What It’s Really Like on the Venture Makers Global Exchange ft. Quinn Nguyen

Even though it brought back a lot of opportunities, it also came with several difficulties and challenges.

Firstly, the transition from winter to spring affected my health, and I had a bad cold during the whole first week. Luckily, there were a lot of Japanese drugstores nearby, so I could get my medicine there. In addition, my dorm mates were very supportive and took care of me, which made me feel less alone. And I loved it the most when I discovered the hot drink section in convenience stores (kombini). I had only ever seen cold drink fridges before in other countries’ convenience stores, so this innovation surprised me and brought a sense of comfort during that time.

Secondly, I found it a bit challenging when navigating the train system. It was so easy to get lost at the train station, especially in Osaka, places such as Osaka station, Umeda station, and Osaka-Umeda station were so confused at first. There were many moments when we got lost, but all were so memorable. I realised that getting lost was not entirely negative, the more we got lost, the more we found the right way to go.

Lastly, the language barrier was the biggest difficulty I faced. Because I don’t know much about Japanese, it was sometimes hard to communicate with the Japanese locals. In addition, most product information or public instructions were written in Japanese, which made everyday activities such as shopping or navigating public spaces more difficult. Therefore, we relied on translation apps to support our conversations. While this was not always perfect, it helped bridge the gap and allowed us to interact efficiently. However, I honestly think knowing a bit of the local language might help better, not only for daily activities, but also for gaining a deeper and more complete understanding of the culture.