Five months have passed since I returned from Japan. I still have not turned in any formal report or completed any speeches as part of my obligations for the Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship. There are many reasons for this, the main one being that I cannot sum up twelve months in twelve pages. Since coming home, many people have asked me about my experience in Japan. Most people do not allow more than a few minutes for the answer, and the standard "It was fun" just does not seem sufficient. Even given proper time, I am not sure that I could sum up such an amazing year. I will try.

	The year was not amazing because I was studying radical ideas or meeting important people. I spent most of my time just living life, as a Japanese person would live. This is not to say that I was not busy. I was. However, even a day in the park, an afternoon of shopping, or dinner with the family can turn into an "amazing" experience. Not everything was fun or easy or perfect, but everything was definitely new, different and interesting. For this reason, I feel that I could live another five years in Japan and never get bored with life. Some of my highlights:

	It started out in mid-August when I met Miho at the airport. Although my academic assignment was in Tokyo, I spent that first week in Kyoto. Kyoto was the capital of Japan back when temples, geisha, kimonos, and kabuki meant something. Now Kyoto is one of the most popular places for foreigners who want to explore traditional Japan. The beauty of the ancient shrines and stories that surround Kyoto never disappoints me or other tourists. However, at the same time, one cannot ignore the city of Kyoto. The bustling train station in the middle of the business center is just one stop on the bullet train called Japan.

	After recovering from jet lag, culture shock, and a broken heart, I took the cheap night bus to Tokyo to begin my real year abroad. Tokyo. One reason it is difficult to discuss Japan in any coherent manner is because foreigners and Japanese alike seem to believe that Tokyo is Japan. If Kyoto is a past reality, and Japan is reality, Tokyo is a hyper-reality. Not only is it the center of politics, culture, education, and business in Japan, but it is also the electronics and automobile capitol of the world. This extreme concentration of hyper-consumerism, wacky politics, crazier music, capsule hotels, etc, makes the Tokyo experience nothing less than hyper-real.

	I studied with over a hundred other foreign students in the International Division of Waseda University. I did not spend a lot of time with these students outside of class, but I did enjoy trading stories with them on occasion. The general consensus was that life in Tokyo was far from our norm. Most of us were accustomed to being poor college students. Most of us were accustomed to studying every night of the week. Students at Waseda do not enjoy the same lifestyle. Most people can tutor or teach English for $20-40 per hour. Studying is not necessary after entering Waseda, because a diploma from such a famous university is enough to get a job regardless of grades, theses, or practical experience. The International Division was a little different in the fact that students come to learn. I did attend a number of classes on Japanese management, architecture, culture, language, foreign policy, etc, as well as some broader courses about Asia in general.

	Looking back at my original essay (see attached) I see that I intended to study Japanese business. I did. The Japanese economy is the second-largest market in the world, so I wholly believe that more U.S. companies should be vying for their piece of the pool of yen. McDonald’s, Toys R Us, Mercedes Benz, Disney, Coca-Cola, Gap, and Hollywood are just a few of the outsiders that are more than successful in the Japanese market. These companies all have good products to offer, but they also understood the Japanese consumer. While geisha and kimonos may be dead, there are still certain things about "Japanese culture" that one needs to understand about the Japanese consumer.

	In commerce and trade the road goes both ways. Many people feel that we already have more than enough of Japan in the States. I would agree in most cases. We could use a few more Japanese fast food chains, perhaps some mini-disc players. However, I really do not think that many business policies need to be imported from Japan. During the eighties it was popular to try out ideas like Just-In-Time parts shipments, group-based factory policies, lifetime employment, and others. I believe that many of these Japanese "secrets" do not work so well on this side of the Pacific. For that matter, many things do not work in Japan. There are many people and many policies that only look like they are working, for in Japan it is more important to look good than to be good. I found lots of inefficiencies in the economy that make me wonder why the economy is successful at all.

	Luckily, there was more to my life than studying Japanese business. There was a life. At the center of that was my family. I spent the entire year living with a family that Waseda University found for me: the Koyama family. The Koyama’s live on the east side of Tokyo, the old town. My host father runs an iron works factory next to the house. He works alone and manufactures large bolts for bridges and power plants. This kind of small factory is typical of the old town (see above about inefficiencies in Japan). My host mother teaches Chinese cooking at a vocational school in the city. Her Japanese cooking is also pretty amazing. Some of my best memories of Japan involve sitting around the dinner table, watching TV, and chatting about life in general. Living in this quiet family atmosphere (in one of the loudest cities in the world) helped me achieve another of my goals: personal growth.

	Another goal, successfully performing the role as a Rotary ambassador, was a full-time job. Never a day passed when I did not contribute to someone’s understanding of the U.S. or the world in general. Despite the prevalence of foreigners, foreign movies, TV shows, etc, it is amazing how foreign many of these things remain. It was not difficult to surprise someone by explaining the differences between Beverly Hills 90210 and LeRoy, Illinois. I repeated many of my explanations to the point of boredom, but I was always amazed when someone thought everyone in Chicago carries a gun…

	Formally, I fulfilled my role as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar by attending meetings at the Tokyo Tanashi Keyaki Club at least once a month. Amazingly, Rotary is one thing that does not change so much around the world. My host club held their meetings during dinner instead of lunch, but otherwise everything was quite similar to the local Champaign Rotary Club. I heard a number of interesting talks ranging from alcohol abuse to talk about toilets. I spent some time with my host Rotarian, but due to the distance to Tanashi, I did not get more involved with Rotary in Tokyo. I would say, however, the final report that I presented in June was perhaps one of my best accomplishments ever. While I still had more than two months left in Japan, that speech stands out as the crowning achievement of the year.

	I was so proud of my final speech, because I was able to demonstrate not only how much I had learned about Japan, but also how much I had learned about Japanese, language. This was the fourth of my goals. In the end, this became the most important goal for me. I could not have accomplished my goals of international understand, business studies, or personal growth, without my knowledge of Japanese language. More and more, I realized what a powerful tool language study can be.

	When I visited Japan over four years ago, I did not know any Japanese language. Although I enjoyed my six-week stay, I vowed that I would learn Japanese and return to Japan some day. There was so much more that I accomplished this time, simply because I speak Japanese. This sounds like a very basic requirement for life in Japan, but it turns out that many foreigners fail to learn enough Japanese. Part of the problem is that Japanese people do not expect foreigners to speak Japanese; Japanese think that all white people speak English. However, if one understands Japanese language, then so many other doors open up. I spent a lot of time watching TV, listening to music, going to karaoke, debating with friends, and doing anything that would improve my Japanese. The language itself is an amazing reason to live in Japan. Every day I would learn new words and realize new things through language; I was amazed.