In this article, recent American high school graduate Shivam Bhatt reflects on his experience with an exchange program in Japan. He was struck by the cultural balance that the Japanese strike between holding on to tradition while keeping on an eye on the future. He also learned about language from his Japanese peers in the program and about hospitality from his homestay family. Bhatt reflects on the range of emotions he felt when he visited Hiroshima--from sorrow for those who died to longing for a new age of peace. "More than anything, that array of feelings is what I will take away from the experience of walking through the somber Peace Park and Museum as a young global citizen who wishes to see a world in which it's the norm to talk about peace rather than the latest conflict," he writes.