Author: Emersyn Rackley | Major: International and Global Studies : Semester: Spg 2023 – Fall 2024
Itsukushima Shrine on Miyajima Island
My name is Emersyn Rackley and I am a student in the Fulbright College of Arts and sciences. My majors are International and Global Studies and Asian Studies. I studied abroad in Hiroshima, Japan. I have been studying Japanese for 5 years and am attempting to graduate with a minor in Japanese as well as passing at least level N3 on the JLPT before then. This made where I would study an easy choice. I chose to apply for the Hiroshima program because I thought that it would be an interesting place to study due to its history. I was there for just under a year, from September of 2023 to August of 2024.
As a student in the study abroad program, I had to take 10 hours of classes each week in order to keep my visa. This is far fewer than normal students would take. I decided to take classes that I thought would be interesting, such as language courses and tourism studies, and used the rest of my time to travel as much as I could and learn as much as possible about the Japanese culture. This allowed me to interact with many people and even helped me decide what I want to research for my honors project. One of my favorite moments from my trip was when I was able to go into the city for the first time on my own and hold a conversation in Japanese with someone that I was meeting for the first time. This was when I realized how much my language skills had improved while I was there, and it also gave me a new friend that I did not meet on campus.
One of the trips that I took was to the very large and popular tourist city, Osaka. I had a friend from high school who was studying in Nagoya at the same time, so we decided to meet up for a weekend. The first day, we walked around the city and were able to talk to locals and try new foods that were not as popular in the areas that we were studying. We had begun studying Japanese together in our Junior year of high school, and it was a great experience to see how much we both had grown. On the second day, we had planned a photo shoot with a company that allowed its customers to dress in traditional kimono. It was a very unique experience, and one that put me very far outside of my comfort zone. Had I not had my friend there, I am not sure if I would have had the courage to do that, but it has become one of my favorite memories.
Another day, close to the beginning of my program, my friends and I decided to go to lunch at a nearby café after classes. We did not think to check the weather and started walking the 20 minutes to our destination. About 5 minutes in, despite being very sunny when we left, it began to pour rain. None of us had umbrellas at the time, so we just decided to keep walking. We were all drenched by the time we made it to the café. The owner saw us standing outside attempting to dry off and brought us each a towel. Although it was a very small interaction, it left a very big impression on me and made me feel much more comfortable in such a new location.