Well, it’s almost 2 months since I’ve arrived in Japan and I can safely say I’ve settled well here. One of the major difficulties that I experienced during my first month was adjusting to the balance between doing assignments and attending events during the weekend. I went out during most of the weekends, either sightseeing, teaching English to local students, or hanging out with my host family. It was really tough for me in the beginning, but I have definitely challenged myself and gone out of my comfort zone.

Courses:

At Fukuoka Women’s University, I am taking 5 Japanese Contemporary culture courses (JCC for short), 4 Japanese language courses (grammar, integrated grammar, conversation and Kanji course) and an independent research course named ISP. The hardest course for me is definitely Japanese language. We have 4 levels; beginner, elementary, intermediate and advanced. Back in UoA, I’m actually suited for the pre-intermediate level as this my second year of studying Japanese. I had a choice to take either level 2 or level 3. In the end, I chose level 3 because I wanted to challenge myself and since I’m just here for half a year, I didn’t want to learn things that I already knew. This explains why I haven’t tried many of the Fukuoka specialities dishes, I’m too busy to enrich my taste palate!

Class style:

Except for Japanese, I have one JCC once a week. The courses are not set in a lecture style as they are in UoA, but rather in a tutorial style. The courses are held in a classroom, and the teacher will explain the topic for the first 40-60 minutes, then we will be given worksheets to do in class or topics to discuss on. After that, we will discuss the answers with the teacher.

Presentations:

Before coming to Japan, I already knew that doing presentations is a common thing in Japanese universities. As a matter of fact, I did my first ever individual presentation on vending machine culture in my food and environment course yesterday! Presentations usually go for 5-10 minutes long and are usually done by an individual or 2 people. I have many more presentations coming up in the future so I’m glad yesterday’s one went well. I’m off to a great start!

Field Trip:

As you can see from my timetable, the Wednesday slot has been left blank. This is because we usually have field trips on Wednesdays. For my first field trip, we went to the Fukuoka City museum and Disaster and Prevention center. We also have a field trip report due the following week and it makes up the coursework for my Hakata history course.Speaking of field trips, I just came back from visiting a shrine called Umi Shrine and watched a live Sumo tournament. It was so much fun!

Glover Magazine:

Our university also has a student magazine. I had the the most amazing chance to be interviewed by the reporters and my interview landed on the front page of the magazine!

It made me feel really special to see myself on the cover page. Being the first and only student from UoA was a bit of a struggle for me during the first few weeks here because it seemed like the other exchange students already knew the university life from their former exchange students in their home universities. Seeing the magazine will always remind me of how accepting the people are here and that Fukuoka will always be waiting for me when I come back.

Kasumi-sai:

Last weekend, my university hosted their own 2-day festival. Us exchange students had our own booth where we sold Krapow rice from Thailand and Swedish chocolate balls from Sweden. We also performed a song on stage which we practiced for a month.  The turnout on both days was incredible despite the bad weather on the second day. It was such a cool experience and we even made profit! (159,000 yen in total and we got 3500 yen or $44.8nzd each)

Campus:

Fukuoka Women’s University’s campus facilities boast a gym, a sports auditorium, an ATM machine, a Café, a convenient store, a library, an infirmary and a cafeteria.

If you have any other questions concerning campus life at FWU, please do not hesitate to contact me! My email address is: Renachua.room8@gmail.com

またね！