So I did an exchange for one year at International Christian University(ICU) in Tokyo Japan. Here are some of my experiences of living in Japan, experiencing Japanese culture and language and a brief comparison of the university system and classes between Canada and Japan.
Living In Japan
So for me I decided to live on campus in a dorm. The dorm I lived in was a little bit newer being built in 2010. It was called Zelkova house. The dorm had three floors one for men and two for women. On each floor was a communal kitchen, laundry and entertainment area. The kitchen had a micro oven and a few burners to cook on and a toaster. I found that if I accidentally left food in the kitchen it would disappear as someone else would use it. I also had fridges near the pod rooms and we had to share so we had to label our food. The laundry area had a drying room and 2 washers and 2 dryers. You had to label your loads when you did laundry on whiteboards. The entertainment area was a few sofa blocks and a tv that we all shared.
The rooms were in pods and I had a roommate I shared a room with.My room had a bookcase desk bed and storage closet where I stored my clothes and another I used for food. We also had a desk chair provided and cable for internet no wifi in dorms only on the main campus buildings or dinning room. We switched rooms once a year in the spring as new people moved in and graduating students moved out. We had an RA on our floor.
The bathroom was communal for each pod. There were two showers with eco flow water systems so you had to press the button a lot to take a full shower as it timed out. The toilets were run off electricity and stalls. The sinks were in a row with a mirror.
We had weekly pod meetings and once a month a floor meeting. Mainly the meetings went over things to do with laundry and chores and announcements about the building. Often they were in Japanese so someone always translated what was being said for me to understand. We had a cleaning person clean the kitchen trash/ recycling once a week. We also had chores like washing the kitchen towels and bath mats or making sure the kitchen was cleaned up on the counters and the rice cookers and hot water was clean and filled right. We also made sure the sinks in the kitchen were clean.
The dorm had various activities throughout the year that were communal things to do like a welcome party for new students, a farewell party when students left in the fall and the spring, organizing hang out nights on the floor or as a dorm, new student initiation dance , dorm drama competition. Each of the dorms also hosted parties throughout the year or bbq’s in the spring/summer.
When I first arrived I had to get my residence card from the city office and go to my school's orientation days. We had a formal ceremony at the end of orientation with a dinner for the parents. We had a welcome dinner for new students in the fall. Our school also had a fall school festival for 2-3 days.
To get around in Japan I got a bus/train card and used that by putting money on it every month or week to get around the Tokyo area. If I traveled to other areas I had to get JR train tickets and apply student pricing to them.
I decided to go get groceries every saturday morning at a grocery store in Musashisakai so I would take the bus each week and bring an old suitcase with me to fill with my groceries and bring back to the dorm. I would put my suitcase underneath my shopping cart and go around the store getting my groceries. I would always plan my weekly meals so I knew what to buy based on my grocery list. Sometimes I bought extra interesting food because I wanted to try it. I also would add up my items before going to the till so I knew about how much I was going to spend sometimes I would even convert it to Canadian dollars to see how much it cost. I knew the Japanese language well enough to know what kind of food I was eating but sometimes it was a surprise. I got all my groceries bagged at the supermarket, they just gave out bags. Then I put the bags in the suitcase and took the suitcase back to the dorm and unloaded my groceries.
I had to set up bank accounts in Japan to handle money transfers and to keep extra money in instead of caring around a lot of cash.At the end of living in Japan I had to pay taxes. I also got a Japanese cell phone. This was one of the first things I did after getting my residence card. At the end of my stay in Japan I closed all my bank accounts and gave my cell phone back.
Experiences With Japanese Culture and Language
While in Japan I went to the moon watching party in the fall in the community. We got to wear Yukata and eat Yakisoba. I also attended School events and festivals throughout my time in Japan. I traveled during my time in Japan. I took a day trip with some classmates to Kamakura to see the big Buddha, eat burges and see the beach. It was a very long train trip from where we were in Tokyo but it was worth it. I also went hiking in Mitake which was nice around New Years. My parents came for Cherry blossom season and that was nice. They also came for Christmas time which was very different as it was more about spending time with family and I went skiing with my dad on Christmas Day. I visited my friends in Osaka, Mishima, Kyoto, and Towada. These experiences helped me to see everyday Japanese life as I visited and stayed with them. I also got to see the main sights around and in those places.
The Japanese language is difficult to master. I was able to rely on what I had learned before arriving and from my one Japanese class at ICU. I was able to understand most things people said and figure out what words were written down. I could communicate about directions, busses, trains, and at the grocery store. For me I had enough survival Japanese to get around Japan. I still found it hard to have conversations with Japanese people as I did not know Japanese well enough to really relate with them. This made me feel somewhat isolated as the language barrier was challenging at times to overcome.
Homesickness
I was very homesick while in Japan, so I called my parents on Skype every few days. I also struggled with depression as I missed Canada. I found support in my faith community and in joining the Clumsy Chorus Club at school and the Swim Club. I also tried to walk around the campus and went to Worship Night at school on Fridays. I missed my horses and I missed the Alberta landscape a lot while I was away. I missed the holiday of Thanksgiving. I missed the wide open spaces of Alberta and Canada. I also struggled the first few months with adjusting to the time zone and becoming more of a morning person compared to an evening person as I had been more so in Canada.
Things I Liked About Japanese Culture
I liked that everything was well structured and organized. I appreciated that everything was so clean from the public bathrooms to the streets. I loved that some people were friendly to foreigners. I enjoyed that the weather was relatively nice. I liked that people were so polite. I loved watching the shopping and cooking shows on the tv. I found it fun how the weather forecaster used fun emojis when they told you the weather. I appreciated how local the news was about Japan and different parts of Japan. I loved Japanese baths and hot springs. I enjoy being in nature at the baths and am not weirded out by nudity as the baths/ hot springs have gender based areas. I loved the food in Japan as I liked the seafood, rice and sweets they had as well as the Mikans(oranges) . Green Tea is also so much cheaper than in Canada and tastes so good. There is so much variety in food at the grocery store or convenient stores in Japan.
Things I Didn't Understand About Japanese Culture
I did not fathom the need for such long administrative procedures. I did not understand why my Japanese teacher was so hard on me. This did not help me to learn the language any better or do well in her class. I did not get why if I missed a test in Japanese class I could not re-take it later. I did not see the need for long boring dorm meetings to discuss which type of laundry soap to use. I did not understand why we did everything together as a group.
Things I Grew To Not Like About Japanese Culture
Sometimes due to the organization structure certain things seemed like too much bureaucracy. As it took a long time to register for my classes and doing paperwork was never a short process. It was always done thoroughly and took a lot of time to get a simple thing done. Being a foreigner living in Japan and seeing tourists who did not understand the Japanese way of doing things really annoyed me while I was in Japan because I thought they could try and learn to be more conforming to the Japanese culture or try and understand it. Trying to overcome the language barrier when making friends was very challenging for me as I had a limited amount of social Japanese. Doing things the Japanese way and feeling judged for not doing them the correct way was really hard on me as I didn’t want to offend people but sometimes I didn’t know what the right cultural thing to do was.
University System
ICU had three semesters fall, winter and spring term. ICU had a standard time table with a certain number of periods in a day for classes. They offered morning, afternoon and some evening classes. To get signed up for the classes you had to go to the computer lab print off your schedule see your advisor and then go back and hand in your time table to the administration person. It was a lot of running around that seemed pointless. It didn't seem so much to the Japanese students that their degree mattered after they were done school but more the university they got the degree from. They also had a scholarship program I was able to take part of so I had to go to the admin office and sign some papers to get my scholarship money each month.
University Amenities
The university had dorms, a pool and fitness center, soccer/ football fields, a dinning hall with a conference room, administration building, bus stop, trails around campus, a tea house, a main hall for classes where I had all my classes, computer labs and other buildings for classes.
The university had a library, had books and study space to do work at but was a lot smaller than UofA with only one library.
University Clubs
ICU had lots of clubs for various things and at the beginning of the year in september and in April. The clubs had farewell parties in the fall and spring. I was a part of Clumsy Chorus. It was a Gospel singing choir. The first performance was at the ICU Fall Festival. We went away on a fall retreat to learn songs for our winter concert in January. We also went on a ski trip in March and had a summer concert in June. We also performed with a famous Japanese singer and I got to meet her before Christmas for a special Gospel Music Christmas Concert with the Harlem Globe Singing group.
University Classes and Classrooms
The classrooms had chalkboards, some had white boards. The classrooms had projectors and A/C and heaters for the winter. The school had a moddle type online system but it was very basic compared to the UofA. The desks/ chairs were very small and were chair desks mostly. I took all my classes in English except for Japanese. I did well in all my classes but Japanese because it was a steep learning curve and our teacher was very strict and did not spend enough time on having us learn things. University intro to Japanese was a little more comprehensive than the Japanese I had learned in High School and Jr. High.
University Admin Procedures
ICU had an admin building like most universities do. At the Admin building I signed some forms every month and would get my scholarship money so that they could keep track that I actually got my money. They had a train ticket discount machine where you could get a coupon for Shinkansen Train tickets. At the admin building you could ask questions about your student fees and other related inquiries. For registration in classes it was a whole morning of going on to their moodle site picking your courses printing that class schedule off then going to see your advisor to get your courses approved. I had an American advisor which was nice and he was very friendly and helpful. I also got my report card each term when I saw my advisor and registered in new courses. You had a few days to change your courses if you wanted to. The schedule of classes had periods each day all week and then courses were scheduled into those periods of a pre-set time table.
Differences and Some Similarities
There are alot of cultural and language differences between university life in Canada and in Japan. Canada is more individualistic and Japan is more communal. Japan has a very structured way of doing admin procedures with paper work and not so much technology. Classes were easier because I took them in English and was proficient in the language. My Japanese class was probably as hard as at a Canadian University, maybe harder as the professor expected more of their students and the semesters were shorter. The school calendar was different with the number of months for fall being 3 , winter 4 and spring being 3 months long so it was very busy. Most classes you had almost every day or every second day like in Canada. Assignments were very similar to Canada. We also had one month off in March between the Winter and Spring terms.
Conclusion:
Overall my time in Japan has made me discover who I am and learn more about another culture and language. I can say that Japan is my second home because of all the time I spent there, the memories I made and the people I met. I really did love my experience in Japan and want to go back again and again.
References:
https://www.icu.ac.jp/en/academics/
https://www.icu.ac.jp/en/academics/system/
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