I am extremely excited to say that I well be studying abroad in Japan during the fall of my junior year! I will be staying on Hokkaido, the northern most island, in a city named Sapporo. Sapporo is famous for it’s beer, and the heavy snows starting in November that lead to the large ice sculpture contests and festivals during the winter season. Coming from Seattle, I can’t even really imagine a white winter, and I am thrilled about the idea of being around for the snowy season.
I have taken Japanese for six years now, although my ability to hold conversation is still rather limited and I am hoping to come back being able to use what I know to actually communicate with Japanese speakers. Although I will be taking two Japanese culture classes in English, I am also taking two Japanese language classes and will be staying with a host family.
The scariest, and most exciting, part is the fact that I am the only Lewis and Clark College student going on my trip! I will be in Japan during the same time as a few other Japanese programs (some of which will include participants from ENVS 220), but I will not even be living on the same island as them. I am assuming that I will be taking classes with other international students from different countries when I get there…I don’t know how else I would be taking my English Japanese culture classes.
I am also excited because this will give me a change to take my ENVS education and concentration out of the US. I have included components of my concentration that connect with learning about urban planning in Japan, and I think Sapporo is an equally interesting place to study that. Sapporo, I have heard, has a distinctly different feel and lay out from other Japanese cities, such as Tokyo. I am hoping to do some travel that will help me to study how these styles differ.