Study abroad program focuses on Japanese writer

By: Maiko Michishita

Posted: 10/10/08

In 1890, an Irish journalist arrived as a Yokohama poet in Japan. His name is Lafcadio Hearn, and he later gained Japanese citizenship. He was very fascinated by Japan, and later wrote a book called "Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan."

This summer, more than 100 years after Lafcadio's arrival, seven UA students left the U.S. to discover new, "unfamiliar" factors of Japan.

A four-week study abroad program, Unfamiliar Japan, started this summer and was conducted by Tatsuya Fukushima, an associate professor of Japanese. In addition to learning different aspects of Japan, students enjoyed studying abroad in Japan itself.

The program's priority was to see diversity in Japan today as well as a difference from what Japan used to be many years ago, Fukushima said.

After a long flight and a one-night stay in Tokyo, students headed to Shimane, as a traditional side of Japan. Students visited many places such as shrines, temples and museums in Shimane.

Joseph Snow, a junior physics major, said students visited many historical places in Shimane, including a Matsue castle, whose image remained in his mind as a beautiful image of Japan.

Sceneries, landscapes and architectures were pretty at most of the places, he said.

Unlike Tokyo, which is highly commercialized and overwhelmed by tourism, students were able to see the great depth of history and lifestyle in Shimane, Fukushima said.

"Shimane is a hard land of Shintoism," Fukushima said, "so students would get a better sense of Japanese religious system."

Hiroki Fujimoto, an exchange student from Shimane University, was a leader of the Shimane students and helped host the program while UA students were there.

Shimane is more isolated than any other places in Japan, Fujimoto said. Even Japanese people are not familiar with Shimane, he said.

In addition, students learned traditional Japanese craftwork, such as a process of making paper and ceramic pottery work. They watched a demonstration of paper-making and then tried it themselves. It was "very interesting," Snow said.

Brandon Pickhardt, a senior history major, said he enjoyed going to an old-fashion soy sauce work site and watching the fermentation process of making homemade soy sauce, which takes about a year or two to be bottled.

It tastes much more different from what people buy in the U.S., he said.

After Shimane, students had about a week to visit Tokyo for shopping or sightseeing. Then they headed to Yokohama, where a modern aspect of Japan can be seen.

Part of the Unfamiliar Japan program was to visit the temples Lafcadio mentioned in his book and to compare sites more than 100 years ago to current sites.

"Several attractions, shrines or places we went, were kind of retracing the steps of Lafcadio," Pickhardt said.

Students spent one day in Yokohama by actually retracing Lafcadio's first day in Japan and visited four shrines were Lafcadio visited in 1890.

The places of the temples Lafcadio visited were discovered by amateur scholar Daichi Fukushima, a brother of Tatsuya Fukushima. Students met him in Yokohama, where he showed students around.

"That was kind of neat," Pickhardt said. "We compare Lafcadio's descriptions of where the temples were, how they looked and how they look now."

Other than comparing traditional and modern aspects of Japan, students also enjoyed having various kinds of experiences in Japan.

Students had an opportunity to do some activities with Japanese students from Shimane University and Kanto Gakuin University.

With those Japanese students, they visited famous places, bowling, shopping and singing karaoke.

"I always wanted to be exposed to [Japanese] native speakers," Snow said. He enjoyed hanging out with Shimane students and participated in activities including karaoke, which he had never done in the U.S.

Fujimoto said he wanted students to experience Japanese-style college parties as much as he enjoyed a home party in the U.S. when he came to the UA for a three-week study abroad program two years ago. He invited students to his apartment and made traditional Japanese food like Takoyaki, which is octopus dumplings.

Students found some of their perceptions were true, while others were not.

Andrew Zuidema, a sophomore psychology and international relations major, said his experiences in Japan made him appreciate living in America because Japanese people are relatively shorter than Americans.

"Door frames were low, and sometimes I hit my head on the top," Zuidema said. Hotel rooms where the students stayed were very small, too, he said.

Graduate student Sally Edwards said she enjoyed shopping.

"Shimane is quiet, friendly and things are not expensive there. I expected Japan to be very expensive … but still nothing was as bad as I thought," she said.

Pickhardt said when they were in Yokohama, they went back to their hotels by a train during rush hour.

"It was pretty uncomfortable and scary … and everyone stunk with sweat," he said.

Pickhardt also said the most unfamiliar aspect of Japanese culture students experienced was probably how actual Japanese families live.

Edwards said she enjoyed the homemade cooking her host family served. Even though she is vegetarian, she had various kinds of Japanese food, she said.

Unfamiliar Japan is a summer program of Japanese and foreign language classes worth six credit hours.

For more information about the Unfamiliar Japan program, go to the study abroad Web site at studyabroad.uark.edu