First Time In Asia: An Italian-Japanese Adventure

There is a first time for everything. A first time traveling to Asia. A first time doing an organized group trip. A first time traveling with strangers. A first time living in your second language day in and day out. A first time for traveling to Asia as part of a group trip with a bunch of strangers using your second language day in and day out. If that last one sounds overly specific, it’s because it is and because I just did it! I recently returned home from a 10-day trip to Japan during Hanami, the cherry blossom season. This was my first time doing an organized trip with a group of other people, all of which happened to be Italian. I knew this going in, as I had purposely chosen an Italian travel agency, Ecoway Travel, to do this trip with. I thought it would be a unique and exciting adventure to go to a completely foreign country by myself, meet up with a group of 15 strangers, and use my second language the entire time. And I was right, it was an amazing and unforgettable trip! There was a lot that stood out to me about Japan, which was expected. Though there were obviously some things that stood out to me about Italians.

Coffee is an important part of Italian culture; this is well-known. It plays an essential role in their lives. Being in Japan, a country where coffee is nowhere near as popular as in Italy (or in the US, but that is a different coffee culture), I did not expect that coffee would play its same role in our lives. I was wrong. The post-lunch coffee was alive and well for our group in Japan. Well, I did not expect this, but it was not a displeasure. It was fun to track down a post-lunch coffee and almost always end up at a Starbucks (for better or worse). It was more fun to then try to order an espresso at every Starbucks and go through the same process of confusing the staff. Good times were had, and now I can no longer see a Starbucks without thinking of my group of Italian friends and travel buddies.

Italians are not actually always late. The stereotype that Italians are always late is one that I like to frequently mess with my Italian friends about. I have experienced this stereotype firsthand more times than I can count and is something I have grown to accept (I hate being late). As such, I had expected that our trip would feature some delays and some standing around. Though, to my surprise, overall, the group was punctual! There were of course a couple of us that were not very punctual, and we rightfully made fun of them for it (lovingly). Overall, I was surprised that the group defied the stereotype!

The Italian fashion was brought to Japan by the group, this was obviously to be expected. Something that I did not expect was the amount of clothing that was brought. It is possible that more clothes were brought than could be worn due to the nature of our days, but I had expected more outfit changes. Not much more to say than that I fully expected the group to change their outfits during the day.

Even though we were in Japan, I did half-expect Italian food to be eaten once during this trip. Italian cuisine is one of the best in the world (I think it is the best) and Italians are known to primarily stick to eating their food and not venture away from it. This group though was well-traveled and cultured, as well as big fans of Japanese culture and food, so I suppose in the end it should not have come as a surprise that they did not opt for their native cuisine for a meal. It is also worth noting that eating Italian food in Japan would have been a disappointing experience, so I am sure this factored in as well.