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2015 JET-MIP ESSAY: MEGAN CHANDLERSEPTEMBER, 2015: BREEZE ISSUE #95
A FREE MONTHLY E-NEWSLETTER FOR FRIENDS OF JAPAN & TEACHERS OF
JAPANESEMEGAN CHANDLER
Monta Vista High School
Cupertino, CA

COMFORT AND CONFIDENCE
I remember taking my first step into the San
Jose Airport. This was far from my first time
inside but this did mark the first trip I would betaking without my parents. I stood there bothbrimming with excitement and throbbing withfear. I’d wanted to go to Japan for the longesttime so I kicked myself for being anything other than happy about it. The truth was, I had heardthat this trip would be life changing, and that made me nervous. I liked my life as it was - it was
comfortable and I was happy. I didn’t want change. I didn’t want to be taken out of my comfortzone. I feared what would happen to my perhaps-naïve but certainly comfortable view of theworld. Little did I know, change was exactly what I needed most.
The first thing that struck me was the independence we had, especially during free time.
Looking back it wasn’t so different than my life at home but something was both scary andexciting about not having adults constantly looking after you, like parents and teachers do. I
had freedom to flourish and freedom to fail. It felt like a preview of what college life would be
like – challenging and free. However, I certainly didn’t manage on my own. Even though I only
lived with them for two weeks, I still feel such a special bond with the friends I made on thetrip. The fear of being away from our parents and in a country in which we hardly spoke thelanguage pushed us together and made us grow. After the second day I felt I knew somepeople better than I knew friends I had known my whole life. I wouldn’t have done that if I
wasn’t out of my comfort zone. Even though we were clueless foreigners in Japan, we foundeach other and we found purer forms of ourselves.
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I felt confident in my Japanese language abilities from the beginning, less so because I wasgood and more so because I knew being shy wouldn’t help me. I pushed myself to speak inevery situation I could, and because of that my Japanese improved tremendously. Now I
understand the holes in my vocabulary and perhaps more importantly, I further understand how
the language and the culture fit together. I wasn’t afraid to make mistakes, for when I did I
always learned something. I always knew that I should live life like this. I know that it is anapproach that helps in every aspect of learning, but in all honesty this is the only time when I
acted on it. Hopefully I will continue being fearless in all my life’s endeavors, because failure is
only a step closer to success.
Japanese people were almost always friendly in my experience on the trip. They always wanted
to help foreigners and were always pleased to hear us speak Japanese. I was a little bit sadthat we didn’t talk about the tsunami and earthquake more because that was the main purposeof the trip. Then again, it wouldn’t have been appropriate to bring up such a tragedy during
small talk. However, I met one lady at the Kiwi Club who was very eager to talk about it andhear what I, as an American, had to say about it. The tragedy had changed her life forever. Shetold me that she couldn’t go to the sea anymore – it was simply too painful. I was happy tohave talked to her because for the most part my conversations with people were much more onthe surface. Still, I don’t believe that a single one of the conversations I had was a waste. For awhile I felt guilty that I couldn’t fix Tohoku, but looking back I don’t. When I talked to people myage the conversations felt profound, even if they were simply about video games and food. We
came to build bridges between Japan and the USA, and the bridges I built feel solid. I feel
connected with them now. We connected through laughing and small talk but they were realand deep nonetheless. They felt that way to us.
I wish I could tell Taylor Anderson and Montgomery Dickson that their work was valuable. I
don’t entirely understand their love for Japan and Japanese people, but I think that after thetrip I am beginning to understand. They went to Japan to dedicate their lives to a connection
between two great countries and they ended up losing their lives. They didn’t go to Japan with
the intention to become martyrs but their death has come to symbolize how the world isconnected. The Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami was Japan’s tragedy but it affected
the rest of the world, not just in the sense that foreigner’s lives were lost but also that Japan issimply a part of the world. People of Japan are really no different than people of any othercountry. In the end, people are people. We are all valuable.
I used to joke and say that I wouldn’t want to live without things like running water andplumming, and there was a bit of truth in each joke. I had always lived a comfortable life. I stilldo, but visiting Japan and learning about the sacrifices that Taylor Anderson and Montgomery
Dickson made makes me realize that I am stronger than that. I believe that people are stronger
than that, and I believe that people everywhere are beautiful.

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NIPPON THROUGH MY EYES PHOTOSUBMISSION“Watanoha Elementary Quilt”
I like sewing myself so this really caught my eye. Ina handmade quilt, one puts a bit of themself inevery stitch. I don't know who made this quilt but it
hangs in the school hall and I can only imagine thelove that was put into it.

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Y5 J-LEAP2015 JET-MIP Essay: Madison Ball2015 JET-MIP Essay: Raphael Barnes
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2015 JET-MIP Essay: Mary Burke

2015 JET-MIP Essay: Megan Chandler

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