Moving to a new city is an adjustment for everyone, especially if you’re doing it for the first time. In this article, Miranda, a third year CRPS undergraduate student studying shares her experience of adjusting to her new life in Japan and how she uses that time to discover her newfound hobby; photography. From what was supposed to be a distracting photo hunt, grew a curiosity leading to one of her current favorite pastimes. Through this article, she wishes to share that keeping yourself occupied during the early adjustment period is important and it might lead to new exciting discoveries as you start your life in a new place.
Hi, and welcome to the Ritsumeikan University International Student Ambassador (ISA) blog!
Here, the members of ISA share our thoughts and daily lives as international students in Japan, especially for those of you looking to join us here at Ritsumeikan sometime soon. My name is Miranda, currently in my third year in the Community and Regional Policy Studies (CRPS) program at Ritsumeikan University, based in the Osaka Ibaraki Campus.
Although it has been almost three years since I moved from Indonesia, my home country, to Japan, I still remember how strange it felt. This post is a small story on how I overcame that adjustment period by pursuing photography as a new hobby; something that I keenly work on until today. I hope that by sharing this story, I can share how I overcame my initial homesickness and how I adjusted to my new normal of living in Japan, which perhaps can be useful for you as well.
I hardly have any (good) pictures of me when I am taking pictures, but I did find these! This is me with the camera that I am currently using to capture my life in Japan, a FUJI XT-2 with 35mm f2 lens.
To put things into perspective, these are the reasons why moving to Osaka was something daunting. Moving to Osaka was the first time that I:
Even though my parents were with me for the first week of my time in Japan, I had only realized how different things were going to be after I had taken my parents off to Kansai Airport for them to catch their flight home. After we said our goodbyes, the realization just came to me:
On my first Saturday of living independently, I remembered getting so confused because I had nothing else to do. I spent the morning doing chores, noon going to the supermarket on a grocery trip, and ate lunch. I made sure everything was set for university orientation next week, and that was it. Soon after, I just stared at my new apartment’s ceiling, wondering what else to do to fill up all this free time.
I grew up with having what I refer to as ‘busy Saturdays’, where my weekends were filled with piano classes and painting classes. Sometimes in those classes, I painted my work based on other people’s photographs, so photography was not very strange for me. Aside from the hours I spent in my classes and with my family, there’s always homework and other things to do after lessons so my Saturdays are hardly ever empty. When I decided to move to Japan, I knew that I had to move on from these routines and fill up my time with anything else. However, on that first Saturday, I could not help but only think: What else is there to do? I realized that the effect of having grown up ‘busy’ with activities throughout my days had gotten me used to always have things to work on and how much I missed it. It was an unsettling feeling, but I know that calling home would have not solved it.
So, I picked up my camera and went to Dotonbori, which at that time, is the only photo hunt spot in Osaka for me. I just moved to Osaka; I knew nothing else. I tried to distract myself from my homesickness by taking pictures of the glowing lights, the funny and oddly entertaining signs. I thought to myself, “Japan sure knows how to attract potential customers to their advertisements and billboards” whilst I continued taking pictures. Soon after, because I was focused on capturing photos, I forgot about my homesickness and just enjoyed capturing everything before my eyes. What I did not realize was that the impromptu Dotonbori photo hunting trip is a start to a new hobby for me, a new way for me to pursue the arts and share my stories.
The first two pictures I took of Dotonbori, Osaka; the pictures that started it all. This was taken using my old camera, a FUJI XA-2 with 16-55mm lens.
When I started pursuing photography more seriously, my skills were limited to setting my camera on auto and letting it do its work; all I had to do was to point and shoot. At first, I was satisfied with my early work because it checked all the boxes: I can capture moments from my new life in Japan, I am kept busy and occupied so I don’t get homesick easily, and I am still productive doing activities that I like. Eventually, I learned there is more to the art of photography. There are a lot of things that you need to consider in getting a good shot, which includes:
I grew more and more curious to learn. I realized the plethora of things I have yet to learn about photography, so I decided to take a step forward and explored further.
I decided to save up to upgrade my camera. This camera does not have its own ‘automatic mode’ button, different than the camera I brought to Japan initially. I felt like I needed the upgrade to force myself to learn and to escape the comfort of letting the camera do all the work.
My first photo hunt using my current camera, the FUJI XT-2 with 35mm f2 lens. This was taken around the Osaka Station area in Umeda
People, places, and moments that I am grateful enough to capture.
Clockwise from top: Snow shower in Takayama; The riverside of Kitahama, Osaka; A Ceremonial Traditional Robe in Ehime; Kyoto seen from above on Daimonji.
With more places and experiences that I captured with my camera at hand, photography taught and gave me a lot of things aside the basic skills required to take pictures. I met many new people who are also learning or who are passionate about photography. Photography also imposes me to constantly learn to feed my endless curiosity, a habit that I can also apply in my daily life as well. I learned not only the skills needed to capture good moments, but also to have an endless curiosity and desire to learn more; two things that I can also apply outside the world of photography. Most importantly, it taught me a lot about patience, focus, perseverance, and being ‘present’ in the moment. And I am grateful that I get to learn all these things while pursuing something that I love as well.
My photography hobby started as a distraction from my initial homesickness, but it turned into something I get to learn so much from. I hope that you know now that distracting yourself with new hobbies is important during those first lonely days as an independent international student. It is okay if you find yourself in an odd situation as you adjust to your new life in Japan; just know that it will pass eventually. During this time, try something that makes you happy, curious, and excited; as what my impromptu Dotonbori photo hunt did for me. From these distractions, you might find yourself exploring new places, embracing a new community, working on a new set of skills, and learning more about yourself as well. I hope that once you find that hobby that you want to pursue; like how I found a newfound deeper interest in photography, you realize that your new life in Japan might not be the loneliest and the strangest thing after all; it might be a new opportunity for you to explore new interesting things as well.
The blog above is an opinion and thought provided by an individual student.