My journey in Japanese started when I was in elementary school and attended Japanese language school as extra-curricular study. At the time, I was not quite as passionate about Japanese and Japan studies, but I did enjoy the arts and crafts and learning to read Japanese at the Japanese language school. I also enjoyed participating in the karaoke competition, and playing games after the Japanese language classes were over. After graduating from elementary school, I transferred to a private high school starting from sixth grade. Sixth grade students were not allowed to study a language, but seventh graders and older students were allowed to study a foreign language. By this time, I had decided that I wanted to continue my studies in Japanese, so I opted to take the Japanese language class offered at my high school. I took Japanese for six years at my high school, and was able to get to the highest level Advanced Placement Japanese course offered at the school. I also decided to continue my Japanese language studies at the college level, graduating with a bachelor's degree in Japanese. My first experiences with Japanese culture and Japanese things started with weekend sleepovers at my grandmother's house. She was a second-generation (nisei) Japanese-American, and she had a great interest and passion for Japan. My earliest memories of being at her house included playing with her go set with my siblings (even though we didn't properly know how to play the game), watching Japanese television shows (including historical dramas) with my grandma, and learning from my grandma about Japan and its culture. In addition, I was fortunate that we could travel to Japan with my family growing up, so I was exposed to many different areas in Japan, and could experience Japan. The experiences that stand out most to me where I could experience Japanese culture are during my two exchange student experiences in Japan. The first experience was in Okinawa during my sophomore year (10th grade) of high school. This program was for two weeks, and it opened my eyes to more experiences in Japan I was able to have. Living with a Japanese family allowed me to see what Japanese daily life is like, and I was able to create a deep relationship with my host family that continues until today. The second exchange student experience I had was during my sophomore year of college, where I studied abroad in the city of Kobe for a school year (September to May). While this experience was a little rocky in the beginning with homesickness and poor school performance, I was able to experience Kobe and create a good relationship with my host family. I was also able to experience more of Japan on my own in Kobe when I was not busy with schoolwork. During these experiences, the important things to me were developing good relationships with my host families, and developing my own sense of independence by exploring Japan on my own terms, living in Japan and experiencing daily life.
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