Nearly There

So close, cant come quick enough.

In just over 3 days I land in Japan and i couldn’t be more excited, and just a little bit scared, never travelled by myself.

I have never been to Japan, but have heard only good things, and it has always been right up there with one of the places i want to visit. I’m already getting the feeling that it will be amazing and already planning my trip back in the back of my mind, as i get the feeling i want have stayed long enough.

This study tour will defiantly be eye opening, usually when people travel they only get to see the culture on the surface (the clothing, the buildings, the people), this study tour however will give us an insight into the business and study culture of another country, something very few people get to see. Japanese business culture is much more formal then other places, and although we have heard so much about it, will most likely come as a surprise to us.

Starting the packing soon, the thought of packing a suit and shirt is very strange to me, never had to travel with a suit before, hopefully the first and not last new experience this trip has in offer for me.

Japan Bound

We have touchdown!

After about a 12 hour flight delay, a whole lot of running around in Singapore, I finally got to Japan.

Wooooooooooooooooooo. But seriously, it ended up being about 36 hours of “flight” time. Definitely wasn’t an easy trip over.

Because of the airline stuffing me around I ended up arriving at about 11pm local time. Luckily for me it meant the airline payed for a hotel foor me. But, in the morning I was up nice and early and on my way to Hamamatsu.

I did make one mistake though, I underestimated the number of accessible atms at 8am… I was starving and had a long train ride ahead. Won’t be making that mistake again.

Because my flight ended up going to Haneda, not Narita, I needed to find my way to Tokyo station. This ended up being rather exciting as I got to ride a monorail. It still amazes me how efficient Japan’s transport is. A train that is 30 seconds late is like he end of the world. THe only downside is that you pay for this efficiency out of your pocket. Rather than paying for the time you are on it, like Australia, Japan opts for the pay per stop option. Going one stop already sets you back $1.50.

The shinkansen is a whole other story. That is where it really costs you. The trip to Hamamatsu is about 2 hours from Tokyo by shinkansen. This cost 80 bucks each way :/. But it is a fun thing to do. Especially because you seriously can’t tell that you are moving that fast.

In 5 years Hamamatsu has not changed a bit. I remember it like it was yesterday. Its been great to stay with my old host family again. Eating some amazing traditional food, sleeping on the floor like a true Japanese person.

Did I mention how cold it was? Or how insane the Japanese people are? Last night proved that to me. Onne of my host brothers friends too me with him to a family game of soccer they play 2-3 times a week. We played outside, at 0 degrees, for 3 hours. Some of these guys were nearly 3 times my age yet they never stopped. Everyone was competing hard, yet no one cared about the score. This is something that I really loved. Might have helped if I was any good at soccer haha.

But anyway, here is a photo of us freezing out butts off post game. Can’t wait to do it again.

6 more days here in Hamamatsu and then back into Tokyo for the beginnings of the Study Tour. Already feeling like my Japanese will be up to the challenge.

Until then 🙂

I have no idea what I’m doing

I’ve never been overseas before, and know very little about Japan. Expectations are based off inferences from the schedule and last years study tour. This will be a very hectic 5 days.

I’m essentially organised to go at this point and I’ll be arriving shortly before the study tour actually starts.

Anticipation

Tomorrow begins what will be a month of excitement for me. After 5 years I get to return to Japan.

This time will be so much different to what I experienced last time. A more professional approach this time around in comparison to the classic tourist activities on the last trip will make it a completely new challenge.

I think I am definitely fortunate that my approach to this tour will be quite unique compared to my classmates. As I have been studying Japanese for quite some time now, I am very familiar with the culture, language and all round shock that Japan brings to foreigners.

I decided to head into this trip 10 days early so I could return to visit my old host family. This will make interacting with the Japanese over the time of the trip much easier as I will already have 10 days of complete immersion in order to get out some rust in my Japanese speaking proficiency.

Having the chance to undertake an expo like the one we are going to with the ability to communicate (to a certain extent) in the native language hopefully will mean I can learn some things that otherwise may have slipped under the radar.

It will certainly be interesting to see how Japan has changed over the last 5 years. I was just a kid last time I was there so being able to see the country with slightly more mature eyes could certainly shift my perspective on some things. This will be most noticeable over the week of this tour I think. The Japanese business culture is something that will be the hardest thing to deal with. It is more like a religious ceremony that a mere meeting. The level of respect that is shown is completely foreign to us and it will be the most difficult gap to bridge. But this is one of the challenges I am most looking forward to facing.

Hopefully, the difficulties of the professionalism will be overcome. This trip really has an importance to me as I am hoping to set up a place in which I can do my Nano Project with.  This is why the expo will be so exciting.  Hundreds of potential groups I may be able to chat with about this possibility. And knowing it might all come down to how good my formal Japanese is a scary notion. But one I am looking forward to greatly

I can’t wait until I touch down in Japan. It has been too long

See you soon

Discover the Nano Tech 2014 Exhibition and Conference

Discover more about the Nano Tech 2014 Exhibition and Conference

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