Blog Post 4: Intellectual Adventure

The most memorable trip I’ve ever taken was to Japan.  Much like Coates who fell in love with the language of France upon his arrival in the foreign land, I fell in love with the language of Japan.  The quickness of speech, the impeccable taste of food, the sounds of hurry, the congestion of the sidewalks, the flow of little roads, and everything in between shaped my understanding of the foreign culture.  Altogether, the combination of each memorable sensation spoke to me in its own language: the language of a people I was just beginning to understand.  Before developing such a loving veneration for a place I’ve always dreamed of visiting but, in reality, known little about, I started with an adventure.  Despite the basic knowledge I gained in my high school Japanese classes, such as grammatical norms and cultural taboos, I never fully understood the nuances of the people nor experienced the places that inspired the writing of textbooks.  My trip to japan, my adventure of listening to its language, began with my teacher losing a group of students, myself included, in a busy train station.

Although the foundation of this trip lay in the hands of my Japanese teacher and tour guide, I was able to experience and absorb the cultural influences of a new place outside of the classroom.  As somewhat expected though definitely unintentional, my teacher provided me with the defining experience of being lost in a foreign country.  Unlike Coates, who similarly experienced the panic of the unknown in the train station, I was accompanied by a group of friends, yet when my teacher disappeared into the crowd of people I was struck with a sense of terror.  In those moments of watching the train doors close behind my instructor, who was more like a forgetful aunt than a disciplinary teacher, my eyes undoubtedly grew wide as my heartrate swiftly climbed.  Each sentenced uttered in passing became nonsensical as my mind lost every ounce of translational skills it possessed.  However, after a moment, though more like a good five minutes, of sheer panic, I reevaluated the situation and felt exhilarated.  I, much like Coates during his reflective train ride, turned to see the entire situation as the challenge to be adaptive and felt very much alive.  From this point on, the trip became the stage upon which Japan would teach me the exhilaration of independence and learning out of the classroom.