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My Trip to Japan

My Studies in Japan

After completing my Masters degree at Yale I decided to take a one year leave of absence and go study Japanese in Japan. In the end one year stretched to almost a year and a half, as it was such a good experience.

Homestay

To begin with I had a homestay for about five months with a Japanese family in Ibaraki City, Osaka Prefecture. I spent the first 2 months in Osaka studying Japanese at the Osaka YWCA Language School (picture), an excellent Japanese language school. For financial reasons I then spent the next 3 months studying by myself and practicing with Japanese friends of mine.

School

Then came the next stage. In October I received a student visa (with permission to work) and once again began full time studies at the Osaka YWCA School (full time = 4 hours of Japanese class per day + 1 hour per day of optional math, science, history, etc. classes taught in Japanese). At this point I was in the "chuukyuu" class (intermediate). In October I also moved to a government subsidized dorm for international students in Sakai City, south of Osaka City (only ~$200 per month in rent!).

Eikaiwa

In January, 1998 one more duty was added to my studies, work. This consisted of teaching "English conversation" lessons for about 3 hours per evening. In case you are wondering, "English conversation" ("Eikaiwa" in Japanese) is meant to teach Japanese people to use their English in conversation. This is in contrast to the relentless memorization which they were forced to do for 6 or 7 years in school, resulting in lots of people who know lots of vocabulary but can't say much more than "Hi, my name is XXXXX". Actually, this is a rather monotonous and easy job. There are 1 to 3 students per teacher and the teacher has a text of exercises pertaining to some particular topic (airline flights, hotel reservations, shopping, etc.). We then spend 45 minutes in which (1) the teacher makes stories on these topics, (2) the students repeat the stories (to get used to speaking about the topic), (3) the teacher then asks the students questions about the stories, (4) the students ask the teacher questions about the story, and (5) both ask each other questions about real life experiences on the topic for the day. It may sound rather dull and useless for the students, but actually students advance quickly and it does seem to be somewhat effective.

Back to America

Finally, after all these matters were done, on September 5th I was forced to bid farewell to Japan and return to my studies at Yale.

"Photo Tours"
Osaka
Kyoto
Nara
Himeji & Kobe
Chuugoku Region
Kochi Prefecture
Kagawa Prefecture
Nagasaki
Kumamoto

My Travels in Japan

1997

We now come to the topic of my travels while I was in Japan. As I was living in Osaka I decided to limit my travels to western Japan this time around. My trips included, of course, Kyoto (the Japanese capital city before Tokyo) and Nara (another former capital city). Next I made a trip to an interesting small town in Okayama Prefecture called Hattoji which is preserved in the traditional Japanese style, i.e. thatched roofs, etc. Trip #3 was to the Kiso Valley region of Nagano Prefecture, an area along the old mountain round between Kyoto and Tokyo and in which the two post towns of Magome and Tsumago are still preserved in the style of the Edo Era (pre-1880). Last of all I went to Hiroshima in October. This concluded my travelling for 1997.

Early 1998

As I started work in January, 1998 my travels in 1998 were rather limited until the summer. One thing I did manage to do was go to a Sumo Tournament (picture of me with a Sumo and of the Sumos in traditional garb) in Osaka in March. In June the YWCA made a trip to Awaji Island, in the process of which we passed over the Akashi Straits Bridge, the longest single span suspension bridge in the world (the central span is 1.9 km / 1.2 miles and the total length is 3.8 km / 2.4 miles).

Summer '98 : Shikoku

Then in August I made a four day trip to Shikoku, the smallest of Japan's four main islands. This included visiting Cape Ashizuri and the Shimanto River, "the cleanest river in Japan". Whitewater kayaking on the river was fun. On the train trip back to Osaka I also saw the Ooboke / Koboke gorge from the train and later passed over the Seto Oohashi Bridge. A few weeks later I made a whirlwind one day trip back to Shikoku in which I visited the Kompira Shrine, a shrine to protect sailors which is strangely enough on top of a mountain (a climb of over 1,300 steps!), and then went to Takamatsu where I saw Shikoku Village and Yashima. Shikoku Village provided an interesting insite into old Japan, including its contacts with the west.

Summer '98 : Kyushu

Last of all I made a trip to Nagasaki and Kumamoto. Other than its unfortunate distinction as an atomic bomb target, Nagasaki has a long and interesting history as the only location in Japan allowed to trade with the West until the late 1800's. As a result there are many old buildings built by Europeans, and also numerous old churches due to the religious influence the people received from the west (and which resulting in the government killing or imprisoning thousands of Nagasaki Christians in an effort to stop the spread of the religion).

On returning from Nagasaki I also passed through Iwakuni, which has a famous 5 arched bridge built for the Samurai. Originally normal people like us weren't allowed to use it, but now for a few dollars anyone can walk across.

South Korea

In addition to the travels in Japan, I also spend a week in Korea with a Korean friend from Yale. As I stayed with his family I got to sample authentic Korean food and he also acted as a great tour guide for Seoul. Later, by myself I also went to the De-militarized zone (DMZ), the border of South and North Koreas, as well as the "Korean Folk Village" in Suwon, a city south of Seoul.

Last modified: September 28, 1998

Ravi Montenegro (monteneg@yahoo.com)