A New Island

Hello!

I'm getting on a flight to Canada in two days.  But that's not where I'm actually going.  Canada is just a stopping point on my way from Denver to Kyoto, Japan to study abroad again!

For those of you who don't know (or forgot), I spent the fall of 2014 studying abroad in Zanzibar, an archipelago off the coast of Tanzania in East Africa.  I had some completely unforgettable experiences in Zanzibar and while I'm itching to go back, I'm excited to see what trouble I can get into in Japan!  Also, this time around, I don't have to explain where Japan is or anything about it really since people know where Japan is and have actually been there to make travel documentaries (so I've seen quite a bit of the country without actually being there).  And when I say I'll be living in Japan for the next four months, people tell me they want to come visit me, which never happened when I said I was going to live in Zanzibar for four months.

With Japan being one of the world's largest economies and one of the oldest cultures that still persists today, many Westerners know quite a bit about the country and its culture and especially its food.  Luckily I love fish, ramen, and rice so I think I'll be just dandy with my food options.

Where are you going?

I will be based out of Kyoto, Japan for the next four months.  Kyoto is an ancient capital of Japan with 17 World Heritage Sites all easily accessible by walking or train.  It is in the south of Japan, so a bit warmer than Tokyo, although I do plan on at least one day skiing in the north, the mountains are supposed to be incredible!  And there's SCUBA diving in the south, so I think I'll be okay!

Why are you going?

I will be taking classes to help complete my Masters in Business Administration (MBA) at Doshisha Business School.  My university, the University of Denver, has a huge international presence and is one of the top universities for study abroad in the United States, but that's for undergraduates (I did take advantage of this as an undergrad and that's how I ended up in Zanzibar).  But DU has been trying to expand graduate study abroad options to reinforce how global of a school it is, and I was lucky enough to be chosen as an exchange student and represent my school!



Any plans?

I'm definitely not a city person, so the hustle and bustle of Tokyo kind of freaks me out and I'm pretty nervous to have to navigate that city in my first hour in Japan, trying to get from the airport I fly into to the airport I fly out of.  But it's definitely a cultural experience and I'll get to make mistakes, get lost, try some different food, and have a great time!  While diving and skiing are definitely on my list, I would love to use Kyoto as a base to do some traveling around East and Southeast Asia to explore.  I've never been to Asia, and I have friends in many places close to Japan, so I would love to do a little backpacking.  One of the great things about the University of Denver is since so many students study abroad, I can just message a friend who studied abroad in Vietnam or Thailand or Hong Kong or South Korea and ask what to do, where to stay, what to eat, and more.



What are you most excited about? 

In Zanzibar, I was a racial minority in a country where the major religion is not the major religion in the United States, and the language was very different (with it being questionable in some areas if anyone spoke any English).  I will be doing the same thing in Japan.  The major religions are Shinto and Buddhism, and many festivals occur during the year to celebrate holidays in these religions (so excited!), obviously the major language isn't English, and I will one again be that mzungu and be tall and white in a crowd of a very homogeneous racial population.  

Do you actually know what you're doing?

Haha, no clue.



Follow my photos on Instagram at @nesbittphotography

Arigato!
Kim