[Trigger warning: this blog contains potentially sensitive content regarding violence and civil unrest. Please read at your discretion.]
Reflect on your successes and failures with the Japanese language. How has this influenced your interactions with Japanese citizens?
Today was a bit of a struggle for me. We visited Shiga University's Otsu campus, home to 250 students studying education. We had the opportunity to hear a lecture on Japanese education from Dr Ohno, a professor at the institution. For most of the presentation, I struggled at understanding him and I went through a constant internal conflict of feeling as though I should be accommodated given that English is my first language. However, I quickly changed my thought process and looked at the situation from Dr. Ohno's point of view. He apologized several times for his English not being that great, and I know he probably felt extremely nervous that we would think less of him because of it. It can be easy for us to overlook others' feelings because we are so blinded by our own that we end up not realizing how insensitive we truly are. I feel that this level of consciousness is one of many benefits to intentional global learning, and I am appreciative for the lesson.
The highlight of my day had to be our lunch with some of the students at Shiga. It was so cool to be able to interact with one another and learn of the similarities and differences of our cultures. Topics that were discussed at lunch included one of the Shiga students comparing one of my classmates to James Harden because of his beard, students asking us what our thoughts were about our president, and one student who had been to America as an exchange student in Michigan and said she loved American food (particularly hamburgers). I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the students better.
This evening, a small group of us took a short walk to Kyoto Station, a subway stop with an underground mall. On our way there, we came across a group of people standing in a line across from the station with signs chanting. I immediately tensed up and couldn't shake the feeling until I returned back to the ryokan. Given the political climate of America and other parts of the world as of late, you have to be careful not to find yourself in the middle of a potentially dangerous situation. Granted, I am not sure if the gathering we witnessed was hostile in nature, but my being unable to understand what was going on added to my anxiety. I had just had a dream last night that I was in a place where I couldn't understand anyone and was caught in the middle of a violent exchange. I tried running to a friend's house to hide, but it turned out that the friend was the one responsible for the chaos and I ended up being shot as a result. It felt so real that I woke up scared and what I experienced this evening took me back to that moment. It is very scary not knowing what is going on around you because you don't speak the language or understand the culture 100%. It's only been our second full day here and already I can feel a sense of homesickness creep in as I find how increasingly difficult it is to survive in a place that is so drastically different than what you are accustomed to. Don't get me wrong, I am genuinely enjoying myself and have had wonderful experiences so far. However, I would be remiss if I didn't express the other side of the coin as well.
As always, three things I've learned today (which are all related to one another):
1. Enryaku-ji Temple is said to be the birthplace of Japanese Buddhism, founded in 788 AD atop Mount Hiei.
2. Mount Hiei takes approximately 2 1/2-3 hours to climb.
3. At the temple, there is a bell visitors can ring that is believed to rid the 108 evils of the world. You can see me taking a go at it in this video.
4. (Bonus because I find this fact especially interesting): the first Religious Summit Meeting on Mount Hiei was held in August 1987. There, leaders from Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism, and Confucianism came together to set aside national and sectarian differences to pray together for peace.
I hope this prayer comes true and that my dream remains just that.
