A Journey’s End

By: Joe Porter, Douglas College, winner of the Fall 2023 Stories from Abroad: British Columbia Study Abroad Scholarship.

It’s refreshing but a little startling having to speak English again. I already made the mistake of saying ‘No Thank You’ in Japanese to my, very Canadian, flight attendant on the trip home. Didn’t even make it an hour. Although my brain quite quickly recovered from the language switch up, Google Ads is still convinced I live in Japan. I think they are trying to take me back there.

A lot of the things I miss most about Japan are small, lifestyle things. I used to walk a lot in Japan. If I was ever bored, I would grab a podcast or some music and walk for an hour downtown and explore. It was a straight shot from my dorm to the shopping district and it was as flat as a pancake. Back here I live on a large hill which makes walking considerably less relaxing. I miss the close-by libraries, restaurants, and club rooms; and I miss the quiet sometimes as well. But many of my favorite things from Japan I have brought back with me and have changed me for the better.

My Japanese studies have been put on the backburner for a while but I can still pick out sentences and words from advertisements and TV Shows I hear in the background around my home. I feel much more confident cooking for myself after so long living abroad and I have many experiences and cultural lessons to pull from in conversation and learning. My favorite takeaway from the whole experience though is my appreciation for my home. They say you don’t miss it till it’s gone, and coming back now I have so much more appreciation for the nature and landscape of my area. The trees seem greener, the mountains taller and I enjoy exploring here much more than I did before I left. This is what I am most thankful for.

Overall, I look back very fondly on my time in Japan and hope to return some day.

Thanks for reading,

Joe