My Japan Adventure!

I had such an amazing time in Japan. We met so many great people, saw some very cool places, and ate a ton of food! I honestly wasn't too sure of what to expect for this trip so everything was new and interesting. Starting with that typhoon...holy cow! I have never seen wind like that. I was a little bummed that so much of our first two days were spent inside because of the weather, but it was still something I can add to the list of things I've experienced.  I really wish we would have been able to go to the hot springs, because I had spent time mentally preparing myself for the experience! If I ever go back to Japan, that'll definitely be one of the first things I do, closely followed by going to the bamboo forest in Kyoto.


My favorite trip that we made was to Nara.  Hundreds of wild (but friendly) deer everywhere! I never thought I would be able to pet deer in my lifetime.  It was so cool.  The temple we visited (Tōdai-ji)was incredible.  The bronze Buddha statue was so large, ornate and beautiful.  There was a pillar that had a small hole at the bottom of it that is said to be the size of the Buddha's nostril, and if you could crawl all the way through, your next life will be enlightened.  I am very proud to say that made it through! It was a lot of fun except for the extremely large bruise on my leg I got from it!


There have been various posts on this blog about all the food they ate and how much they loved it.  I have to say that food was what I was most nervous about for our Japan trip.  I thought I was going to starve! I don't usually eat a lot of Asian foods unless I crave it, so being completely immersed in it was scary.  Before going to Japan I could barely use chopsticks, but now I'm pretty good at it!  I tried to be as open to the food as I possibly could by trying new things.  Much to my surprise, I liked a lot of it! Especially the Kobe beef! Oh my gosh it was delicious!


Pharmacy in Japan was so different, but then you could see similarities between Japan and the US as well.  The community pharmacy we visited was extremely different from what I'm used to seeing.  From how medications were dispensed to patients to how a pharmacist gets paid.  I thought it was crazy that a pharmacist in Japan only can get paid for filling 40 prescriptions a day and so if they filled more than that they would need another pharmacist.  I thought the absence of pharmacy technicians was strange.  In our community pharmacies, the majority of the employees are technicians.  The hospital pharmacy we visited was probably my favorite.  It was such a large hospital and had so much technology that was just incredible. Such as the way the medications were delivered throughout the hospital.  I thought it was interesting that the pharmacists did lab work as well in the hospital.


I feel so lucky to have met all the wonderful people that we did and to have made some great new friends.  The students and faculty from Kobe Gakuin University were so hospitable and so unbelievably nice.  I can't believe all that they did for us while we were there and will be forever grateful. I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to go on this trip at all.  I had such a great time and learned so much.  I love to travel and I never thought I would have been able to go to Japan.