Personal Narrative: My Journey To A New Culture

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Traveling the world is an adventure of a lifetime. From the things that can be seen to the people that are met, it is sure to be an adventure of a lifetime. There is so much more to see than anyone can imagine. Experiencing a new culture can be a shock at first, but the interesting qualities will soon shine through. Over the summer I had the chance to travel to Okinawa, Japan. I stayed there two months with my father and traveled the entire island from the north to the south. My travels in Japan changed my view of myself as an American citizen through experiences that reassured my patriotism, made me realize the necessity of preservation of our history, and increased my desire to continue to explore the unknown.
Stepping off the plane in Okinawa, …show more content…

This castle was used in the Ryukyu Kingdom back in the 1600’s. I was blown away by the way the Japanese restored their history. Most of the historical sites here in America are only 100 to 200 years old and I standing in front of a 400-year-old site. It’s unfortunate we can’t read kanji because we could’ve learned so much more about the castle. Walking into the middle of the castles through the archways made me feel as if I was really back in that time. It was similar to what is seen in movies, but everything was authentic and really used for fighting. As I walked around, I was contemplating on what may have happened here; thoughts pondered in my head thinking about people were killed, the locals from the village coming into the castle to greet the castle officials, the entire village coming together for their meetings, and the intelligence they must’ve had when building the castle. There were several levels to the castle that were designed for a very specific, strategic plan. The king of the castle would live on the middle layer so he could be protected from the top and below. Also, the stairs that lead up to the higher levels are narrowed as they get closer to the top. This is so if that they were invaded, there would be a limited amount of troops that could get up. The sights from the top were absolutely gorgeous! Since it was a clear day, we could see the whole island of Okinawa. Seeing all the history of the castle preserved made me realize that the society is living history, and the people need to document it for future generations to

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