Inside Student Blogs

Lauren Fellows Tokyo, Spring 2013

Lauren Fellows is a Japanese major, geology minor studying at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA. She hails from Boulder, Colorado, and is glad to be going to school in a place with both mountains and a water feature (the weather, however, leaves something to be desired). Lauren is a huge dork who loves drawing, watching anime, writing stories, and taking pictures of toys when she isn’t spending long hours training to beat the Elite Four in the latest Pokémon game. She’s ventured to a few places outside the United States, most notably France and Israel, but this is her first time in Japan and she is SUPER EXCITED. While in Japan she plans to make friends from near and far, experience anime culture in its natural habitat, and explore an urban jungle unlike anywhere she's ever been before. The adventure of a lifetime is just over the horizon!

Lauren's Posts

• Okinawa Highlights

  6/10/13 • (0)

  The IES trip to Okinawa was four days and three nights packed with amazing activities and good food, and I could write volumes about everything we did on there.

  Japan, Study Abroad, Tokyo, Travel

• A Day Trip to Chichibu

  5/30/13 • (0)

  It’s hard to describe the feeling of standing and looking at a landmark from an anime, especially one that holds particular meaning for you. It was strangely exhilarating.

  anohana, Japan, Study Abroad, Tokyo, Travel

• Belated April Wrap-up Post

  5/16/13 • (0)

  I’ve already been in Japan for a month, and just within this month I’ve done an unbelievable number of things that would merit their own posts if I had a fraction of the time to write them.

  Japan, Study Abroad, Tokyo, Travel

• Narita Drum Festival

  5/06/13 • (0)

  IES has several program-sponsored field trips planned for the semester, and the first of these was a trip to Narita for its Taiko Festival!

  Japan, Study Abroad, Tokyo, Travel

• Pokemon Center Tokyo

  4/25/13 • (0)

  Pokémon led me to anime, and anime led me to studying Japanese, which is why I’m here. So really, if it hadn’t been for the Pokémon craze of the 90s, I probably wouldn’t be here right now.

  Japan, pokemon, Study Abroad, Tokyo, Travel

• Anime Contents Expo 2013

  4/05/13 • (0)

  Ladies and gentlemen, let me tell you about the Anime Contents Expo.

  Japan, Study Abroad, Tokyo, Travel

• The First Few Days, An Overview

  4/02/13 • (0)

  My first day in Japan was fun despite the challenges. I met my e-pal and toured around Makuhari, then went to a soba restaurant with some IES friends and their e-pals. I had never been to a restaurant that sold so many kinds of soba, and none of the menu items had descriptions, so our Japanese friends had to explain them to us.

  Japan, Study Abroad, Tokyo, Travel

• Things You Should Do Sooner Than I Did: A Pre-Departure Post

  4/01/13 • (0)

  My experience preparing for this trip is not a stellar example of what someone should do if they too are preparing to study abroad in Tokyo. So I will write this post not about what I did do, but about what I did not do, in the hopes that future generations will learn from my mistakes.

  Japan, Pre-Departure, Study Abroad, Tokyo, Travel

• On Daruma Dolls

  3/05/13 • (1)

  I knew I wanted to go to Japan, that was for absolute certain. But at the time, aside from being a year and a half into my Japanese studies, I had done next to nothing to reach that end. So, I took up a sharpie and drew in my Daruma’s right eye.

  Japan, Pre-Departure, Study Abroad, Tokyo, Travel

• One Kanji a Day

  1/18/13 • (0)

  One kanji a day. That’s easy enough, right? Between mid-December and late March, I could add a hundred new kanji to my vocabulary while spending only five minutes a day. At the same time, one kanji a day? Where am I going to find all those kanji?

  Japan, Pre-Departure, Study Abroad, Tokyo, Travel