Like many other recent high school graduates, Kendra Freeland is getting ready to start her college career.
But this isn’t the first journey for the Plant City High School alumna since her graduation in early June. Freeland returned to Plant City on July 18 after a free, five-week trip in Japan — a trip that began as a joke over a year prior.
JOURNEY TO JAPAN
Over a year ago, Freeland was with her family celebrating her great-aunt’s 50th wedding anniversary in Indiana. Her cousin, Darin Voyles, was also there with his wife, Halima, a diplomat who has been in Tokyo for the last two years. During the trip, Freeland became close with the Voyles’ 2-year-old daughter, Alize. The Voyles’ joked that Freeland should come visit them in Japan.
Freeland didn’t take it too seriously until the Voyles’ later sent an email offering Freeland a free trip to Japan after her high school graduation. Freeland could stay with them if she agreed to look after Alize and her older sister, Aliya, in the morning and explore Tokyo during the afternoon.
It was the trip of a lifetime, one that Freeland looked forward to all through her senior year of high school. By the time she left for the Land of the Rising Sun on June 12 she was more than ready to explore the country’s capital. She even created a blog.
Her first full day, however, didn’t go as planned. When Freeland decided to try Tokyo’s subway system, she was confronted by a homeless man who began screaming at her in Japanese.
“I was a little traumatized,” Freeland said.
She turned around to go back to the Voyles’ home, only to be almost hit by a cop car. The streets of Tokyo have no sidewalks, leaving pedestrians to walk in what would be considered a bike lane in the United States. Cars also park in these lanes, so pedestrians have to walk around the cars and end up in the street.
Freeland told the Voyles’ about her day of misadventures. They assured her she would not have another bad one.
“Tokyo is pretty much New York City, but it’s very clean,” Freeland said. “Homelessness is rare … (Tokyo’s citizens are) very welcoming of foreigners because they’re used to foreigners.”
ASAKUSA AND SHINJUKU
Freeland was responsible for making sure the Voyles’ daughters, Alize and Aliya, completed their daily studies every morning. As she finished her nanny duties, she would explore.
While in Tokyo, she visisted Shinjuku, the city’s main technology district with stores packed wall-to-wall with inventory.
“It’s so easy to blow through money just so quickly there,” Freeland said.
In Japan, 10,000 yen is the equivalent to about $80. Avoiding the pricey technology of Shinjuku, Freeland chose instead to shop for handmade items in the wooden shops of Asakusa, a district of Tokyo that features the Buddhist temple Senso-ji.
“I liked that anywhere you looked you could always see the shrine,” Freeland said. “You have a more traditional feel.”
Freeland visited different shrines, where many Japanese people came to worship. On one of her first visits to a shrine, a Japanese boy and his friends approached Freeland and showed her how to properly bow. At each shrine, the Japanese bow twice, then clap twice, followed by clapping and bowing once more at the same time. After they ring a bell to ask the gods for good luck and wash their hands with a ladle in a trough full of water.
“I never went to the same shrine twice,” Freeland said.
THE SHRINKING STOMACH
While in Tokyo, Freeland adjusted to the the Japanese diet. A traditional meal consisted of rice, fish, soup, pickled ginger and a fried egg.
“I made myself try everything I was offered,” she said.
Freeland especially enjoyed Korean food in Japan. She tried seafood pizza and cooked her own meal over coals at a restaurant in Asakusa. She traded soda for tea and water. Halima, taught her the proper procedure for drinking jasmine tea.
“I hated tea with a burning passion,” Freeland said. “[They] drink tea like Americans drink soda.”
Now Freeland carries around a bottle of tea with her. She feels healthier, and she has also bought a diffuser for her room to alleviate headaches.
TAKING FLIGHT
On one of her last days in Japan, the Voyles’ took Freeland on a plane ride, where she saw Tokyo from the air.
Now back on the ground in Plant City, Freeland is optimistic about future travels.
“I want to travel everywhere now. I want to do everything I can to take every abroad opportunity.”
Freeland begins classes at Polk State University Aug. 24. She wants to study nursing and has not ruled out living abroad to practice medicine.
In the future, Freeland hoapes to visit both Germany and Greece .
“I want to go now,” Freeland said of future travels. “Everyone should get out of Plant City and go do something, just experience something else.”
Contact Emily Topper at etopper@plantcityobserver.com