Currently on exchange to Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, Japan, Chriss Goeb, a 3rd year Asian Studies major (Japanese), has agreed to share his experience as it unfolds. This is part one, of a three-part interview, chronicling his exchange abroad. The first interview will be conducted after his first week in Japan, the second, halfway through his exchange and the third, one week before he returns.
First Week
Tell us a little about yourself?
Hi, I’m Chriss (the second ’s’ is important), and I am currently a 3rd year Japanese major at UBC… well, I’m in Japan at the moment but you know what I mean. I was born and raised in Germany and came to UBC as an international student, so being in Japan as a UBC student now is pretty ryūgakusei-ception.
To be honest, I wasn’t even intending on majoring in Asian studies, I only took Japanese as an elective in my first year. As the semester went on, I found myself enjoying the Japanese classes more than anything else I was taking though and so I just went for it and declared my major to be Asian Studies. And well, now I am in Japan, so I guess it payed off.
Where are you going on exchange and why did you chose to go to there?
I am currently in Kyoto, Japan, going to Ritsumeikan University. Why I chose Kyoto is kind of a long story and has many reasons. Most of all, I found a big interest in Japanese history after taking classes on it at UBC, and if you know anything about Japanese history then you should understand why Kyoto was my first choice. Other reasons include that this is my very first time in Japan and I thought Kyoto would be a good choice as I can see Osaka and Kobe as well as Nara since they are all nearby. Have you ever googled Kyoto though? Because if you haven’t, just do it and this question should answer itself.
Photo taken by Chriss Goeb
What are you most excited about? What do you hope to achieve? Do you have any goals for your exchange (academic, social, professional)?
Oh, the list goes on forever! I’ve never been to Japan before so there are countless things I am excited about. Obviously the food but I’ll get into that later. The temples and shrines, the school clubs, the bullet train, the onsen, One Piece characters being printed even on Fanta bottles, seeing other cities and hopefully the rural areas too, the crazy TV-ads, the vending machines full of kinds of pop I’ve never even heard of before, the cherry blossom season, the karaoke, hopefully climbing Mount Fuji, and so on and so forth.
In terms of social goals, I just want to make as many friends among locals as possible because there is no better way to learn a city than have a local show you all the hidden gems. In fact, I am trying to speak as little English as possible in order to improve on my Japanese, so my biggest goal is to manage to live entirely in Japanese.
What are you most worried about?
Gaining too much weight. This is not even a joke. I was really scared about the culture shock and the challenge of living in Japan up until the plane landed in Kansai but these fears disappeared within the first day and were all replaced with lots and lots of delicious foods and convenience stores and vending machines. So my biggest fear is having to replace my entire wardrobe with clothes one or two sizes bigger.
Photo taken by Chriss Goeb
It is your first week abroad, how bad is the culture shock? Tell me at least 1 thing that has surprised you.
As I’ve just mentioned, I’ve been really scared of the challenges and the culture shock that I thought would accompany my time abroad. But really, these fears seemed really unreasonable to me after my first couple of days here. All Japanese people I have met so far have been incredibly welcoming and friendly and especially when I approach them in Japanese they are very helpful. I also realized very quickly how well my classes at UBC have prepared me for this experience as I’ve already learned a lot about cultural differences and after two years of language courses I’ve also been able to go out for dinner with newly-met Japanese people and talk the entire night in Japanese. Especially this last part has been more of a surprise than a shock because back at UBC, I was always very self-conscious about my conversation skills and kind of shy. But in an environment in which everyone speaks Japanese and people are already surprised to hear even the tiniest little bit of Japanese out of a foreigner’s mouth, that self-consciousness has been blown away in an instant.
I’d say the only thing that really surprised me is just how narrow the roads here are. It frequently happens to me that on a rainy day my umbrella gets stuck between a house wall and a street light because everything is so narrow. How they manage to drive here (mostly without even having one-way streets) is something that I’ll probably never understand.
What courses are you taking? Which one are you most excited for and why?
Classes haven’t started yet so I don’t know which classes I will make it into. As I am enrolled in the “Intensive Japanese Language” track though, half, if not more, of my classes will be language classes. The other classes will be very straight forward classes such as “Japanese Culture”, “Japanese Society” or “Japanese Economy”, so nothing too exciting to talk about. I am looking forward to it nonetheless!
I also signed up for a Shamisen class which would be held in the famous district of Gion. That class has very limited seats available, especially for international students, so wish me luck!
What is the best thing you have eaten so far? Pics or it didn’t happen
Up until yesterday this would’ve been a very long list of things but my landlord actually took me and a couple other tenants out for dinner last night and that one has to take the cake! We went to a yakiniku place, so one of those restaurants were you get the meat raw and have to cook it in a small grill in your table. It was definitely a more upscale place and hadn’t he invited me, I would have never been able to even afford going there. But he did and I will never forget it! We tried almost every kind of meat and vegetable on the menu and it was on a whole different level compared to yakiniku places I have been to in Vancouver or back in my home country, Germany. Another thing I really enjoyed about Japanese restaurants so far, no matter whether the more expensive, bigger ones or the tiny, cheap ramen shops like the one right outside my house, is the atmosphere. All places are really comfortable and have a fairly intimate feeling about them, not to mention the great Japanese service. So yeah, as I said before, my biggest fear is very justified….
Photo taken by Chriss Goeb
