Not many teens can imagine leaving all their friends and family, travelling half way around the world to live in new culture for an entire year. That sounds scary to most of us, but not to Tyrone foreign exchange student Nao (pronounced like Now) Fujishima.

For Fujishima, living in another country by herself has been a long time dream.

Fujishima, who lived in the California for the first three years of her life, grew up in Hamamatsu, Japan with her younger sister Mai.  Fujishima says that she has always wanted to live on her own.

“In elementary school, we had a book similar to a yearbook. In that book, there was a column that was called ‘What We Want to be’ or something like that. I wrote ‘I want to live on my own.’ At the time I was probably seven years old, so living in another country by myself was my longtime dream. Then, when I was in my first year of high school, I learned about the Rotary’s exchange student program. I never actually expected to become an ‘exchange student’ but I think it was the right choice for me.”

One of the reasons that Fujishima picked America was because of television. In Japan, there are a large amount of television from the US, so Fujishima enjoyed watching shows like Hannah Montana, High School Musical, and Glee. “After watching those shows, I thought it would be cool to go to high school in the United States. My second choice was France, but I decided not to do that because I can’t speak French at all.”

When Fujishima first arrived in Tyrone, she said that one thing that stood out to her was how small Tyrone is. The population of Hamamatsu, Japan in 2010 was approximately 800,900 people. By contrast, Tyrone has only about 5,500 people. Fujishima said that the small community was probably her favorite part of Tyrone.

“When I first came here and I took a picture with my first host family, the picture was on the front of the next day’s newspaper. That is when I realized that Tyrone is such a small town. But I think it’s a really good difference because I never lived in such a small community.”

While in Tyrone, Fujishima has experienced lots of new things, her favorites being signing with the Pops Extension and the high school musical Guys and Dolls. She really enjoyed Pops and the musical because she loves singing and dancing. When Fujishima first came to Tyrone she was disappointed in the fact that Pops Extension was audition only and she had missed the auditions.

“I begged Mrs. Harris that I wanted to sing in Pops the first day of concert choir. I thought I wasn’t going to be able to participate, but she left me in. I had a lot of wonderful experiences with the rest of the Pops members and of course the people in the musical too and I am so thankful to Mrs. Harris that she gave me an opportunity.”

According to Fujishima, about the only thing that is similar between Japanese and American schools was that school ends at 3:15.

“I was surprised that every door in the school locks automatically. In my high school back in Japan, basically all the doors, including the entrance, are open.”

Surprisingly, according to Fujishima one of the things that is similar between Japan and America is the food. “We can eat so called ‘American food’ in Japan and we eat it often. I didn’t struggle to get used to foods in the US.”

Fujishima enjoyed her time in America and will miss many things.

“It was absolutely unlike any experience I have ever had in my life. I will miss my friends, teachers, my host family, counselor, basically every single person I have met and talked to,” said Fujishima.

When she has any off time, she enjoys sewing, planning the piano, calligraphy, and like any other teenager, sleeping. “My pillow is my best buddy ever,” said Fujishima.

When asked what she misses from home and what she is going to do first when she gets back to Japan, Fujishima says she plans to go shopping. “I am going to go shopping in Tokyo. They always give me a lot of inspirations. Then, I think I’ll clean up my room and stuff I bring back from the US,” said Fujishima.

As for her future after high school, Fujishima has big plans.

“I want to be a fashion designer, especially costumes. My mom loves fashion so I used to see a lot of fashion magazines when I was a child. But, I’ve been playing the piano since I was three and I cannot think of my life without music. I think my major is going to be fashion and my minor is going to be music. I want to keep playing the piano somehow,” said Fujishima.

While Fujishima is considering a permanent move to the Unites States, she is torn because of her love of Japan.

“I want to work in NYC someday, but I need a greencard (citizenship) to work in America permanently. That means that I would have to give up my Japanese citizenship, but I don’t want to do it because my heart will always belong to Japan. I guess that when the time comes, I’ll have to think about it,” said Fujishima.

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