{"id":29335,"date":"2018-05-12T16:00:07","date_gmt":"2018-05-12T16:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gogonihon.com\/?p=29335"},"modified":"2024-03-05T19:47:59","modified_gmt":"2024-03-05T19:47:59","slug":"otaku-experience-in-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gogonihon.com\/en\/blog\/otaku-experience-in-japan\/","title":{"rendered":"Otaku Experience in Japan of a lifetime: Robert&#8217;s adventure"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Otaku Experience in Japan course hosted by Go! Go! Nihon Study Trips was a joyful time full of surprises for students. One of them, Robert, decided to share his experience with us about his vacation in Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>(Robert): I&#8217;m Robert from the south of England, here for the <a href=\"https:\/\/gogonihon.com\/en\/trips\/trip\/otaku-japan\/\">O<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/gogonihon.com\/en\/trips\/trip\/otaku-japan\/\">taku Japan<\/a> experience.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><em><strong>Why did you choose the Otaku Experience in Japan <em>Study Trip<\/em>?<\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>While at a convention in London, I heard about Go! Go! Nihon Study Trips. They had a booth where I took a pamphlet and while reading it the Otaku Experience in Japan course piqued my interest. After researching, I just contacted them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong><i>What about Otaku Japan attracted you?<\/i><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Well, I was at a gaming convention. Being an Otaku is something I&#8217;ve always been into so the Otaku Experience in Japan course felt like a perfect fit for me. The locations that were listed in the tour course just sparked. The fact that Study Trips offered a way that you could study while having a full Otaku Experience in Japan was really appealing to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong><i>You&#8217;ve said it\u00a0quite a bit, but what does Otaku\u00a0mean to you?<\/i><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Hmm, for English people the definition would be when you&#8217;re into Anime or popular Japanese culture. So for me, an\u00a0Otaku is someone who is really into Anime, manga, video games, figurines, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong><em>Why would you identify as an Otaku\u00a0yourself?<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;ve been into it (Otaku culture) for a while. Like, when a friend will say something like &#8220;oh have you watched this or played that&#8221; and I&#8217;ll tell them &#8220;Oh yeah, of course!&#8221;, happens quite a bit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong><em>Sounds like the Otaku Experience in Japan spoke to you. Is this your first time in Japan?<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Yes! This is the first time I have traveled alone as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong><i>What else do you feel the Go! Go! Nihon Study Trip staff has done for you so far?<\/i><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Honestly, from replying to my e-mails as fast as possible to arranging my papers and picking me up at the airport, the staff<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>seemed <em>really invested in helping me, taking me to the hotel, and <\/em>explaining everything to me. I was honestly nervous before coming to Japan, I thought\u00a0that I would get lost all the time or simply lose interest in the\u00a0Otaku Experience in Japan course\u00a0as it went, but they took the edge off which was a relief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong><i>Before the Otaku Experience in Japan, what activities were you looking forward to?<\/i><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>On the list, I saw that one of the stops was to the Pokemon Center, I felt really excited about finally seeing it. The Odaiba Cruise as well, mainly for the Gundam Statue. \u00a0I also love the One Piece museum and how enthusiastically decorated the whole place is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong><em>What about your&nbsp;<\/em><i>accommodation?<\/i><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The trip allows you to choose between different types of accommodation and I chose the\u00a0single room. I just felt it was better for me since I could be part of a group but at the same time be by myself whenever I needed to study and such, especially since I am very much central to myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/gogonihon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/2016-otaku-group-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Otaku experience in Japan Study Trip group \" class=\"wp-image-9134\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong><i>Can you tell us about the school you studied at?<\/i><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/gogonihon.com\/en\/language-schools\/tokyo\/akamonkai\/\">Akamonkai <\/a>is really good. The teachers are great, \u00a0you have a lot of fun in the classes, the school is easy to find, and the group is great. Even my Japanese has become way better. Before it was mostly what you&#8217;d find in anime. But now, I am able to even order from a menu, simple things like &#8220;can I have some of this&#8221;, which I couldn&#8217;t do before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong><em>I am so glad we were&nbsp;<\/em><i>able to help you get&nbsp;that far. On that note, what is your favorite&nbsp;Japanese&nbsp;word?<\/i><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Ikou! (\u884c\u3053\u3046!), means &#8220;lets go!&#8221; in a really enthusiastic way, which I feel captures how I feel about the course in general.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Has the Otaku Experience\u00a0in Japan been<i>\u00a0everything you expected?<\/i><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Yep. It even surpassed all of my expectations!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong><i>Great! last but not least, would you&nbsp;recommend our <a href=\"https:\/\/gogonihon.com\/en\/trips\/\">Study Trips<\/a>&nbsp;to other people?<\/i><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Most definitely! Japan sounds so intimidating and so far away to go to, especially since it&#8217;s an island. \u00a0It&#8217;s a culture shock, seeing as how it&#8217;s SO different from Western culture. But it&#8217;s great, everyone is lovely, especially the locals! I&#8217;d definitely recommend it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong><em>Any final words?<\/em><\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>If you are scared of traveling, that&#8217;s understandable. But when you get here everything just ebbs away, everything is easy, everyone is nice and eventually, you&#8217;ll be screaming\u00a0<strong>Ikou! (\u884c\u3053\u3046!)<\/strong> with me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><i>\u3042\u308a\u304c\u3068\u3046\u3054\u3056\u3044\u307e\u3059(thank you very much) and we at Go! Go!&nbsp;Nihon are so glad you managed to have a great time&nbsp;during your stay on the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/gogonihon.com\/en\/trips\/trip\/otaku-japan\/\">Otaku Japan<\/a>&nbsp;trip.<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Otaku Experience in Japan course hosted by Go! Go! Nihon Study Trips was a joyful time full of surprises for students. One of them, Robert, decided to share his experience with us about his vacation in Japan. (Robert): I&#8217;m Robert from the south of England, here for the Otaku Japan experience. Why did you [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":117,"featured_media":29363,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[401],"tags":[656,663,661],"class_list":["post-29335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life-in-japan","tag-animation","tag-experience","tag-pop-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gogonihon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gogonihon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gogonihon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gogonihon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/117"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gogonihon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29335"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/gogonihon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117719,"href":"https:\/\/gogonihon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29335\/revisions\/117719"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gogonihon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gogonihon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gogonihon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gogonihon.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}