Every morning, I wake up from the sun shining into my room and when opening the window, the fact that it’s still above 20 degrees outside on many days still surprises me every day. Japan has convinced me that Autumn doesn’t have to be 10 degrees, rain and brisking for the approaching winter depression. I’m now more than halfway through my Exchange semester in Japan and the thought of having to leave this place behind in two and a half years is saddening. Yet, this is the life you chose when you move around a lot. ‘It’s the nomad life’ a friend once said to me, and she couldn’t be more right. However, my exchange philosophy is to not think of endings since this is all about new beginnings, after all. 

Twice a year, Japan’s beauty unfolds in very special ways: The cherry blossoms in Spring, and the Autumn leaves in Autumn. Tokyo prides itself with its wide range of beautiful parks which light up in red and orange colours when November comes. To get an even better view of that amazing scenery, I’ve been escaping the city for the last few weekends to hike up the various mountains surrounding Tokyo. As much as I love the city, it does give you the feeling of being in a concrete jungle sometimes. Unsurprisingly, the site of the first mountains appearing on the horizon when I ride the train to the outskirts of Tokyo gives me goosebumps sometimes. Hiking is also a great way to get more in touch with the rural lifestyle in Japan. Even though very few people speak english, I’ve made the experience that people are a lot friendlier and a lot more open. Japanese people really love their time in the nature, you’ll see them having picnics on the mountains, cooking Ramen on a gas cookers. In Japanese culture, mountains are holy and thus very sacred, and for that reason, there’s always a lot of temples and shrines on the mountains which I find makes the hike an even more peaceful experience. The best part of getting to the peak, is that on a clear day, one can usually get a close up view of Mount Fuji, the tallest Mountain/Volcano in Japan. 

Not only is Autumn a perfect time to hike, but also to get a good dose of Japanese culture through all the festivals that take place in the city. That’s also one of the things I love most about Tokyo: The various amounts of Food and Culture festivals the city has to offer. It’s common here to gather with friends or family at a cultural festival, eat loads of different dishes and drink lots of Sake (Japanese Rice beer) and have a good time. Japan is often portrayed as a workaholic society (Which is also true), however, they do know how to unwind and enjoy themselves. You only have to walk through Tokyo’s partying district, Shibuya, on Saturday at 5 am and You’ll see a scenery that you’d never expect from Japan: Everyone turns loud and rowdy, people vomiting and sleeping on the streets. Partly to blame is probably the fact that Nomihoudai (All you can Drink offers) are so cheap.. The philosophy ‘Work hard play hard’ is definitely lived here. My favorite cultural event was a festival at the Meiji shrine (Meiji was an emperor of Japan) where I had the chance to witness Samurai Sword fighting, Horseback archery (It’s basically aiming with a bow and arrow at a target while riding a galloping horse) and taste delicious sake. The food festivals also always seize to amaze me. Japanese food culture is a lot about getting lots of different dishes and sharing them. The most common street food are Dangos (Rice cakes), Takoyaki (A snack made of batter and Oktopus fried in a pan) or Gyoza (fried dumplings). 

With December slowly approaching, university is becoming more time consuming. Even though it is still a lot more relaxed compared to home, having a semester system instead of blocks makes it tempting to pile up all your 4000 word papers until the last two weeks of the semester. No amount of red bull can probably make up for that lack of coordination.. In the golden autumn days it is just too easy to get carried away strolling through Tokyo’s parks and vintage shops. Yet, I am still enjoying my courses. Last week, our course on Postcolonialism in South East Asia went out for a drink. While getting to know our professor a bit better, we stumbled across the fact that he was one of the leading figures in the democratization protests in Thailand and was even present at the Thammasat University massacre which took place on the November 6th 1976 in Bangkok. It is often referred to as the Tiananmen of Thailand. Before the massacre, around five thousand students had demonstrated against the return of former military dictator Thanom Kittikachorn. According to figures provided by the government, 46 people got killed, 167 wounded and 3000 arrested. Among those who got arrested was also my teacher. He ended up going to prison for two years. During that time, he was a third year student in his undergraduate degree, just like me now. Would I have known about it earlier, I would have made him sign one of his papers.. His story made me think about all these students in Hong Kong who’ve now dedicated everything towards protesting for democracy and by doing that put themselves at a lot of risk. That I must give the University of Tokyo credit for - Some of the professors here have a super interesting background. I have this american professor who teaches a Political economy class on the Development In Southeast/ East Asia but has worked, researched and travelled all around Asia. Economics can be quite a dry topic, but whenever he lectures he’s always manages to connect the course content with an interesting story. 

They say, once the first half of your time is over, the second will just fly by like that. And since you’ve got to come back with some stories after exchange, I guess that is a good excuse to squeeze loads of trips in my upcoming schedule. It seems like those papers will be written on night busses ;) Anyways, I’ll be covering some of my travelling in the upcoming vlog. 

For now, さようなら (Goodbye)! 

Eva