Keegan- Outbound to Japan
October 21, 2012 When
I got off the plane I could tell right away that there would be a major
difficulty with the language. From checking in with customs, searching my
bags, checking in for my next flight, and transferring my bags over to
Okayama everything was difficult. But it was all worth it when I got on that
plane from Tokyo to Okayama. The view was incredible; I had never seen that
many mountains before. when I had landed I saw my host family and rotary
club waiting for me, I got so excited that I ran past baggage claim and
wasn’t allowed back in. we had to wait and extra 30 minutes to have the
staff hand me my bags in person. After that we all exchanged business cards
and left for my house. The first thing I got when I arrived was a galaxy s-3
fresh off the market android phone. The only phone I’ve had for 2 months was
a 9 dollar pay as you go for the trip. I never needed (nor could afford) one
of these phones so right from the start I knew things here would be very
different from home. When we arrived at their house I was shocked by how
close it was to the water and mountains. But the house alone was amazing,
the size was compact but the inside was so clean and efficient. I and my
host mom had said goodbye to the rotary members at the door and I was left
to my room. It was on the first floor and all to me. It was the traditional
style room with heated bamboo floors, sliding doors and a personal office.
When I saw the bed I leaped into it with darting speeds. I hadn’t slept for
at least 49 hours (between the nervousness the night before the trip and the
whole time during it) so it was no wonder why I got to bed at 3 and walk up
at 8 the next morning. 17 hours did me well and I got up and explored my
room, unpacked allele and finally got enough gut to get out there for
breakfast. When I got to the host dad and mom and even my host sister
miyuchan where waiting for me. I had breakfast and we all talked. I found
out my host mom was an English tutor on the side so she speaks perfect
English. This was both a blessing and a curse for me because I could have a
translator but also I couldn’t learn on my own as well. But I loved them all
from the start. My host father is a doctor who owns his own clinic and my
host sister works with him as his secretary. My host mom would stay home,
clean and teach kids all day. So we had a lot of time to bond. The next day
we went to my first rotary meeting, luckily I had my speech ready but I was
no way ready for the conversations that I would be having with the
Rotarians. I was totally unprepared for the meeting but they were very
sympathetic towards me, a few younger Rotarians spoke very good English and
helped me translate with the older ones. All together there where about 50
people, when I finally got up to speak I wasn’t so nervous because they were
so nice so I just tried my best and they all clapped for my job well done.
the n ext day I had to go to my host fathers rotary club to do the
something, unfortunately my host father was the youngest one there and the
old men where all asleep for most of the whole meeting all 30 of them. Yet
they clapped for me and I was better prepared this time and my host father
was very proud of me. But the day after that would be the hardest yet. I had
only been there 2 days and tomorrow I would start school! We had gone to my
school very briefly my first day to meet my teachers and principal who were
very eager to have me there. The biggest excitement came from Mr. Baxter,
and English teacher from England who had been living here for 12 years, he
informed me all about the rules and showed me around. But my first day of
school I forgotten all of that, I walk up and go to school but, in the wrong
uniform! So Mr.Baxter had to run home and get me something appropriate
before my BIG SPEECH! After making 2 of these speeches you’d think I’d be
ready to speak to my school, but it was really hard when you have 1500 eyes
staring at you read terrible Japanese. All the kids where excited to have me
there and the principal introduced me and it seemed like I did a great job
and this speech was entirely different from my first 2 so I was happy. Yet I
wasn’t expecting a new speech for my homeroom class that was my worst
impromptu speech yet! But again they all thought I was cool so it didn’t
matter. And right after that they introduced themselves in English. Being a
private school and all, it looked like they knew a lot more English than I
expected. when I took my seat I had made 3 instant best friends, Komichan (
a golfing English genius), Sekiguchi (a basketball star and a major class
clown) and Matsuo( a soft tennis{extreme badminton} star) they would follow
me around everywhere for the first 2 weeks. but that whole day after that
was utterly a loss... I couldn’t understand anything class and even some of
the universal subjects like math where sooo hard, most of the math classes
here are at the calculus level by freshmen year. On top of all that I found
out that in Japanese schools the teachers move... not the students. So all
day I would sit in the same seat not understanding anything going on around
me. but in spite of that I made friends, I used situational humor I laughed
at their jokes even though I didn’t know what they were saying, and slowly I
began to fit in and understand. Since then I’ve been going mountain climbing
almost every week, speaking at rotary meetings every 2 weeks and switching
between kendo and soccer every other day. I also go to an extra Japanese
class every Tuesday and Thursday. A lot has changed in the first 2 months
and a lot of changes are occurring inside me. Since then some amazing events
have occurred. Shokochan (my host mom) has taken me to a lot of temples to
help me get more in touch with my faith; I have practically climbed every
mountain i n tama. on my second week here we visited Okayama Castle, which
is one of the oldest castles in Japan dating back 1000 years, with its
amazing garden in front( one of the three biggest gardens in Japan. a week
after that I went again with Haiyashi sensei, I didn’t have the heart to
tell him I had already seen it because he's usually so strict I never see
him smile, and just for this one day he did. both times I got to have shaved
ice, see the crane zoo, and feed/pet the huge carp they had living in the
ponds. my third week I finally got my schedule rearranged to fit my needs.
Monday: 1st/3rd period is art class, 2nd/4th period is drama, and 5th/6th
period is judo/kendo.
Tuesday: 1st P.E., 2nd library, 3rd English, 4th Japanese history, 5th
biology, 6th/7th study with Mr.Baxter
Wednesday: 1st English, 2nd library, 3rd/4th assist in drama classes,
5th/6th assist in English classes
Thursday: No school, go to Japanese class in Okayama
Friday: 1st library, 2nd world history, 3rd/5th/6th assist English classes,
4th calligraphy
Saturday: study in private Japanese classes
For my first month here we had a huge party at my host parent’s house. They
invited a lot of foreigners from around the world; I met a few Americans and
Australians here to study in Japan. There was also an American family who
moved here 13 years ago.... unfortunately they fit the perfect bad American
stereotype, there 4 kids are all homeschooled (which us unheard of in
Japan), because of this they don’t know Japanese and there social skills are
very poor and they love to eat McDonalds. I was a bit embarrassed to talk to
them and I felt really sorry for the kids not having a great opportunity to
learn another language especially there 13 year old son. We had Hanze over
as well, Hanze is from Germany, and he is 78 years old. Hanze moved to Japan
50 years ago but before that he traveled all across the world on his bicycle
for 8 years. His stories are amazing he went all across Europe, Africa, the
Middle East, and even Asia. When he hit the ocean he went to Japan hop ing
to catch a ship to America. But he fell in love instead and has been living
here ever since. My host sister invited a good friend of hers who is a
master at the dijeri, he would play for us and wed try to see if we could
play, and it was a lot of fun. We ate food from around the world; I even
gave gifts to everyone. I also invited me best friends Tanakakun and Inuekun
to sleep over and we had a blast, the next morning we went mountain climbing
at 5:30 in the morning and watched cartoons until there train came.
Two days after the party we had Bunkasai (school festival). Bunkasai is a
celebration of another school year; all the students get together and come
up with an idea for each club/class to do. Our class made a haunted house,
but others had shooting ranges with prizes, karaoke competitions, food
booths, movies, and so on. It lasted for 5 hours and at the end of it all I
was exhausted ad covered in sweat from running from class to class. At the
end of it all a bunch of school bands (mostly rock bands) got together and
played for an hour or two. Somewhere great.... others horrible but it were
all fun. My favorite thing was they built a 20 foot tower made of used water
bottles, it took them all day to build but it was worth it. The wind took it
away eventually but I got a few pictures of it before it did. We spent about
an hour after cleaning up afterwards; I was as confused as to what to do due
to the language so I found some simple grunt work to do. We had to move
these very hea vy, long platforms for the teachers (they must have been
180lbs) and for most people who were moving them it took about 5 people to
move them from the 3rd floor to the first, but me and Tanakakun listed them
by ourselves with twice the speed. We where both covered in chalk dust but
it was worth it to get it done. He was about to die halfway though so I had
to drag them most of the way, I felt so happy to be better than my other
students at something! Afterwards I took Tanaka out for shaved ice and I
walked to his house where we hung out and listened to music and played
videogames till 11pm.
I just have to note real quick that before this adventure I never drank soda
of any kind for a solid 4 years, I hated the stuff for health and personal
reasons but ever since I came here I’ve been addicted to only one "SANGRIAS:
MELON CREAM SODA" IS THE BEST DRINK EVER!!!! I get it whenever imp having a
hard day, it’s actually quite tasty considering it has about half as much
sugar than whets in a coke, plus its twice the size. I can only find it in
the vending machine next to my house so unfortunately I only have a limited
supply.
So about a week after the school celebration we finally got ready for out
school sports day. Every class was divided to be either in the blue, red, or
yellow team. Every class had to make their own team banner with their colors
to show support for the event. And on the day all the teams would go to the
huge Okayama dome to participate I the events. Our class was the red team,
everyone had worn there team colors and all day we had a blast cheering on
our team for the different events. I was in the tug of war and the relay and
I was so excited. When it was our turn for tug of war I explained we should
pull in sequence on my count and I think because of that we won, but I tried
so hard to pull with all my strength that my back gave in. I was in the
nurses for the rest of the time. Until relay came up and even though I knew
it would hurt like hell I mustard up the strength to do it. I was in serious
pain when it came to my turn. I was in first at the beginning but by the
time I p assed it over I was in second. I was in so much pain afterwards all
I could say was I’m sorry for not doing better but they just kept saying
good job so I was happy. Afterwards we cleaned up and left. The next day I
had plans too, with my 2 friends Mami and Maichan to karaoke. We sung for 5
hours..... I could barely speak but it was sooo fun. All in all one of my
best weekends.
Next Tuesday I was taking my usual train home when I noticed a blond haired
girl sitting on the train. I had seen her a few times before but it was only
now that I noticed she was wearing a school uniform. I was interested, so I
sat down next to her and we talked. I found out her name was Clara she was
an exchange student from a different program, and that she was from Germany
she had been here for 6 months. She also told me she had 5 exchange students
at her school. I was very surprised, considering rotary only has 2 other
students in the whole prefecture of Okayama. So she introduced me to some of
them and many of her other school friends on train. And we decided we should
all meet up on Saturday to go see a movie. I invited my best friend
Tanakakun (on account that he really likes foreign girls) and I thought it
would be fun. There was max from Australia (who loves anime and so his
Japanese was perfect). Alas, a girl whose been living in Italy for the past
2 years but was born in America. Meg, who has lived in America half her
life, so she is fluent in both English and Japanese. Dike, who is from Japan
but wants to teach Japanese to English speakers one day. Helena, from
Finland, and sera, a friend of Daiki's. we saw "the hunger games" (which I
saw 5 months ago in America, and I didn’t like it) which I loved it was a
great movie, and I sat next to ala who was scared easily so I had to tell
her when the scary parts would come and she would cry heavily on the
emotional parts. It was hilarious but very cute. Afterwards half of them had
to go home but the rest of us stayed out till 11:00pm shopping and goofing
around. I and Tanakakun, being best friends/rivals would fight all the time
making everyone laugh. He’d slap me in the back of the head or id say
something funny to him in Japanese and we would end up fighting for (what
seems like) forever. I had bought a lot of really cool pins for my rotary
blazer but I had placed the bag down to run away from Tanaka.... and it was
never seen again hahahahaha. But all in all one of the funniest days I’ve
had with friends here so far. I had only known them a few hours and I felt
like I’ve known them all my life.
For now that all I have to say but, every day here is an adventure if only I
could tell you all about every day I’m here but I don’t have the time I’m
too busy living it. The only thing I can say for those who haven’t done what
I’m doing is, do it as soon as possible even if you’re just going to Mexico,
even if your just traveling to a different state or city, even if your just
trying something new even if your just traveling to a new state of mind.
Take that first step into the unusual and out of routine and I promise you
won’t ever take a step back. Thank you everyone for all your support and
encouragement I promise I won’t let you down.
April
16, 2013Dear Everyone.
I've survived! the holidays are over, the tree is put away, and the year of
the snake has finally come. its always hard to put my feelings for the last
two months on my journal but here goes nothing. over the holidays I ran into
a few things that made me feel like going home. old friends passing always,
missing my family, my dog, my old food and customs. most times I was fine
trying to enjoy the good times with family and friends here but it was just
a few strong moments where your memories come back to you that you start to
feel sad about your situation and your lonely disposition. for everyone
planning to do what I've did I can tell you there are a lot of people here
and around the world who deal with this loneliness by taking on negative
habits. like eating chocolate every day and finding out after the holidays
you just gained 40lbs. or the kid who just keeps to himself and winds up
getting into a fight in school and sent home because he cant deal with his
emotions. some people choose to break one or all of the four d's to get over
the holidays. and I obviously don't need to remind everyone what happens to
them unfortunately. the best solution is to get lost in your family and
friends here. I knew this year would be hard but I also knew that the only
ones who could help me recover would be them. So I just spent every waking
second with them and it all turned out ok in the end.
To tell you bout all the adventures I've experienced would take forever
to explain. But I will mention that my next host family coming in February
is a family of monks. None of them are related by blood but I consider them
a family. I spent New Years with them at they're temple. We read the sutras,
meditated at 5 am every day, and lived the monk lifestyle. I think most
would call me crazy to be interested in living that life but well… I'm not
most people haha.
Being here for five months now is really different that from when I
started, things are beginning to be normal now. The days are a bit quieter
and I don’t surprise as easily as before. But that just part of the plan I
guess, you know that roller coaster feeling of all the ups and downs of
exchange, I still really don’t believe that’s true. I guess exchange effects
everyone differently. But I would agree that after Christmas things begin to
feel normal, Even though crazy stuff is happening to me that doesn’t happen
to most people.
The biggest lesson on my exchange isn't the language, or the culture, its
not about the awesome food or friends either. It’s the ability to adapt to
change, to make a new normal, to find security even in the most hectic and
new environment. Waking up at five every morning to clean a temple and
meditate with a group of bald Japanese monks doesn’t seem like the most
relaxing expedience for a lot of exchange students, but I feel the thrill of
it, of it being new to me. And now that I'm here for five months I'm holding
on to anything exciting I can. And once I master it, feel normal, I have to
move on. That’s the hardest lesson to learn, the real reason we are here.
The lesson we cant learn from the security of our homes with our parents and
friends. The real lesson of all life… that no matter how much you don’t want
it too, everything will change. Your friends, family, job, school,
relationships, money it all comes and goes in life, in an ups and downs
fashion. And you cant be scared of that, because if you are its going to hit
you when you least expect it and tear your hopes apart. Go with the flow,
don’t fight the waves, ride them, and hope they take you where you want to
go.
The second thing I've learned while on exchange is that a lot of exchange
students are the same. I mean we all have different talents, hopes and
dreams. But we all generally care about the world and we have big plans for
the future. I love all the exchange students I've had the pleasure of
meeting during my exchange. And there are many of them I am looking foreword
to meeting from all around the world. I'm taking advantage of this adventure
now. To stay close with my fellow exchange students after exchange, contacts
that will one day change the world. We are the movement makers, the next
presidents, astronauts, doctors, even just future mothers and fathers who
will share what they’ve learned this year with the world. To make it better,
to pay it foreword, to be the ambassador of the world and purge the world of
racism and ignorance….. big job for a bunch of teenagers, but I think we can
pull it off.
Keegan Costello
Me at the art museum in Nagoya
Me showing off my 230+ pins. Dont worry the gun is a toy
Eating udon with Daiki my best buddy.
At the Peach boy museum with Sara a guest from Germany. She stayed with
us a week
Me and Sara messing around at the horror museum
My host mom, Sara, Me and my host dad on Saras last day
My host family and Me went to an old part of Okayama
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