from 6/3-6/26. I had stayed at a dorm at Minami-Senri for the duration of the study program and through it, I had the chance to experience life in Japan for a brief period of time. I decided to choose a shorter program over a longer semester-long program out of fears from homesickness, but I didn’t want to choose a program that was so short I risked not gaining anything from the experience.I wanted to improve my language skills above all and prove to myself I could handle a new experience on my own. Another reason why I chose Clemson in Japan is because the program starts with a week of travel and cultural experiences before studying at Kansai University, primarily so the students will get used to the time-zone difference by then.

        The first week of travel in Japan was plenty interesting. The Clemson in Japan program was aimed at non-native beginner speakers, so I didn’t feel I quite got the chance to communicate in Japanese as much as I would have liked. However, there were plenty of listening opportunities, especially during cultural sections of the program like visiting a traditional puppet theater in Awajishima. This part of the trip was essentially part school, part tourism.

        Navigating the language barrier once we got to the study program in Kansai was a mild challenge. While my program was only a month long, there was an emphasis on conversational and communication skills in Japanese. We were asked to communicate with other native speakers as conversation partners for every day of class. The extended practice reinforced something I already felt to be true: the best teacher is experience. I had to make an effort to speak Japanese, even if it was a little clunky in the beginning, to get the most out of the program.

        One thing I really appreciated from the Kansai University program was the rigorousness of the study activities. We would have review quizzes every day on the topics we learned before, and we had to write short essays every night based on specific topics. I later found out from someone who works in Japan that many Japanese companies require applicants to fill out short essay prompts as part of the hiring process, so this experience was very valuable to me.

While I was in Japan outside of classes, I felt like I was both welcome as a guest, and yet a very clear outsider. I didn’t get much of a chance to use Japanese that much aside from business transactions like buying food from the convenience store. It was peaceful, and at the same time a little lonely. However, local businesses seemed to appreciate that I could speak and understand Japanese when I went to ask questions.

        In addition to the language classes, our program had two field trips. One to Katsuoji temple and Kyoto, and one to Nara. We only went with our class, which was made up of international students who spoke several different languages, but our tour guides spoke entirely in Japanese, so we got in lots of listening and conversation practice. Katsuoji was especially interesting to me, because I had never heard of a temple devoted to daruma dolls before. A daruma doll is a figure where you fill in one eye when you have a goal you want to accomplish. The other eye is filled in after that goal is accomplished. During that time in Katsuoji, in addition to learning more about the temple, I had to seriously reflect on what it was I really wanted to accomplish with my life. As a short-term goal, I wrote my wish down on the Daruma that I wanted to graduate college. Once I do so, the other eye will definitely be filled in. Yet after that, I want to find a new daruma doll and another goal to achieve.

        Minami-Senri itself was a fairly residential district, with most of its residents having aged since it was first built. Its most bustling area was the local shopping center next to the train station, where there was both a 7/11 convenience store and a supermarket, where I was able to get most of my food during the program. The dorm had common area kitchens on every floor, but since my stay was significantly shorter than most study abroad programs, I chose not to make much use of it aside from the microwave.

        The number one challenge for me while I was living in Japan aside from the language barrier was the food. I’m a vegetarian; while I can eat eggs and dairy, I can’t eat meat or fish products. Since most Japanese food has seafood ingredients, this was tricky for me to navigate. I remember one afternoon when I got kaki-no-tane, a type of flavored rice-cracker snack food, in the convenience store and ate the whole bag. But I found out afterwards there was seafood in the ingredients list.

        Thankfully, I had options open to me. In addition to getting vegetarian food at the 7/11 and supermarket, there were various restaurants available around Osaka that served vegetarian friendly foods or even specialized in them. I could even find vegetarian friendly okonomiyaki, which is usually made with pork.

        This experience with the food in Japan inspired me for my final language presentation for the study program, where we had to interview and survey different native-speaking Japanese students. My topic was “If you were a vegetarian for one day, what would you eat?”. I wanted to make Japanese people think more about the prospects of being vegetarian in Japan, and how even though there are some foods that seem safe like miso soup, those soups often contain fish products making them unsafe to eat for vegetarians. I feel like through this presentation, I was able to connect with and reach out to other Japanese people in a way I previously couldn’t.

        Even now, after I’ve spent time in Japan, it felt like I’ve come so far and yet still have a long way to go. This feeling is nothing new to me. It’s something I’ve felt every time I’ve completed a class in Japanese even back in the states. Nothing has ever made me feel like I’ve seen or completely done everything I want to do with Japan and Japanese, which is why I want to keep learning and potentially working with the country and language for many years to come