Living Abroad

    I have been living in Japan for almost 6 years now. Many people think I must be totally used to living here but I still have lots of little adventures with the culture, language and of course, the food.
    When I first decided to move to Japan, I didn't really know very much about the country and I couldn't speak the language at all. I had heard that Japanese were very shy and didn't like to talk to foreigners. During my first month a couple of friends invited me to go to Chichibu, a town in the mountains of Saitama. My friends were also foreign and fairly new to Japan as well. They had a train map and told me that I should take the train to a place called Ogose where I would switch trains to come meet them in Higashi Hanno. It sounded like a good plan to me.
    Well, when I got to Ogose station I was surprised to see that there was no electronic ticket gate, just a man taking our tickets. I had never been this far out in the country. I was even more surprised when I looked at the train maps, they were all written in kanji, the Japanese alphabet, no romanji in sight. I called my friends about what to do. They told me to find the station master and ask him for help. But no one was around. The station was empty except for one old man who was asleep. Hmmm... what was I to do?
    I noticed a group of high school boys outside of the station. I thought, maybe I can ask them to help me? But I didn't really want to. In Canada, groups of high school boys aren't so friendly. I didn't know about Japan. But they were they only people around and I had to meet my friends.
    I went over and asked one boy if he could speak English, surprisingly, he said, "yes, a little." So I asked him about the train to Higashi Hanno. He said, "We will take you there on the next train, one hour later." I was so grateful to them, but I was surprised to learn that the train comes only once an hour. Well, the boys were very kind to me and took me to Higashi Hanno station. I was very new to Japan at the time and this experience gave me a good impression of Japanese students. Living abroad is full of these kinds of experiences, both good and bad, but no matter what, it is an unforgettable experience.