Welcome to my first blog post. I figure that since I have my own website I can really do whatever I feel like doing on here including writing about my experiences in Japan. So here is where I will put more detailed info about the happenings of my life and whatever else I feel like doing on here.
For the past three months or so I have been living in Tokyo, Japan. And my, oh, my what an experience it has been. I guess a good place for me to start is what in the world I am doing here, in case you don't already know.
My university, Northeastern University (Go Huskies), has this pretty cool program which we (affectionately) refer to as "co-op". All that means is that we have the option to do an internship and practice doing the whole "adulting" thing for six months every year. It's a pretty sweet deal if you ask me. Anyway, there are several opportunities to go abroad for these co-ops which I have been blessed to be able to do in Tokyo for a company called TableCheck.
TableCheck is a reservation booking platform that manages reservations for the restaurant and allows customers to book through the service as well. It's a pretty robust system with a lot of moving parts but it has taught me so much in terms of how a project should be structured and handled, especially if it is a project that people depend on. I'll try to go into a little more detail at the end of my co-op once I have gleamed all that I can.
On a grander scheme of things, I feel as though I have already changed and grown, and in some ways, become a new and improved version of myself. I am indisputably more cultured and my Japanese has improved somewhat. But more than that, I feel as though I have figured myself out more, if that makes any sense. I am used to living on my own and not being dependent on really anyone but I guess this is really the first time in my life I was forced to grow and become my own adult. It was sorta one of those sink-or-swim type of moments. My first couple weeks or so were pretty lousy, at least in terms of self-growth. For one, my laziness reached an all time high. It was so easy for me to justify going home after work and doing nothing but watching tv. I mean after all, I did just work all day, right? On top of that, the average food you can get here is much better than that in the States. This makes living next to a convenience store extremely dangerous. I gained a fairly large amount of weight the first month I was here. It took about a month before I realized I was not happy with what I was doing and if there was a time to change now would be that time.
After my first month I moved in with some guys from the Tokyo Church of Christ that I attend. It was probably one of the best things for me to do here. I mean living with other people helped fight off the feelings of loneliness that kept creeping up and really helped improve my Japanese. It was obviously the smart thing to do financially as it is now costing me a third of what I paid my first month here. And probably one of the biggest aspects is I now live about a one minute walk from a really nice gym.
It has been quite the roller coaster since I arrived in Tokyo in January. There are times when I felt really alone and not being able to communicate with anyone was so demoralizing. And then there were the great times like when I got to go skiing with the college students in the church here or driving an hour and a half just so me and some guys could get OldSpice deodorant from the Navy base. I think about all the friendships I have made and all the friendships I am going to strengthen with my remaining time here and I am hopeful.
If I were to summarize my time here so far in one word it would be: learning. But with a 10 day vacation coming up and my time here about halfway over, I am hoping to look back and summarize the second half with adventure.
Well, that's all I really have to say for now. I will try to get around to posting some pictures and if you are in Japan before the end of June let me know!