Since coming to Japan, I have had the opportunity to live on my own and experience things I would not have experienced back at home. Besides my cooking problems, I have been able to live in various places such as a Japanese person's home, hostel, capsule hotel, business hotel, and I had to stay up all night at Shinjuku because I missed my night bus from Tokyo to Akita. In addition, recently I had to go the hospital because I got a Q-tip stuck in my ear and I was unable to remove it by myself. Experiencing some of these experiences has not been fun, but I feel that these experiences have allowed me to grow up as a person. I think that by studying abroad I have met so many different people, and I have seen so many things that I will be looking forward to traveling again.
I think my Spring Break was fun, but compared to one of my friends, I do not think that I did anything too extreme. After I got back to Akita International University (AIU), one of my friends told me that in order to save money, she hitchhiked a lot at Okinawa. In addition, she brought a tent with her so she was able to camp at Okinawa for about five days. I thought she was crazy, but I guess because Okinawa is supposed to be safer than Japan, hitchhiking at Okinawa may not be too dangerous.
Below are pictures from one of the business hotels I stayed at. Usually these hotels cost about 5000 yen per night, but the hotel fee includes a free breakfast. In addition, some of the business hotels I stayed at provided me a free set of pajamas, toiletries, and free Internet. Besides the free Internet, I was able to have my own room at the business hotel separate from my parents when I was traveling with them. At Tokyo, I had to share a room with my parents, and I was unable to use the Internet for free because the hotel bill was too expensive.
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| Breakfast from a Business Hotel |
At Okayama, I stayed at a capsule hotel when I was traveling by myself during spring break. The capsule hotel was very narrow and compared to the hostels, I was unable to charge my electronics or use the Internet in my unit. I stayed in the capsule hotel for only two days, but I had enough room in my unit that I did not feel too cramped.
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| Inside of my unit |
On the day that I was supposed to leave to return to Akita from Tokyo by night bus, I missed my night bus. I found out that I was at the wrong bus stop ten minutes before the bus was supposed to leave at Tokyo Station. Unfortunately because Tokyo Station is a big station there is a lot of bus stops, and the correct bus stop for the night bus I was supposed to take was on the opposite side of where I was at the train station.
After missing the bus, I rode the train station from Tokyo to Shinjuku because I remember reading that there were a lot of Internet Cafes in Shinjuku. I decided that I needed to take the bullet train from Tokyo to Shinjuku, but I thought it was best for me to find some place to stay.
At Shinjuku, I was unable to find some place to stay, so I decided to stay up all night until morning. I was afraid of sleeping on the streets of Shinjuku because I did not want the police to arrest me for sleeping on the streets and I was afraid of being attacked by someone while I slept outside.
I stayed close to the train station, but I tried to move to several different locations near Shinjuku Station. Usually during that night, I studied my Japanese, and I played games on my iPad. While studying, I noticed several taxis pass by me, and I saw this old lady collapse inside of a telephone booth while waiting for the ambulance to help her.
Eventually it got closer to morning, and the train station opened. Once the train station opened, I bought a ticket for the bullet train from Tokyo to Akita. After returning to AIU, I met my new roommate, and because of him, I was able to get my bicycle fixed. Compared to my last roommate, my new roommate is from Nagoya, Japan.
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| Hanging around with my new roommate |
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| View from Akita Airport |
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| It is nice to see the sunset again |
