Translated from 日本語 • View original Hello, this is Aimi Nakajima.
The other day, Ichihashi of human resources was up, and I went to Europe with a 10,000 yen system for 9 days off during the summer vacation, including weekends and holidays.
One person lol
The main objective is to participate in the Tech Open Air in Berlin!
I will write a separate article about my participation.
My Overseas Experience
I have been overseas more than 20 times in 12 years, to about 17 countries, but this is my fifth solo trip.
Chiang Mai (Thailand), New York, Helsinki (Finland) & Czech Republic, Taiwan,
And this time Berlin & Helsinki.
All of them were traveling, and I had never studied abroad.
It is about 9 days at most.
You like to travel alone, don't you? Backpacker-like?
"It's amazing to travel alone abroad.
It's often misunderstood, but I **don't like traveling alone. **
If there is someone who has the right schedule and can enjoy it together, I want to go with someone, desperately lol
Until now, the beach resorts I went to with my boyfriend and the trips I had with my friends in Korea were definitely more fun as memories.
So why go alone, there is one reason.
**I want to touch as many worlds as possible. Even if it's just one person. **
Traveling abroad alone is not a memory, but it is an experience. While I can spend my time and money without worrying about anyone, I try to move my footwork lightly.
Thanks to these experiences, I think I have been able to have a lot of my own way of thinking and living.
The Significance of Touching the World
In my case, I value these three.
- Enjoy the away feeling of being a foreigner
- You can see the good and bad of Japan and Tokyo
- Test your English skills
Away feeling of becoming a foreigner
When you go abroad, common sense is overturned.
This feeling cannot be experienced by looking at photographs or reading in books.
When a 32-year-old adult goes to a country or city for the first time, it is difficult to buy a train ticket or get to his destination on time.
If your smartphone is charged or Wifi runs out, you have no choice but to ask someone offline.
In fact, this time, my iPhone broke on the way to Narita Airport, and it was a difficult trip from the beginning.
I have had many experiences of being helped by local people, so I try to help many foreign tourists in Tokyo if they seem to be in trouble.
You can see the good and bad of Japan and Tokyo
When you move away from a group of people of the same ethnicity and common sense, you can see things that you couldn't see.
Japan is one of the cleanest countries in the world, and it is common for lost wallets and smartphones to come out.
There are many types of meals, the level is high, you can buy things at convenience stores 24 hours a day, and you will never get bored with entertainment day and night.
In terms of GDP per capita, Singapore is now better, and I don't think Japan is the No. 1 in Asia, but I don't think there is a country with as comfortable water as Japan, and I think the ease of living is at the highest level.
On the other hand, I feel more comfortable in communication culture outside of Japan.
- look into the eyes and speak
- If you don't say it, it won't be conveyed
- Smile when you see each other, even if you don't know each other
- Exchanging business cards is not a must, and it is not a start.
I think it's better to work abroad, or I want to work.
Test Your English Skills
My English skills are not a problem when traveling, but I am still at a level where I can't do business.
TOEIC is one of the promotion conditions for ISAO, and recently foreigners who do not speak Japanese have come in, so the fields in which you can play an active role if you cannot speak English have become limited.
Overseas, I basically stay in Airbnb, so I dare to put myself in an environment where English communication is essential before going and during my stay.
If you are traveling alone, you will not speak Japanese unless you call Japan.
This is actually quite difficult if it lasts for a few days.
The feeling that even if you can communicate in the vocabulary you know, you can't convey 50% of what you want to say.
This can be frustrating, stressful, and Japanese chic.
Still, I feel that I can definitely talk more and more every time, so I can feel my growth.
This time, I decided to raise the level from "I just need to communicate" to "Can I convey what I want to say properly and can I negotiate?", and I tried to say things like complaints that I had given up on until now.
- When the store where you purchased the SIM is not set to be set up correctly
- When you have to wait for a long time at a restaurant and are told that there are no seats
- When you are told at the duty-free counter at the airport that you don't know when the person in charge will come
There is no customer-first approach like in Japan, so negotiation is quite important rather than complaining, and it is recommended because it is a relatively shortcut to training communication.
Overcome the Shyness Barrier
During the event, we were talked to and introduced to mutual acquaintances, and we enjoyed food and tea. Of course ALL English!
Hong Kong students interning at startups, and people working at Goodpatch, which is famous for Prott.
Being in the tech industry made me realize that it was a very interesting environment because there are common topics in the industry.
**It's not how you speak, but what you say. **
If you can find a common topic, you can communicate quite a bit.
You may think, 'I can't do that because I'm shy,' but I'm never good at talking to people I'm new to. I'm not good at communicating with people, and I'm the type of person I want to avoid in my daily life.
However, in order to get in touch with the world, I have to talk, so I think that "I want to be this kind of person" outweighs my weakness.
Recommendations for Solo Travel
The feeling I wrote here is that one person can be trained more than two or more people, and of course it is limited to the city, not the resort.
I have time and money, but I want to be able to speak English just a little... If you are stuck in your studies, I recommend that you go out of Japan alone.
This time, I had the purpose of participating in the event, so I recommend it because it is less lonely than just going to a tourist spot, and it is easier to make friends there!
Next time, I will write an event report on Tech Open Air.