Hi! In about a year I will be enrolling on an Erasmus program to finish university in Japan. It has always been a dream destination of mine, as well as a country that, if I loved visiting, would be an ideal for me to live in. I know the language and I love the food there, I think I could get accustomed to the people there quite easily as well given that I follow a very polite attitude.
Regarding those things, I’m not worried! However, I’m someone who misses home very easily. And my country is 16 hours away from Japan.
I have the opportunity to go there for either 1 semester or 2 semesters. The answer seemed obvious for me at first, 2 semesters would be amazing! It still sounds amazing to me, but the more rational part of myself thinks “would I end up missing hoke so much that it ruined my experience?”. That single thought has made me question if spending one semester there would be better, it would be around 4 months, but I’m also afraid of ending up regretting it and thinking “wow, I would have loved to stay here for longer!”.
Does anyone have advice regarding this? And does anyone have advice in general for someone who will be studying in Japan, I will be one hour away from the heart of Tokyo for context!
(There’s also the question of making friends, including Japanese ones)
Thank you!
4 comments
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**I need advice: student about to study abroad in Japan**
Hi! In about a year I will be enrolling on an Erasmus program to finish university in Japan. It has always been a dream destination of mine, as well as a country that, if I loved visiting, would be an ideal for me to live in. I know the language and I love the food there, I think I could get accustomed to the people there quite easily as well given that I follow a very polite attitude.
Regarding those things, I’m not worried! However, I’m someone who misses home very easily. And my country is 16 hours away from Japan.
I have the opportunity to go there for either 1 semester or 2 semesters. The answer seemed obvious for me at first, 2 semesters would be amazing! It still sounds amazing to me, but the more rational part of myself thinks “would I end up missing hoke so much that it ruined my experience?”. That single thought has made me question if spending one semester there would be better, it would be around 4 months, but I’m also afraid of ending up regretting it and thinking “wow, I would have loved to stay here for longer!”.
Does anyone have advice regarding this? And does anyone have advice in general for someone who will be studying in Japan, I will be one hour away from the heart of Tokyo for context!
(There’s also the question of making friends, including Japanese ones)
Thank you!
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I’ve made a few friends on ERASMUS when they were doing exchange in my university in the UK, and let me tell you, 4 months went by FAST and it simply did not feel like enough time.
You really need to think on it, what makes you miss home? The people? Online communication can help with that. Physical affection with family and friends? You’ll definitely lack that big time in Japan, even if you make some friends. It’s just not a very physical society as you may know already. It can and does get very isolating depending on your personality and language ability, but in a university environment you’ll have plenty of options for friends and support.
No one can decide for you and being in a foreign country is definitely hard, but given the context, it could be a great experience the longer it lasts.
Time goes by really fast, a semester is over in a blink.
It’s hard to say if you’ll be “too homesick,” but unless you have some actually mental health issues, being homesick normally means just being a bit sad and lonely, which is part of life!
The good thing is that as a foreign exchange student there’s normally lots of events, activities, etc for you to participate in. And there’s lots of traveling you can do on the weekends and during breaks. Unless you’re trying to be antisocial, you’ll likely have lots of interactions to fill your time.
Just getting settled in will take you 1 semester. Definitively go for 2!