#15: Journey's End: What a Great Trip!

Welp, it's July 18th and in just a few hours I'll be back at the Nagoya airport my trip started at. I'll be sleeping in a hotel inside the airport tonight so in the morning me and my fellow UK students can catch our early flight home. Almost six weeks ago I arrived in Japan and everything was new and the adventure unwritten and full of possibilities. Now the adventure's been had and done and written, and I have six week's worth of memories for a lifetime. I'm so thankful for this trip and that I got to go on it. I didn't know what to expect, but it was better than I could've imagined and I savored every day here in Japan. I'm super excited to return home, but I certainly haven't been "suffering" here in any way! 

My favorite parts of my trip and time in Japan:
  • Riding trains. Before this trip I'd been on a real, public-transit passenger train only one time in my life and I was only seven or eight years old, and on a subway system one time in D.C in 2017. Here in Japan I got to ride subways, Shinkansen bullet trains, and regular trains almost every day for six weeks, and I loved it. Much more fun to step on the subway to get across the Nagoya than to drive through Lexington during rush hour.
  • Tokyo. The sights, sounds, smells, buildings, crowds, cars, monorail, and everything of Tokyo was extremely cool, and I'm very glad I got to spend three nights there. I spent more time in Tokyo than anywhere else outside Nagoya, and all had some of the biggest trip highlights for me. If I get a chance to come back to Japan in the future, I'd definitely want to return to Tokyo for at least a night or two.
  • The NUSIP bus trips. We piled onto a bus five times: to go to Kyoto and Nara for a night, to visit the Yokohama tire plant, to see the Toyota Commemorative Museum, to spend two nights in Tokyo, and to see the DENSO automotive plant. Every day that involved getting on a bus for a "factory visit" as the itinerary called all these trips, was a very good day, and the time on the bus itself was also quite fun. I enjoyed listening to several podcasts and audiobooks while seeing the Japanese mountains and coastlands out the window, and talking and getting to know and make friends with some really nice and interesting fellow students in the program. 
  • Going to Legoland Japan and buying a 5000+ piece Lego set as a "souvenir".
  • Going to the Nagoya Dome for a Nippon Professional League baseball game.
  • Traveling and exploring with friends in Kyoto, Tokyo, and Nagoya, going to a cat cafe, the Nagoya Aquarium, various restaurants, fun arcades, a Japanese army surplus store, and all sorts of places. Trips and city-exploring is a lot of fun, but what's most special is sharing those adventures with friends. Each time I went somewhere with other NUSIP students, I was greatly rewarded and had more special friendships than before. 
I'm so thankful for so many things about this study abroad trip and so excited to come home after having such a great experience to remember for many years. Looking forward to stepping on that plane in less than 24 hours! The countdown to Kentucky begins! Looking forward to see all of yall again who have been reading this blog! 

-Sam Hahn, World Traveler :)
Japan, Summer 2024


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