The night before my departure to Japan, I was a nervous wreck. I was worried about pretty much everything from my luggage- to the language barrier. The biggest fear I had, which I didn't even want to admit to myself, was "What if it doesn't live up to the pedestal I put it on?"
If you ask anyone I'm close to, they'll tell you how obsessed with Japan I am, and have been for many years. It has been my dream to visit the country for so long, but it had always been just a dream until this year. I never had to seriously think about taking the trip before. It seemed so impossible, then suddenly, it wasn't. It was suddenly so real and I had to bring myself back to earth. My mind raced with thoughts such as, "What if I feel out of place and alone?" "What if I hate it?" "What if I just want to go home the whole time I'm there?" I had no sleep the night before the flight and no sleep while on it. All of that changed as soon as our bus from the Narita airport reached the city of Tokyo. I practically cried with joy. All of my fears melted away. I had made it! The place I could only dream about for so long was real, and I was right in the middle of it.
The passed few days have surpassed my expectations of Japan. I've love everything I've experienced in this country so far. I've even surprised myself with the amount of Japanese I can understand. Speaking is another story, but I feel if I spent enough time in the the country (and studied hard) I could become a well-off Japanese speaker!
As the days fly by I'm facing another fear, how little time we have left here. I want to experience so much that there's no way two weeks could ever been enough. I love it here and I feel like I'll never want to leave.
No comments:
Post a Comment