Student Commentary

Immigration, Internships, and Theme Restaurants: How I Fumbled My Way Through Japan and Loved Every Second of It

Tokyo, Japan

It’s been three months and 6,500 miles since I attended a one-hour free sushi lunch in Klein 7A, and I’m sitting in a small waiting room in Tokyo customs hoping I don’t get deported. I’ve been in Japan for 15 minutes.

That’s how my first time outside of the United States began. As terrible as that may sound, the immigrations officer allowed me into the country and sent me on my way within another 20 minutes—just enough time to narrowly get to my landlord’s and have a place to sleep that night. The moral of the story: apply for your visa before fall semester finals are over.

Despite my rocky start, I couldn’t have had a better semester in Tokyo. Many law students have trouble deciding whether or not to study abroad, and ultimately come up with reasons not to go. I want to describe my semester and show that many of the most common excuses aren’t justified.

Internships

This may not be the first thing people want to think about when studying abroad, but it’s generally the major factor that causes students to stay stateside during law school. Students often believe they won’t find a place to intern with during the summer, or that it will be more difficult to interview for internships over the phone. At first this seems like a legitimate concern, and it was one I wrestled with even while in Japan, but everyone who went abroad with me earned a summer internship. I won’t lie and say it’s particularly easy, but it’s very doable and shouldn’t be your main concern.

Relatedly, one of the best parts about studying abroad in Japan was my internship. The thing about working in Japan is that, as an English speaker, the majority of what you’re going to be doing is checking the English on documents. That sounds tedious, but in actuality I have gained more experience with large projects in my short time in Japan than in all of my other internships combined. I read and drafted contracts for multi-million dollar deals and worked on licensing projects for things that I read about in the news when I got back to America. In short: when in Japan you’ll likely experience things that you’d never get a chance to experience in America because your English language skills are very prized.

Food and Entertainment

Now that I’ve hopefully assuaged any internship fears, let’s move onto the best part of Japan. Most people think about sushi when thinking about Japanese cuisine—I know I did—and I ate sushi almost exclusively for the first three weeks after I settled in. Don’t do this.

“Many law students have trouble deciding whether or not to study abroad, and ultimately come up with reasons not to go. I want to describe my semester and show that many of the most common excuses aren’t justified.”

The sheer variety of foods in a single convenience store is astounding; from gyudon (my favorite) to yakisoba, the convenience stores (kombini) have everything. Of course, if you don’t want to use the kombinis, then you can go to the myriad of little corner shops, or walk through the alley of restaurants less than a mile from school. I gained about ten pounds from my time abroad because I ferociously tried everything I could find. In fact, the only reason I didn’t gain more weight was because we walked everywhere we could go.

The best places to eat, and where a large part of my money ended up, were the theme restaurants. From Alice in Wonderland to Robot Restaurant (and Cat Cafes if you’re into that) Tokyo’s theme restaurants are usually pricey, but not to be missed. Other than food, there are traditional shows to see, plays that, if you don’t speak Japanese you won’t understand a word of (but that’s part of the fun!), and so much more.

Classes

The classes offered in Tokyo are some of the most practical I have taken. They aren’t without their faults, but I learned a lot of very useful information in both the Negotiations class and the Contract Drafting class. These two classes are crucial if you have any interest in transactional work. They are the best classes you can take to get a feel for what transactional work is about in a business setting. I have to emphasize that last bit: most of the recommended classes in Japan are focused toward business because the professors are business oriented. The skills, however, are useful in other areas even if you want to do litigation work.

Ultimately, I chose to go to Japan at the last possible minute, everything worked out, and I enjoyed it so much that I am going again. I can’t recommend enough that anyone who is interested in either international law or transactional law give it a try, especially if you’ve never studied abroad before. If you’re still not sure if studying abroad is right for you, visit the Office of International Programs on the 7th floor of Klein Hall. Dean Thompson and his staff are an incredible resource.

Questions about this post? Drop us a line at lawcomm@temple.edu.