By Ezra Newby, participant of 2023 Session 1, from Texas, USA
This is my first time in Japan and the city that I am staying at for 5 days is Kagoshima, I honestly wasn’t really expecting anything spectacular because I heard it was a pretty small city. When I arrived I realized that I was very mistaken. When I drove from the airport to my host family’s house, I was able to see gigantic trees, with the greenest scenery you can imagine, a scene that hadn’t been tainted with large structures as far as the eye could see. That is something I hardly ever see living in Texas, it was a mesmerizing sight. Aside from how physically beautiful the city is, it’s extremely rich in history and interesting information that you wouldn’t ever know unless you went there. As for the locals there, everyone is extremely kind and humble, there was not a single time where I felt as if being a foreigner was a bad thing in the eyes of locals. The residents seemed as if they were eager to have people come and learn about their country and city which made the cultural experience infinitely better.
