Culture & Education

A few weeks ago, I was on Skype with a friend from back home. “What’s that you’re drinking?” she asked, pointing a rather pixellated finger towards the plastic bottle in my hand. “Oh, it’s hot chocolate, I got it from a vending machine on the way home.” Hot chocolate in a plastic bottle? From a vending machine?! She was scandalised. It’s generally during conversations like this that I realise just how acclimatised I have become to the minor details of life here. It’s also become patently clear that it’s difficult for me to restrict myself to one language. My parents have to listen patiently as I struggle to describe the texture of nattō in English, or as I wrack my brains for a truly satisfactory translation of the word natsukashii.
 
 I’m just over one third of the way through my stay in Kyoto as a MEXT Japanese Studies student, or Nikkensei. There are twenty-three of us in total here in Doshisha University, from all manner of different places, all at varying levels of proficiency. Nine of us happen to live in the same dormitory. Like all of the other language students here, we were each placed into one of nine different levels based on proficiency, with the absolute beginner students in Level I and the basically-already-fluent ones in Level IX. The Japanese Studies students are all in levels V and up, and we are split into two separate groups for the special MEXT classes we are required to attend. This semester, these classes were taught by a number of lecturers, were held roughly every two weeks, and covered a very broad range of themes concerning Japan, from its traditions, to its industry, to its food, to its social problems. We also went on two field trips, one to the company headquarters and factories of Shimadzu Corp., and another to a beautiful Noh theatre in Higashiyama. One of the best things about these classes is the opportunity to speak with the other students, and compare and contrast what we’ve learned with what we know of our respective countries. It’s worth noting, by the way, that some universities require their nikkensei to write a thesis over the course of the programme. However, this is optional in Doshisha University.
 
 As is often the case, it’s the people who are making this experience the adventure that it has been. In any programme like this where you are thrown into a different culture, you are bonded to your classmates by the sheer fact that at one point in your life you all decided to learn a new language and somehow all wound up in the same place together. This is, I think, particularly true in places like Japan, where there are comparatively few ‘foreigners’. Before coming here, numerous friends, forums and blog posts told me that people tend to look at you if you don’t look Japanese, but that hasn’t really been my experience in Kyoto. Most of the locals here very conspicuously don’t look at you. Instead, I find that the one usually staring at the obvious foreigners is actually me.
 
 My experience of Japan has, admittedly, been almost exclusively limited to Kansai so far, but that will change once the final exams of the semester are over. Kyoto itself is wonderful. The longer I spend here, the more grateful I am that this is where I get to live for a year. It has a fairly muted atmosphere about it, which makes it less hectic than the more city-like cities; the streets and the Kamo river are immaculately clean, and the surrounding mountains look almost like cardboard cutouts - sometimes I forget that anything else exists beyond them. For anyone looking for a change of pace, though, Osaka is only an hour away by train, and you can get to Kobe in an hour and a half. There are so many incredible things to see besides that, like the winter illuminations, or the vast expanse of Lake Biwa. Temples and shrines are in abundance.
 
Like so many others, I have found a sense of Irish-ness within myself since coming to Japan that I never really new I possessed. I keep the RTE Player app on my phone in case someone wants to hear what the Irish language sounds like, and my Dublin City University student card is always close at hand so that the more courageous ones can have a go at reading it. Bits of Ireland seem to keep popping up around me when I’m not expecting it. On one occasion whilst shopping for stationary, I picked up a roll of patterned masking tape that had Irish words written on it. On another, I found several products from Avoca sitting on a display shelf. And of course, there are a fair few pubs.

A lot of the things that I miss are small, unexpected things. Roughly two weeks after my arrival in September, I woke up to the first drizzle I’d seen since leaving Ireland - I was so delighted that I made a cup of tea and sat by the window to watch. It was nearly like being back in my old flat in Dublin, except that there was a distinct lack of red brick, it was 24 degrees out, and absolutely everyone was carrying an umbrella.
 
 Every once in a while, my friends and I will be walking somewhere for some reason or other, and one of us will suddenly stop in a moment of sudden realisation, and utter the words “We’re in Japan…” in a hushed, vaguely disbelieving sort of a way. It’s a real privilege to be here. The world is so endlessly fascinating, and I find myself paying much more attention to it since arriving here. For those who are thinking of applying for the Japanese Studies scholarship, I wholeheartedly urge you to go for it - you have nothing to lose! You will meet people here you would otherwise never have met, learn things you may otherwise never have learned, and you will come back all the better for it.