Hi everybody!
WE MADE IT. WE ARE ACTUALLY IN JAPAN!!! (That deserves three exclamation points because it has been quite the journey.) A 45 minute drive to Syracuse, an hour flight to Detroit, a 13 hour flight to Tokyo (where the lovely little child next to me spilt his entire cup of apple juice on my yoga pants to begin the trip), but it’s okay, I wasn’t mad because he was pretty adorable and slept almost the whole flight (lucky him), an hour trip on the train into the city of Tokyo, a night’s rest, and a 3 hour train ride to Osaka early this morning before we FINALLY made it. But let me tell you- it was totally worth it.
If you are reading this blog, you probably would like a little bit of a background about me first (and why I’m missing finals week!) so here you go:
My name is Marissa Sarbak and I’m a senior studying Communication and Social Interaction at SUNY Oswego. I LOVE to travel and experience different cultures and meet people from all over! I’m studying in school to be a reporter, and would love to work for the Travel Channel at some point in the future. I’ve been really fortunate enough to do some traveling in my life already, and I’ve been to parts of Europe, but this is my first time ever to Asia!
I’m currently taking the COM 422/Intercultural Communication COIL class this semester, (which stands for Collaborative Online International Learning). We teamed up with students at Kansai University in Osaka, Japan, to work on a project focused on global issues, and were consequently invited to present our work and our experiences with the COIL program at an International Symposium at the University in Japan! After a long process of trying to get everything figured out, myself, my friend Ally (also in the class), our professor Amy, and all of our mom’s (who wanted to join us for the experience!) made it.
Like I said, we landed in Tokyo last night, and by the time we actually got into the city and got settled in the hotel, everyone was ready to pass out. Amy and myself were really hungry so we headed out to the streets to see if we could grab something quick to eat. After walking around aimlessly and unsuccessfully for about 30 minutes, we finally came to the realization that takeout food doesn’t seem to be a thing in Japan. So we actually went to the corner store and bought cups of noodles in a package. Yes, the first food I had in Japan was actually the same $1 packaged noodles we get in U.S. grocery stores. Not exactly authentic Japanese cuisine… (I am not proud of this choice, trust me) but we were just so hungry!
We didn’t really get to see Tokyo at all yet because we had to catch an early train this morning to Osaka, but we will be going back there for the end portion of our trip so I’m not worried. I’m still a little jetlagged but I’m about to head out for dinner (real Japanese food this time I promise), so I’ll post a blog about today’s adventures when I get back. As we say in the broadcasting world, stay tuned!
Love that you’re doing this! Have a great time and take lots of pictures!
Thank you so much Joy! I will!