７年ぶりの思い出す

Today will be my 7th anniversary of being an AFS student in Japan. Looking back to the past, I didn't know at that time that I'd be going back to Japan again or study Japanese, not to mention ending up working for a Japanese company.

People asked me why I chose to study Japanese or even work for Japanese company where the pay is lower despite the longer working hour than American company. I don't know the answer. It's just the feeling that I like their culture, mindset and attitude. Maybe it's like why people like their other half for no reason. 

Anyway, I wasn't crazy of Japan 7 years ago. I didn't initiate learning Japanese.  But I enjoyed the exchange program very much despite my host family and classmates didn't speak English at all and I couldn't speak Japanese. 

Me in my high school uniform filling the form after the interview to go to Japan 7 years ago. The pink book we were holding is my first Japanese textbook. If I had continued Japanese since then, I'd have been super fluent by now. Very regretted that I stopped learning Japanese after the exchange. 

Before taking bullet train from Tokyo to Osaka where my host family lived. 

With my classmates at Korigaoka Senior High School in Osaka (the table on the left is mine with the cute lunch box in the drawer, which my host mum prepared every morning)

After 7 years, I'm still proud to be an AFS student as my life was totally changed 'cos of it. If I weren't an exchange student at that time, I might not want to study abroad.