{"id":3774,"date":"2018-08-21T16:11:40","date_gmt":"2018-08-21T20:11:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/?p=3774"},"modified":"2018-08-21T16:11:40","modified_gmt":"2018-08-21T20:11:40","slug":"%e4%b8%80%e6%9c%9f%e4%b8%80%e4%bc%9a%ef%bc%88ichigoichie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/2018\/08\/21\/%e4%b8%80%e6%9c%9f%e4%b8%80%e4%bc%9a%ef%bc%88ichigoichie\/","title":{"rendered":"\u4e00\u671f\u4e00\u4f1a\uff08Ichigoichie)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In Japan they have a saying, &#8220;Ichigoichie,&#8221; which means, &#8220;once-in-a-lifetime encounter.&#8221; I can&#8217;t think of a more perfect phrase to sum up my entire experience in Japan. I made so many wonderful friends, had the chance to live as a Japanese person does, improved my Japanese language skills and so forth. The list could go on forever and ever. I know I&#8217;ve said this over and over again but I truly believe that the interactions I had with the people were truly the most amazing part of this entire study abroad experience, especially (you guessed it) my host family. So, I want to share a bit of the last conversation we had the night before I returned to America.<\/p>\n<p>My host parents and I were all sitting at the table in silence with the slight chatter of the TV in the background. Finally, I let out a short sigh. &#8220;\u672c\u5f53\u306b\u30a2\u30e1\u30ea\u30ab\u306b\u5e30\u308a\u305f\u304f\u306a\u3044,&#8221; (English Translation: I really don&#8217;t want to go back to America.) I said, my voice already beginning and tears beginning to well up in my eyes. They looked at me with tear filled eyes. &#8220;\u79c1\u9054\u3082\u30b7\u30a8\u30e9\u306b\u5e30\u3089\u308c\u305f\u304f\u306a\u3044,&#8221; (English Translation: We don&#8217;t want you to leave either.) my host mom said.<\/p>\n<p>As I said before in a previous post, I have never felt that feeling for home or family in my entire life. Growing up, when I would hear my friends talk about their families I never really understood why they were always so elated, until now. I can now say that I understand the value of family and why many view family as so dear to them. After having met my family I finally feel like I have people who I can depend on, who will give me endless love and comfort. The love of a family is so much more beautiful than I could have ever imagined and I am so eternally grateful for having met them because it truly changed my life.<\/p>\n<p>We talked on and on for hours on end, reminiscing about memories made. At the end of the night, as I was about to make my way back to bed my host dad said one last thing that truly moved me, &#8220;Remember, your happiness will always be our happiness. You will always have a home here with us.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-3775\" src=\"http:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/files\/2018\/08\/IMG_2762-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/files\/2018\/08\/IMG_2762-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/files\/2018\/08\/IMG_2762-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/files\/2018\/08\/IMG_2762-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/files\/2018\/08\/IMG_2762.jpg 1478w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Japan they have a saying, &#8220;Ichigoichie,&#8221; which means, &#8220;once-in-a-lifetime encounter.&#8221; I can&#8217;t think of a more perfect phrase to sum up my entire experience in Japan. I made so many wonderful friends, had the chance to live as a Japanese person does, improved my Japanese language skills and so forth. The list could go &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/2018\/08\/21\/%e4%b8%80%e6%9c%9f%e4%b8%80%e4%bc%9a%ef%bc%88ichigoichie\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">\u4e00\u671f\u4e00\u4f1a\uff08Ichigoichie)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[115493,290963],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-japan","category-sla-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3021"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3774"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3776,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3774\/revisions\/3776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}