Last Blog: Home and the start of the Next Adventure

It has been about a week since I returned home to Hawaii from AIU (Akita International University). It is nice to be back home because I get to sleep in my own bed, walk my dog, and relax before I begin my final year at UHM (University of Hawaii at Manoa).

Before I left AIU, I sold my bicycle to my friend, and I went to the Kanto Festival. I forgot to bring
my camera with me, so I got these pictures from my friend.

Pictures from Kanto

Goodbye my bicycle

Right now I am living with my parents again and I have a three-week vacation because I requested my boss to allow me to start working again at my part-time job when school starts. It is nice to see my dog again, and according to my mom, we will get another dog at the start of next month.

Since coming back I have been sleeping a lot, catching up on old movies I missed, and slowly getting readjusted to life back home. It feels weird to be back at Hawaii because everyone speaks English, I can see my parents everyday, and I no longer have to cook for myself. Now that I am back at Hawaii, the only thing I miss is my friends from AIU.

Saying goodbye to the people at AIU

I have been trying to start studying Japanese again, but it is harder because everything is in English. Most Japanese Americans in Hawaii do not speak English, most of the radio stations are in English, and I can go to my dentist for an appointment without having to go with someone to translate Japanese for me.

Due to this, I think my Japanese is getting worse everyday now. Therefore besides continuing Japanese at UHM, I think I will try to make more Japanese friends when the new semester starts. In addition, I will try to show them around Hawaii just like the Japanese students from AIU did for me.

Thanks to my study abroad experience at AIU, not only did I learn Japanese, but I made a lot of great friends. I also gained a lot of new perspectives and experiences. When I first arrived at AIU, I thought it would be very difficult to learn Japanese at AIU because everyone speaks English.

However, during the winter semester, I started to make more Japanese friends, and I gradually started speaking Japanese more. After becoming friends with more Japanese people, they started to speak to me in Japanese, and they were patient with my limited Japanese. Although the Japanese people at this school are required to speak English, they prefer speaking Japanese outside of class.

In the future, I am looking forward to meeting my friends from AIU again, and I look forward to seeing them at Hawaii. For me, it is nice to know that regardless of where I travel, there may always be someone I can visit. Thanks to studying abroad, I have friends from Germany, Czech, England, Taiwan, and South Korea.