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If you had asked me a year ago if I were to ever participate in a faculty-led program to Japan with SJMC, I would’ve thought you were joking, especially since my major is international studies with an international business concentration, which doesn’t exactly involve any sort of mass communication classes.
Now I can say that I am officially honored to have experienced such an amazing journey with SJMC Japan. With the drastic change in events from my other planned study abroad program, SJMC Japan Academic Program Director Gilbert D. Martinez and Lecturer Sara Shields welcomed me with open arms and guided me through the whole entire program. They gave me assignments, making sure to answer all my questions and to work with me when I wasn’t able to understand certain assignments. This made me an overall a better writer and student!
At first, I was hesitant on joining this program, but given my major, studying abroad is a requirement, so I took a leap of faith and joined SJMC Japan. It was nerve racking at first, but every student there along with the faculty were extremely kind and welcoming, making me feel welcomed.
I wanted to join this program to experience a new culture and learn more about journalism and certain aspects behind it. What I looked forward to the most was being able to travel abroad for the first time and create new memories in a new country that is very new to me.
The first thing I did the moment I landed at Narita International Airport was run to the nearest McDonald’s I could find at the airport. It may sound cheesy, but now I can say that I’ve tasted the McDonald’s in Japan, and I can honestly say that I would extremely delicious and the menu there is different compared to here in the States.
Other than fast food, during my stay in Tokyo, a couple of the students and I decided to venture off to Shibuya and find the nearest record store that sells K-pop albums. The record store we visited was called Tower Records, an eight-story building with each floor holding different genres of albums and records such as J-rock, K-pop, J-pop and more. We were quickly drawn to the K-pop section, enamored by all the different selections and variety of all the albums. The best part was the price for each album given the fact that the J-pop albums were less expensive than the albums compared to the prices in the States. As a K-pop stan, I couldn’t resist and went ahead and purchased two albums. This experience was very exciting for me because I was able to buy an album that wasn’t available in the States along with fulfilling my K-pop dreams in a country where K-pop is highly listened to, making me feel like I belonged!
As it was my first time traveling abroad, I figured out real quick that the culture in Japan is very different compared to the United States. There are many rules and etiquette standards you must follow if you ever travel to Japan. I didn’t do any further research before my trip, and I had to learn right away their train and street etiquette which was walking on a certain side of the sidewalk or their busy subway lifestyle, which wasn’t too bad but at times felt a little overwhelming.
Academically speaking, I was taken by surprise with the different types of assignments given to me especially since these assignments were not something I was too familiar with or part of my major. However, it was interesting to try something new and expand my knowledge of journalism and media. I found it really fascinating and enjoyed being able to learn something new every day and improve as a writer because of it.
I still cannot believe that the program is nearly at its end and how it went by within the blink of an eye. This program has been a life changing experience for me as it exposed me to a new culture and allowed me to step out of my comfort zone and take on new challenges.
This has helped me grow as a student, as a writer and even an editor. Exposing myself to a new task that I have never done before such as feature writing and blog post writing helped me gain new knowledge of mass communication and journalism.
From a cultural perspective, I learned a lot from my peers and my surroundings and experiencing a new culture opened my eyes to a new understanding of a whole new different lifestyle. This program has helped me get out of my comfort zone and gave me the opportunity to travel to a different country.
As an international studies major this will help me gain travel experience so that when I find my potential career, I can potentially work outside of the United States, hopefully working in Japan.
What this photo means to me is building a connection with other students within SJMC Japan and students from Japan. This photo is special to because making new friends was the highlight of this trip and because of them, they are the reason why this trip was very memorable.
