Changing Impressions

When I first came to Japan, I didn't know what to expect. Well, I mean, I had some idea, but nothing can really prepare you for the real Japan. It has to be experienced to be understood. There's simply no other way. I crammed in a lot of traveling during this semester, which I was thankful to be able to do.


I suppose one way my perspective has changed is that my "romanticized" version is Japan is gone, as it should be. Everyone has it at some point, your own version of what you think Japan is before you get there. Most of the time, it's a positive perspective, perhaps overly so.

I think it's a bad to hold onto such an view, instead one should gain a more realistic perspective through experience. Firsthand experience, I believe, is the best way to study anthropology and the world itself. Japan is a country like any other, with its problems and successes. It's also unique in it's own way, with wonderful things to be experienced that can't be experienced anywhere else in the world. In this way, my perspective has been changed for the better, and I'm on my way to understanding and appreciating Japan even more so than I did before.



Ok, well, admittedly, there's some things about Japan that I will never understand. But that's okay, I am amused all the same.