Am I Missing Out?

I have been spending the majority of the morning doing laundry and reading Brendan's blog. He went to Japan in 2002 - 2003 on the GLCA/ACM study abroad program (the same one that I am on.) At first I was really in awe at the sheer number of things that Brendan did at the beginning of his stay. I was feeling jealous and thinking about how to make my trip better when it finally struck me.

I have been to Japan before.

This simple fact completely nullifies the "new experience" factor that a lot of the kids had. I previously figured out the train systems, knew my way around Baba and Shinjuku, been to many of the tourist places, and even had much experience with the language. I was feeling that my level of knowledge was way behind Brendan's and even my good friend Vaso's, but in reality it is about the same. We all just experience different things. My big interest lies in video games, therefore I spend a ton of time searching for them and checking out game centers. Therefore, my Super Famicom collection consists of a spanking 49 games with many more to go. My manga collection is a bit lacking, but I still have around 50 volumes. Brenden's interests lied in literature so his manga and book collection was huge (probably twice the size of mine at this point.) I also realized that the biggest difference between our two experiences is the host family. My family doesn't take me anywhere whereas Brendan's did. It is a good and a bad thing. I get to go out with friends adventuring, getting lost, and learning more about Japan, but I don't get the full on explanation of things or places that my family would give me.

I finally realized what has been happening, and I feel much better about my experience so far.