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2011 JET-MIP ESSAYJANUARY, 2012: BREEZE ISSUE #51
A FREE MONTHLY E-NEWSLETTER FOR FRIENDS OF JAPAN & TEACHERS OF JAPANESETHOMAS CUDEVIRGINIAALBERMARLE HIGH SCHOOLWAKING UP
I titled this essay “Waking up.” Not only the shock of being selected to have the opportunity to go toJapan, I was even more shocked at how much I learned and comprehended while i was there. In this essay
I will describe to you briefly what I went through in Japan and how it affected me. Starting with themorning I woke up.
That morning, I woke up knowing that this day was going to be one of the most important days of my lifeand I swore into the air as I realized I overslept. I granted myself some leeway seeing as 2 weeks prior tothis day I had been moving my family into a new house and seeing as my mom and dad are both disabled I
had to lift practically everything. Seeing as my sister was a girl, she said she couldn’t lift a thing. Staying
up till 3am the night prior to this important day, I thought I did pretty good waking up at 5am; however, it
was too late. Getting to the airport with only 30 minutes to spare they let me go through the gate as I
checked in. Feeling relieved, I waited in security and when I finally got to my gate and saw that the plane
hadn’t left yet, I thought I was saved. Hwever, they stopped me at the gate told me I was 2 minutes lateand sent me back to the front saying that the only way to reschedule was to fork over $1000 which wasimpossible for me because if I had that much money, I would have just gone to Japan way before this. As I
got home disappointed and devastated, I realized that my itinerary online had changed and that I had aflight that afternoon to San Francisco…..”YES!!!!” I yelled and didn’t ask questions and booked it back tothe airport, got on my plane and my journey started.
Seeing as a month and a half before I got home to move my family, I was in Peru so travel was familiar tome. Knowing all the security requirements and motions on how to flow and fly through security and ticketstations. Domestic flying felt like child’s play to international travel. Arriving in San Francisco, I realizedthat I never contacted anyone about when I was getting in. No one was waiting for me…. I whipped myphone out and found a Starbucks with WiFi and looked at my old emails saw what hotel they were staying
at and looked up the right shuttle and got on. Only to find while on the shuttle I got a call from one of my31 counterparts saying they had come to pick me up. In any case I made it! I was in San Francisco on track
to go to the place I had always dreamed of going.
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San Francisco was brief, I gave my speech at the consulate generals and the next day we were off toJapan, surrounded by new friends and stood in a clumps of travel cases and duffle bags, bubbling withexcitement we got on the shuttle to the airport. The plane ride was…long, however as soon as we wereable to catch sight of land we were enthralled at the sight of Japan. Some of us crawled on top of one
another just to catch a glimpse through the parting clouds. Thus we touched down into Kansai airport. Aquick bus ride across the bridge to Kansai and 32 gawking, excited youths were taking enough pictures tolast 3 life times. Most all of us didn’t really know of where we were staying or what it looked like so we
didn’t realize that It was the 18 story tower perched right on the coast next to a bridge were fishermen
struggled with their catches of the day, was actually our new home for the next couple weeks.
Staying at the center was a whole new experience on its own. The staff actually greeted us. All the timeand realized if we were leaving every time and promptly wished safe travels. Kindness and Consideration
was a couple things that we all realized were dominant in the Japanese society. A society that actuallyfollows the golden rule was almost unthinkable to us. Getting our room assignments, we were ecstatic tosee our quaint one room apartments with small mini fridge and a bathroom with a DEEP bath tub. The
cherry on top was the amazing view and I appreciated every day I was able to stay in such a nice place.
The Japan foundation was definitely not without structure. The next morning we got our host families andan allowance, along with a packet with schedules that we followed to the dot. Although the orientations
seemed to be a bit much in this trip we understood they were just trying to prepare us for our home stay.
Now leading up to home stay, we experienced Japan in many ways. From trips to Kyoto to adventuring to
the local convenience store by bike, which we were allowed to borrow from the center.
Kyoto was a shock. The overwhelming culture and the exquisite detail in the shrines, the very air of thatplace seemed to hum with age and mystery. Never setting foot in a shrine before, I noted it as one of thechanging moments of my life. Realizing that societies of humans can get this old, I realized that America is
still such a young nation. 400 years is nothing compared to this civilization which is over 3000 years old.
Soon after Kyoto, Home Stay!!! Home stay was immensely helpful. I can think of no better way tounderstand the Japanese and how they live there life then actually living with them. I still miss my hostfamily. The way they did things the way they treated each other the way they interacted with society while
we were out. What kind of chores they had. What did they eat for breakfast or for dinner. Did they like toplay outside or play video games? Questions where brought up and answered. Not only the society andcultural aspects but the language was all over. There was no escaping; they used it all the time in every
situation. They taught me many conversation methods and ways of speaking that I have never thought of. I
am truly grateful to have met such upstanding people. Getting toward the end of our trip half of the 32 wassplit up half to Kobe and half to Tohoku. I went to Tohoku
Tohoku was fun. It was another angle of Japan that I didn’t know existed. Vast sceneries of green thatstretched out to meet the dark base of mountains that jutted out of the landscape in various places. It wasa small town with houses no bigger than two stories and most of them with rice fields attached to the hip.
Meeting more highschoolers was defiantly a great thing. Don’t get me wrong visiting shrines is defiantly amust, but the biggest thing to do in order to really build bridges is for the young to meet the young. Youthmeeting youth is the best way to install a sense of unity, because we start off so similar anyway. Sohighschooler’s were very fun to try to talk to in Japanese and they to us in English. Although some of us
were disappointed we couldn’t go to the disaster sight and see for our self what happened and if we hada chance to help clean up we would take it right away.
Tohoku was nearing the end of our stay in Japan, after Tohoku most of us started to get together witheach other staying in the lounges exchanging experiences talking about Japan and wishing we could stay.
(We were taking a passport burning party into consideration) As the morning arrived for us to leave wePrivacy - Terms

took full advantage of the time before the flight. Anna, Tineal and I went biking around the suburbs ofJapan about twenty minutes by bike away from the center we stayed at. An adventure on its own, passing
locals waving hi and good afternoons while gawking at some of the grand houses and the quaint but
pleasant side of Kansai that no one would ever take a tour in, stopping at vending machines with gooddeals to get some cold drinks. Soon after we got on a plane heading back to San Francisco. I won’t go
into much detail about the return because it was just sad. We touched down in San Francisco. Jet lagged
and exhausted they asked us to make a power point asap. We tried. We had the opportunity to meet
Montgomery Dickson’s sister and brother in which we were grateful to have the opportunity. Then the nextmorning I watched as the group that we have all grown close together started to disappear one by one infront my eyes. It was sad but we all had face book and with promise of some day meeting again we all
returned home.
In the end this was such a rare and amazing opportunity for me. I gained 32 new lifelong friends. I went toJapan. I gained 3 brothers and another set of parents. I spoke Japanese to Japanese people. I learned
and experienced 2 weeks’ worth of Japan. For free. If it wasn’t for this program I don’t think I would havebeen able to reach Japan for a long time. Now that I have been there and experienced it firsthand I intend
to build my future around being a link between our two nations, and giving as much as I possibly can backto Japan whether it’s through the JET program as an ALT or just going there and volunteering in local
communities, I want to be a part of Japan.

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Breeze #51

2011 J-LEAP Report: Sayaka Hanami

2011 J-LEAP Report: Shota Kinjo

2011 JET-MIP Essay: Emily Friedensohn

2011 JET-MIP Essay: Kaleialoha Nishimura

2011 JET-MIP Essay: Thomas Cude

2011 JET-MIP Essay: Dominik Mikulcik

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