Over the course of 4 months, I got to visit a lot of places all over Japan; I only regret I hadn’t done more travelling. There were beautiful castles and temples, theme parks that made the ones here look small, mountains that had a great view and hidden locations a little off the beaten track. I even got to go to Seoul, South Korea for a few days since it was so close. There were places I had only ever seen through a screen or read about, sights I hadn’t even imagined before, I even developed an interest in nature from all the hiking and nature viewing I did.
There was always something new I wanted to see, but time only got less as the semester went on and I was more than satisfied with the amount of sightseeing I had done anyway.The best part of travelling however, wasn’t the the beautiful sights, rather it was the friends that I had been travelling with. Friends that I could have stayed with for a lifetime, continually travelling together and seeing new places.
At the end of the exchange, I left with a heavy heart, but at the same time I couldn’t have been happier after all the things I was able to experience. I didn’t have a single worry while in Japan. Things like finance and studies (and to an extent security, whoo Japan) never bothered me. Not that it would have since I could get by on a little over $1000 a month including accommodation and the classes were easy enough that I don’t think I studied for more than 2 hours the whole semester.
It was the best 4 months of my life and the friends I made I’ll hold dear to me. There’s no way I could share it all and not have it be too long a read, the best thing to do is to find out for yourself. If there was a downside, it was that it couldn’t have been longer.