Rishupal, Physics
Heading to Kanagawa university was an amazing opportunity for me to finally achieve a lot of things that I hadn’t really done before. It was a great opening into learning the Japanese language which I’d held up for a long time coming, it was flawlessly able to introduce me to different areas of Japanese culture that I’ve been keenly interested in for years at this point and doing all this through the university made my first time travelling alone a lot more comforting, not only due to the Turing grant helping to relieve any stressful financial decisions that I’d have to make as a student but also by recommending and partnering with a facility that I found safe and enjoyable to attend.
I chose to go for both terms of the summer programme, adding up to around a month and throughout this period, KU had planned many activities that had me engaging with both the Japanese language, culture and social aspects of being a student located in Yokohama, Japan. Getting used to the heat as I awoke was tricky but never a problem since the classes held at the university were always filled with determination, thanks to the great teachers, to help all of us learn more regardless of ability when we first arrived. Our classes were filled with students from around the world, like Germany, Spain, China, Taiwan and so on so it was amazing to be able to connect with students that had similar but also different experiences compared to those I’ve had so far as a first year Physics student at Surrey.
My favourite days were definitely the field trips that were held on the weekends on my time there. These were days we got to explore specific places in Yokohama that hold various historical significances guided by Japanese students that attended KU. It was not only a great opportunity to further our Japanese learning through communication but also a way to form friendships that I would have never made if it weren’t for the programme. I ended up hanging out with the buddies assigned to everyone even out of class hours and had tonnes of fun being introduced to different foods and places while also being able to talk about similar interests and what drew me to Japan in the first place.
In the few break days, I had the opportunity to visit different places while I was in Japan. Heading to Tokyo was never too long of a journey to make nor was hard to do so, it being a single train from the main Yokohama station, so I had the chance to visit many cool places there such as the popular Shibuya crossing in Shibuya, anime/manga stores in Ikebukuro, the amazing stores in Harajuku while there always being cool spots such as cat cafes that I could retreat to.
One of my favourite journeys took place just after the end of the summer school, it being my trip to Yamanashi. Me being a fan of a show called Yuru Camp had me headed to popular spot where you could see Mount Fuji from (which was also the picture found on the 1000 yen note). Having attended the classes at KU for a month had me able to communicate with the taxi driver that helped me get to the spot (after I missed the only bus) effortlessly and I was glad that even through the little Japanese I had learnt overall, the classes had me able to speak with and share experiences with the very kind person. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to clearly see Fuji-San however I found a lot of fun recognising places I saw in the show as well as being able to relax by the lake (Motosu-ko).
It was definitely a great opportunity and really eye opening regarding how amazing Japan and KU were and I will definitely want to go again and re-experience everything I got to this last summer (2024).
