Why Japan?

Being an exchange student, regardless of which country is your host, forces you to live with a different family in a strange country and to adopt a new way of life. You're put through immense challenges and forced to grow as person regardless of exactly where you are.

So if I could receive benefits from being a student in any country, why am I so insistent on Japan?


Just as one simply knows that chocolate has a desirable taste, so have I felt that Japan (and most East Asian cultures/countries, really) is appealing. I haven't really had a reason for it, just the inherent knowledge that Japan is "cool".

A few years back, my mum remarked on the oddness of her children's interest in Asian culture when she, as a child, had a sort of aversion to the region. It wasn't until then that I realized that Japan wasn't universally recognized as awesome, that it was something that I felt.

And then, as I thought about it more, I came to realize how shallow that characterization of an entire region of the world, of an entire country and its people, is. Saying, "Japan is cool," shows a lack of understanding and appreciation of the complexities of Japan's culture (of any culture, really).

So, yes, I like Japan's flavor. But that's not really the answer to the question.

Reading other exchange students' blogs, I've seen that a lot of kids want to go to Japan because of their intense love of anime and manga, their wild fantasies of becoming J-pop idols, or something similarly related to the Japanese pop culture that we increasingly see in our Western lives.

Yes, I watch anime and read manga and enjoy it. My earliest ventures on Youtube consisted of me watching pieced-apart episodes of shows of which I'd never heard, following the recommended videos until I would eventually reach a dead-end (especially if that dead-end was Lucky Star, which bored me to death and beyond which I couldn't seem to find anything else). But I didn't become a real anime watcher until the past year or so, after I had already decided to go to Japan. My interest in Japan didn't spark from anime. Maybe they've grown alongside each other, but "Japan" has been something to me long before "anime" ever was.

But still, why Japan? I'm going to Japan to understand why I like it. I can study it all I want and still never truly know it until I've actually lived there and, at least for a short while, become a part of its culture.

Beyond that, though, I feel that Japan can provide an experience unlike anywhere else.

Japan's long history of isolation developed in it a culture entirely unique to any other in the world. Today, Japan still carries deep ties to its past and is rich in customs of beauty and discipline. Japanese traditions seem alien to us Westerners, and it is difficult to truly comprehend the reality of the society.

On the other hand, modern Japan has highly Westernized elements. It has become a world economic leader, and so many of our electronics and vehicles carry Japanese names that they no longer sound strange. Japanese citizens pull on their cotton t-shirts, tie their Nike shoes, and eat at McDonald's (MAKUDONARUDO, or MAKU for short) just like us in America.

This balance of totally strange and completely familiar is why. Japan having a culture that is arguably the farthest from what I've come to know while still being so similar is why. Coming to understand a society that is so alien to me will stretch me, force me to grow and to see our world with a bigger view while seeing what I already know will give something to which I can connect.

To me, Japan can provide that contradicting familiarity and complete foreignness to an extent that no other country can really match.

That, coupled with my already existing desire to understand it more, is why.

Introduction

Our globe is getting smaller as our communications expand. The world is becoming increasingly interconnected on all levels: information, technology, economy, agriculture...

But we're still so closed off. We, especially we Americans, aren't really coming to understand the people, the humans, behind the pictures and articles we encounter in our daily Internet adventures. We know intellectually that there are other people and ways out there, but can we really conceptualize them? Do we really know?

My name is Taylor Chelak. I am currently a senior at Riverton High School in Riverton, Utah. I have claimed an avid interest from a very young age in our world and its places, people, and cultures. Yet I still know nothing.

Until I actively seek to visit the places whose pictures leave me in awe and to become friends with the people whose culture I admire, I will remain ignorant. I can't truly appreciate our world until I step outside into it. Until I feel it, live it.

So that's exactly what I'm going to do.

This coming March, I will be leaving with AFS Intercultural Programs to live for a year in Japan. I will be staying with a host family there and attending Japanese high school, encountering all kinds of new and unimaginable experiences and emotions.

And what good would it do for anyone if I kept it all to myself? This blog will follow my adventures before, during, and after my exchange, sharing my experiences of being an exchange student and the emotions and thoughts connected to coming to understand another language and culture.

No doubt it will be entertaining, if nothing else.

The tuition for this program, though, is a very steep $14,000. To help me make it to Japan, you can contribute directly to my tuition through the "Sponser an AFSer" widget on the side. This is an online fundraising tool provided by AFS to allow potential sponsors to make easy, secure, and non tax-deductible contributions to my AFS program fee. Your contribution won't be used for entertainment, snacks, or souvenirs-- it only goes to making my experience possible.

I hope to get some other fundraising projects up and running, as well. In the meantime, any purchases of Blue Monarch soaps are also contributions to my program expenses. These are handmade soaps thoughtfully crafted (by my very own mother!) in small batches from beneficial, natural materials. They work wonders unlike any commercial soap can, leaving your skin soft and refreshed while coming in unique, interesting, adorable designs. It's also a gift idea ten times more thoughtful and appreciated than any Bath and Body Works or Yankee Candle will ever be. You can purchase some of this goodness online at bluemonarchsoap.com.

Any contribution, no matter how small, will be a tremendous help. And if nothing else, please just stick around, read, and share. I want to share my experience to benefit, in any small way, those beyond myself.

To sponsor my AFS program, please click the "Donate Now" button on the side to make a non tax-deductible contribution directly to my AFS program account.