Japan Study Abroad Log

finally completed the first official day of my program in kyoto! monday was a grueling travel day; i left the US on saturday evening, flew 4 hours to LA w/ a 3 hour layover, took a 12 hour flight to kyoto, took a 1 hour flight to osaka, did fuck all in the kansai airport from 4 am to 3 pm, THEN took a 2 hour charter bus to my apartment in kyoto.... yeah it was definitely a drag ;_; today was our program orientation, so i got to chat with a lot of new people! funnily enough it was located in the same building as a pokemon center so i went on a SPREE on our lunch break. i may or may not have spent way too much money but it's fineeeeee.... other than that i've been hanging out and exploring the nearby shopping district w/ some friends! i got to try mapo curry and beef udon which was soooo so delicious. i didn't do a whole lot of shopping aside from toiletries, but i did scope out some cute looking thrift/vintage stores that i wanna explore tomorrow! we have a 2 hour thing for the program tomorrow but other than that i have time to frolick which is gonna be so fun :p

here's some musings on my first impression of japan:
- everything is very small
- speaking to someone in a different language is scary af even if you know it pretty well
- i wish parasols were normal in the US
- the value of the US dollar is STRONG
- lawson is fire!!!

i did also want to touch on something that's been irking me: i feel like it's sooo hard actually getting to know ppl ;-; i don't have any issues w/ small talk and stuff like that, and i've gotten along with everybody in the program pretty well (it's like ~70 ppl for reference) but i feel like the group i've fallen into is almost too normal 😭 i HATE phrasing it that way but idk.. they were talking about sorority stuff and i realized oh shit i'm totally in the wrong place rn. they're nice and all but idkkk it's just so hard for me to connect. i feel like an alien who just arrived on planet earth for the first time who's trying to hide it. i'm still counting my blessings bc it gives me a chance to explore the city w/o going alone, but i hope things fall into place a little more ;_; it doesn't help that literally everything reminds me of the ppl at home like AGGHH omg we had an orientation supper thing and they were serving orange juice.. at 6 pm.. and i always make fun of my boyfriend for drinking orange juice with every meal 😭 gahh and the crazy time difference doesn't help either. it's okay because we talk when we have time but aiskudhakshkajls i just feel likr it would be a lot more fun if i could enjoy it with him ;_; i do think there's somerthing to be said about the importance of going on a solo journey and developing a sense of independence yada yada so i don't necessarily regret going by myself but it does really make me count my blessings... oh well, i'm super excited for what's to come in the program!