Wong Man Ying
Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages
Taiwan

Host Institution: Sophia University, Japan
Spring 2023

During my 4-month stay at Sophia University in Tokyo, I have studied the subjects of Chinese Literature (taught in Japanese) / Industrial and Organizational Psychology /Industrial Theory/ Consumer Behavior/ Advanced Japanese/ Business Japanese.

With the exception of Chinese Literature, Advanced Japanese, and Business Japanese, which were held as face-to-face classes with other students, all of the other courses I chose were online. It is because I am not an undergraduate in business administration and I don’t have any relevant knowledge. I was afraid that it would be difficult for me to keep up with the classes taught in full Japanese. It is true that you can re-listen to the part of the lecture if you cannot keep up, but the downside is that you are all on your own. There was not much opportunity for you to meet other students, and you had to remind yourself to keep up with the course schedule. Actually, I regretted choosing too many online courses since I may have more chances to know more people at school.

Nevertheless, I made lots of new friends at the dorm and also when joining extracurricular activities. I participated in a school event called “Japanese Cafe” aimed at promoting language exchange. There were many Japanese and international students participating in the event. During the event, we were divided into groups to play games. We were divided into two groups and each group would get to know each other for around 30 minutes. Most of the Japanese participants wanted to interact with foreign students so they are very nice. We exchanged Instagram accounts and even created LINE groups for future connections. But after all, it is up to everyone to make an effort to keep in touch with each other as the time for you to interact with the group members was not long enough. Before I left Tokyo, I invited and had lunch with a Japanese girl who I had a good conversation with during the event.

The “Yukata Day” is a fun and unique tradition at Sophia University. Almost every student wears a yukata to school on that day. Although I had to buy or rent a Yukata myself, I think it is worth doing so. There were a lot of people taking photos around the campus and even the teachers took the initiative to take photos with students during class time. It was such a great day that you could experience Japanese culture.

I also participated in a sushi-making event in Yokohama organized by an outside organization. Actually, it wasn’t really an organization. It was just a former student from Sophia who loves intercultural exchange gathered her family members and her friends to organize events for exchange students yearly. They were very friendly and the event was well organized. They invited a sushi chef who owns a sushi shop in Shibuya to teach us the skills from killing the fish to making sushi. We had a great sushi meal on that day. Before I left Tokyo, I went out with one of my Japanese friends who I met at the event and I am so happy to hear that she is planning to visit me in Taiwan.

Apart from the above activities, I spent a lot of time visiting Tokyo with my friends at dorm: shopping in Shinjuku and Ikebukuro, sightseeing in Odaiba, photo-taking with the Tokyo Tower, coffee shop hunting in Meguro, snack-hunting in Asakusa, taking purikura in Shin-Okubo, visiting otter café in Harajuku, joining the Sumidagawa Firework Festival, and hiking at Mt Takao, etc. Thinking about all this makes me miss my friends already. I hope to see them all again soon.

I would like to thank ACUCA for providing financial support to me. Without the support from ACUCA, I would not be able to make my dream of studying in Japan come true. Also, I would not be given the chance to meet all of the wonderful people I met in Japan in the past 4 months and have these unforgettable memories in my life.