Thankful for IES Tokyo

A big goal in life of mine was to visit Japan and I'm so proud I can say I accomplished that by the age 20. I've been interested in Japanese culture since I was five years old. One day in the summer of 2017 I was watching random videos on Youtube and I found IES Abroad Tokyo's youtube channel and that one video made me immediatly apply to the program. I did more research online and each time this program sounded more amazing after each article.

The flight to Japan was nerve-racking and I was honestly scared, but as soon as we landed at the airport and met the IES staff, other students, and E-Pals (our online Japanese student pen pal) I immediately felt at home. Everyone was so welcoming and easy to talk too. We studied at Kanda University of International Studies which its students primarily focus on different languages, but English is a requirement to enter. So it was extremely easy to make new friends and be an active member on campus by joining clubs. The Japanese course that was mandatory for us to take actually helped so much I was able to utilize the language in less than two weeks of starting classes. IES Abroad took us on various cultural excursions we flew to the island Okinawa for 4 days and got to participate in activities that a normal tourist would not be able to do. We even met up with students at Meio University for a couple of hours and we all bonded and added each other on social media. We visited Kamakura which is known for it's temples and shrines, and we got to go to various locations in Tokyo! I'll forever be thankful for this program, because I know If I didn't participate in this program I would've not been able to do any of this.