Goodbye Japan!

Hello and one final time welcome back to another update about life in Japan! This marks the end of my six month semester abroad, filled with many fantastic experiences, places and most importantly people. I want to use this post to share some of the highlights from my travels this last month.

Exploring the world’s largest aquarium

The Osaka Aquarium KAIYUKAN is (by certain metrics) the largest aquarium in the world and located in the other mega city of Japan besides Tokyo: Osaka. This giant multi-story building provides a breathtaking dive (literally, read on) through the aquatic life of the world’s oceans. With the entrance at the top, the aquarium’s spiral structure goes around multiple large water tanks filled with pengiuns, seals, manta rays and other wonderful creatures, giving you multiple different views at the animals, from the shores above all the way down to the sea floor.

There are even some spooky jellyfish and (arachnophobes be brave) giant spider crabs, which promise to be friendly, but can you really trust those big claws? I think not! Anyways, if you’ve got the cash and luggage space to spare, you can even pick up a life size plushie replica of Yuki, the aquariums famously round seal princess (wow!).

It’s a me, a Mario!

Ahaha, finally! This was my personal highlight of the entire trip: Super Nintendo World. Ever since this Mario-themed area in the Universal Studios Japan park opened in 2021 (unlucky timing, huh?), I have been waiting for an opportunity to final go see it myself. And I can happily say, it is every bit as amazing as I had hoped it would be. If you can, look up some videos of it online, because seeing a still picture really doesn’t do the engineers and designer’s work justice. Every coin, goomba or piranha plant in this world is moving and (seemingly) alive.

For the kid in me who grew up playing the 3D Super Mario games (any love for Sunshine out here?), it felt like that dream of entering my favorite videogame world finally became a reality. And while the price tag for the minigame arm bands was a bit high, I happily conquered all the challenges and even a boss fight against a sleepy giant piranha plant. After completing all the challenges, a final area unlocks, which I won’t spoil here . Other fun activities include a Mario kart themed roller coaster, photo ops with the plumbers themselves, or desert at the cutely themed Toad cafe.

One cool idea I really liked were secret stickers hidden around the area, which were tricky to spot and could be activated using an NFC chip in the wrist band and rewarded you with limited collectibles. So keep your eyes peeled!

Temples and deer: welcome to Nara!

Nara is a city close to Kyoto that features many beautiful temples and parks, but what has arguably made the city so famous around the world is the population of these parks. Apparently through natural ways, a large population of deer have settled near the temples of Nara, leading to tourists flocking to see and of course feed them, leading to even more deer coming there.

While this is cute and they are very friendly, it does actually bring some difficulties. The deer are actually overfed due to all the snacks from tourists and there is not enough natural food like grass to sustain the population, meaning ironically that the less social deer tend to be malnurished. And with lots of eating deer unfortunately also comes a lot of deer poop, so watch your feet!

Big famous castle

Japan’s arguably most famous castle is the one in Himeji in the prefecture Hyōgo, which has even recently received its own LEGO rendition. Featuring the country’s signature architectural style, this colossus is truly impressive, both in its visual design and its’ clever engineering. Being held up by an intricate structure of wooden beams, it’s amazing that this fortress has stood the test of time so well (looking at you, Kumamoto). Luckily its not as narrow and crowded as other castles, and the surrounding gardens are a beautiful addition as well.

Kayaking through the jungle of Iriomote

The final story I want to share with you is our kayaking adventure through one of Japan’s most southern points: Iriomote. After our tour guides picked us up at the port, we drove to the river in the jungle and hopped into our kayaks. It was the first time for me riding in a kayak alone, so keeping it from running aground proved tricky at first (why did they make the rivers so narrow?). But after getting the hang of it, we were going so fast the poor guide could barely keep up (sorry about that).

Anyways, after a short ride and a small hike through the forest, we arrived at the small waterfall you can see in the photo. Unfortunately, it’s not as secluded and idyllic as it used to be (we’re part of the problem, I guess), but it was still a breathtaking reward for the quite exhausting boat ride. And the guides cooked us some noodle soup while we swam in the small lake at the foot of the waterfall, it was great!

Now, I am not the greatest swimmer unfortunately, and I am definetely not a fan of deep water. So snorkeling in the open ocean in the afternoon sounded like a really bad idea to me. But I can now happily say that I have overcome that personal fear of mine ( achievement unlocked), and what I got as a reward was truly magical: drifting through the coral reefs around the island feels like floating over an alien landscape, with all sorts of fish and even sea turtles swimming about.

Closing remarks

And with that, my time in Japan comes to an end. While it definetely wasn’t all travelling and drinking as these posts might make it out to be, it was still an enriching and wonderful experience that will no doubt have a lasting impact on me. So if you’re a student reading this, and you have the time and funds to do it, think about doing a foreign exchange program, I promise you won’t regret it!