Tokyo Swan 2: School, Nippon Budokan, and Elton John

So here we are with another episode of Tokyo Swan, a series about my life as a study abroad student at Keio University in Tokyo. With this being my second episode, I found myself really fascinated with my new surrondings. Of note in this episode, I was really interested in how Tokyo was a city where you would have very modern buildings and structures next door to temples and shrines. This was very true for the area of the imperial palace in the heart of Tokyo. I also was getting used to all of the walking around one does in Tokyo as compared to Kalamazoo. In this early episode, I don't think my feet were still quite used to all of the distance I was covering.

This episode also marked my quest to get tickets to see Elton John perform live at the Nippon Budokan, which is a very famous martial arts hall in Japan. Would I be succesful in getting a ticket? You'll have to watch further episodes to find out!
Rodger

Tokyo Swan 1: Arrival, Eating and Akihabara

Hey everybody, I’m Rodger Swan a senior here at WMU. Last year, I had the great pleasure of studying abroad at Keio University in Tokyo, Japan. It was the most fantastic experience of my life, I have so many good memories of this past year and I met many wonderful people. While I was living in Japan, I had a weekly video show called “Tokyo Swan.” It reached a surprising level of success and popularity, getting thousands of views each week. For this blog, I shall be posting the videos and reflecting on the content of them now that I have returned back home.

In this first episode, I describe my initial reactions to some of the differences between Japan and America. The move from Kalamazoo, Michigan to the big city of Tokyo was amazing. I was getting used to all the massive crowds of people, all of the things to do, the new food to try, and just so many new things to experience.

I’m surprised at how easy it was for me to adjust to living in such a different culture and city. Maybe it wasn’t hard because it was always something that I wanted to do, but I found the transition of starting my new life in Japan to be relatively painless. Oddly enough, it’s been the adjusting back to my life in America that has been trickier to deal with.

I hope that everyone enjoys this video series, it was a great way for me to capture all the memories of the past year and be able to share them with the world. On a side note, I can’t believe how young I look in these first episodes… I look like such a little kid! Enjoy the video, and see you next time!

Rodger