Maranna Nwozo
UMBC Exchange: Nanzan University
Major: Visual Arts
Minor: Entrepreneurship
Certificate: Japanese Language
Pre-Departure Post
Hello UMBC!
My name is Maranna Nwozo, and I am a current sophomore majoring in Cinema and Photography, minoring in Entrepreneurship, and getting a Certificate in Japanese Language!! This Spring Semester, I will be studying abroad at Nanzan University in Nagoya, Japan, through one of UMBC’s Exchange programs.
Over the course of getting ready for the departure, I have been going through many stages of emotions. At first, I felt a bit apprehensive as the date was closing in, which is normal, seeing as this will be a big life change. However, over time, I started to feel excitement when researching all the things I would like to do and adding it to my bucket list. Some events that I am most looking forward to trying out are visiting Universal Studios Japan, going to a hot spring bath house, visiting a maid cafe, butler cafe, and a macho cafe, buying items at a Japanese convenience store, and hopefully going to a J-Rock Concert in Japan, which is the event I long to see the most.
Listening to Vocaloid and Japanese rock is actually what initially got me to start learning Japanese as a freshman in high school. I am also interested in Japanese animation, and my ultimate career goal is to start an independent animation and film studio, so I took my Japanese Language studies quite seriously. However, after 6 years of trying to learn the language, I began to lose a bit of motivation from doing it for such a long time without ever actually having been to Japan. So, to gain some motivation for finishing the rest of the courses in my Japanese Language Certificate, I decided to study abroad in Japan for an entire semester!
Before leaving, one of the main priorities that I wanted to accomplish in preparation for going to Japan was intentionally spending time with all my friends and family members, including my friends from high school, whom I don’t see as often since they go to different universities. This meant scheduling different hangouts, playing games with my suitemates in my dorm, and baking cookies with my baby cousins. My roommate and friend, Victoria, is actually going to be studying abroad this semester as well in Newcastle, England! We both decided to become study abroad ambassadors, so please look out for her blog posts! Another event that really touched my heart is that my family and extended family plan to host a going-away party for me a couple of days before I depart! I was so touched when I heard what they wanted to do for me, and it made me feel very cared for by my loved ones.
As for packing… I have made my list and ordered things I would need, but I have yet to physically put my items in a suitcase. I’m not sure if it’s procrastination (which I actually don’t do very often at all) or if it’s because I have not been home very often due to Christmas parties and visiting family and friends, but I will definitely get it done soon!
That concludes this installment of the blog! Thank you for reading!
In-Country Post #1
Hello UMBC!
It’s Maranna again, and I officially completed my first week of study abroad in Japan! However, before that, I would like to share a story about how I arrived here on my flight. First, I had to take a 4-hour flight to Denver, Colorado’s airport, and it was very interesting being able to see a different side of America. Since America is so big, but still one country, I sometimes forget that the landscape can be very diverse. The airport wasn’t actually in Denver city, so the plane took me to a place with a low, brown, dusty landscape and a line that almost formed a wall of mountains surrounding one side of the airport. After arriving at Denver, I had a one-hour layover, but it quickly turned into two hours as my next flight to Tokyo was delayed. This caused me to have a slight tinge of panic once I realized that the third and final flight that would have taken me to Nagoya would now inevitably be missed because the 12-hour flight to Tokyo would overlap it. However, since sitting through the 12-hour flight was a big enough hurdle in of itself, I decided to worry about getting through one problem at a time, and I had faith that things would work out in the end.
Once I landed in Tokyo, I was able to join back on wifi and see that my third plane had been rescheduled to the next day, as I had assumed. But then, the question became where I was going to sleep at night between now and the time of my next flight in the morning. Thankfully, United Airlines had me covered, and I ended up being granted a wonderful hotel with free dinner and breakfast buffet vouchers for free! So I spent my first night in Japan in Tokyo, enjoying an exciting stay at Hotel Nikko Narita, which had a vibrant Winter 
Wonderland light show right outside and an absolutely delicious buffet. It was then that I was able to experience firsthand that situations that seem bad at first can end up working for your good in ways that you would never expect. Once it was morning time, I had packed up all my belongings and made my way back to the airport. In Tokyo, many service workers speak a good amount of English, so I hadn’t had to use much Japanese until I got to Nagoya, where I had to brush off my skillset to help me take the taxi from the airport to the dorm (since my flight was delayed, I missed the shuttle bus that would’ve taken me the day before). Since my arrival at my dorm, I have met many of the other international students. There are around 70-80 in total and classes start one week from now, but despite that, through there being many group chats and conscious efforts from other students to get to know each other, I have been able to hangout at karaoke, travel to Nagoya castle, visit a shrine, Yagoto Aeon Mall, Sakae City, and take pictures at a photobooth in an arcade within the couple of days that I’ve been here!
In-Country Post #2
Hello UMBC!
It’s Maranna once again, and I can’t believe I can announce that I am currently in my 3rd week of being in Japan!! It has been very interesting since I’ve come here, and I feel like I’m finally starting to get the hang of things! Classes started, but before they did we had to take a couple of placement tests to determine our level. My goal was to get into Intensive Japanese 3 so I studied very hard, but unfortunately was only able to get into Intensive Japanese 2. But I don’t mind it so much, since I realized that it was a win-win situation given that it might be better to be in an intensive class that’s mostly review versus an intensive class that teaches all new things, so that I’d have less to worry about while studying in a foreign country.
Getting around in Nagoya also hasn’t been very difficult at all because of the convenient subway system in Japan, and because many things are also within walking distance. Upon coming here, I also wanted to try visiting churches in person, so I visited a catholic church nearby called Nanzan Catholic Church. It was named after the Private University I’m going to because I’m assuming the same missionary that started the school also started the church. When I went, I got a bit lost, but a nice lady helped me find my way to the English Mass. During the latter half of the Mass, the person doing the church announcements announced that they were going to be pounding mochi in the courtyard that day for those who wanted to stick around! So I decided to conveniently linger in that area until some of the nice church regulars noticed I was new, introduced themselves to me, and showed me the large, immaculately decorated stone building that the Japanese language Mass was held in.
Afterwards, it began time to start pounding Mochi! They let me get the first swing using the giant hammer that was more than half the length of my body. Every couple of times that I pounded it into the round dough, the man who was helping prepare and set up the mochi station would flip it and yell “Hai!” signalling me to start pounding again! Once the mochi was prepared, other church members would prepare toppings to go with it such as savory powdered daikon and sweet red bean paste. Apparently that day they were celebrating New Year’s with traditional snacks so I also got to try Roasted Japanese sweet potato, Japanese sausage and Bread, Toasted Marshmallows, Miso soup, and barley tea! I was very happy and grateful that everyone at the church was so nice and welcoming! I was especially nervous since I stand out quite a bit due to my hair and skin tone, but seeing how that caused them to work even harder to make me feel loved and comfortable really touched my heart.
In-Country Post #3
Hello UMBC!
My name is Maranna and I believe I am officially on my 5th or 6th week of living in Japan here! During the Spring Semester, Nanzan University has a 2 week winter break for international students that coincides with the 2 month winter break that Japanese students get from University. What’s interesting is that in Japan, their summer break that separates rising from one grade the other, actually happens in the winter, from around February to Late March when the Cherry Blossoms bloom. I think this is done since Cherry Blossoms signify new beginnings, so their entrance ceremonies usually line up within the 2 weeks that they bloom.
However, during my winter break, I had a whole list of activities planned for where I was going to go, see, and do! Over the course of 4-5 years, I had accumulated 7 pen pals from Japan that I had always dreamed of (safely) visiting one day! I met 6 of them during a virtual online high school program called Kizuna Across Cultures, and one of them on the language exchanging app called Hello Talk. I had been chatting with the one I met on the language learning app for 5 years, and she’s the pen pal I knew for the longest, so I was less worried about safety concerns when it came to meeting up with her and the rest of them.
After I had messaged them about my arrival to Japan and the 2 week break I was allotted, 3 of them said they were able to meet! The first two pen pals lived in Kyoto, and the last one lived in Tokyo, so my plan was to base the places I would go on my trip around that. Once the day to leave finally came, I took a taxi to the bus station, but unfortunately could not find my bus and it left without me. Fortunately, the bus station was at the same place as the Bullet Train Terminal, so I was able to catch a 30 minute ride to Kyoto and then take the subway all the way to my hotel!
The one week I stayed in Kyoto was absolutely lovely! I ended up visiting the Macho Bar, a Pig Cafe, Nishiki Outdoor Street Market, The Sacred Deer Park and Giant Buddha in Nara Prefecture (which ended up being my absolute favorite place in Japan), climbed Fushimi Inari Mountain all the way to the top with my pen pal and witnessed its hundreds of beautiful shrines, did hours of Karaoke and visited Yasaka Pagoda Shrine with the first pen pal I ever made! My trip to Kyoto and Nara Prefecture definitely contained some of my most exciting moments in Japan!
But after it was done, it was time to start my one week trip to Tokyo, where I’m currently typing this entry from! So far, I was able to visit Tokyo Sky Tree, a Capybara Cafe, and Akihabara Electric town with my pen pal that lives here! Having the locals show you around to places they’d recommend and explain the intricate politics and viewpoints of Japan that you would only know by living here was definitely educational and rewarding! I am eternally grateful!