Konnichiwa, my name is Aidan Stout and I am a Junior at the College of Charleston. I am studying Computing in the Arts, with a Game Development concentration and I have decided to spend the fall 2023 semester in Japan attending Kansai Gaidai University, located in Hirakata, Osaka. I have taken four semesters of Japanese at CofC, so when I heard about this program, I knew it was something I…
If you’re thinking about coming to KGU to study, statistics suggest that you’re also a super nerd (it’s okay, we all are too). If you frequently delve into nerdy endeavors, you will be delighted to hear that there are lots of video game and hobby stores within walking distance from KGU! One of my favorite stores to go to is called Book-Off, which is a second-hand store specializing in just…
My first few weeks at Kansai Gaidai flew by! Immediately after I arrived, I met up with some other CofC students, some students from other universities, and Japanese students, and went on a day trip to Osaka. We went to Osaka Castle, a maid cafe that received extremely high praise from one of my friends, and ate a bunch of good food. I was surprised that I was already making…
こんにちは！My name is Jackson Bass. Right now I am a sophomore at CofC, and I’m majoring in International Studies with an Asian concentration. The program I have chosen is the Asian Studies Program at Kansai Gaidai University, located in Osaka, Japan. I have a strong desire to work in Japan after graduation, so naturally the ASP at Kansai Gaidai was a good pick for me! While I am here in…
This past weekend our university hosted a sports festival called Yui Cup, which was a competition between all the floors in the Yui international dorm. Sports days at schools in Japan are a very common competition to raise morale and bring the school closer together. Kansai Gaidai’s sports day consisted of dodgeball, scavenger hunt, ball toss, and a relay race. I had a lot of fun competing with my dorm…
When I first signed up for a semester abroad in Japan, I was filled with various emotions. One part of me was nervous and sad, while another part of me was excited. One of my fears before coming to Japan was not finding my people. My nervousness came from the fact that I felt I would immediately be hit with a wave of homesickness and that I would want to…
I was so anticipating my trip to Japan. Ever since I was a child and my dad told me stories of going to Japan, the dream of visiting Japan was a goal I had set. Finally, being able to travel to Japan to experience the culture and try out my Japanese (since I have been taking it for the past 3 years) was a dream come true. First time out…
Initially, transitioning to life in Japan was a little difficult. I went from a country where everyone speaks English to a country where Japanese is the main language, and English speakers are not always around. In the beginning, there were times I would freeze at a restaurant or check-out counter because it would take me a second to process the Japanese being spoken to me. I would try to translate…
As a reward for completing our first three weeks of classes here in Japan, my friends and I decided to take a trip to Nara the following Sunday. For those who do not know what Nara is, Nara is a very popular prefecture in Japan that is known for their temples, shrines and most famous of them all, the bowing Deers. We left pretty early as we wanted to get…
It has been an amazing first month here at Kansai Gaidai University and there has been no shortage of trips to all the nearby prefectures. It is difficult to choose my favorite place in Japan so far, but my trip to Nara was exceptionally fun. My friends and I spent the day exploring the Nara Deer Park, petting and feeding as many deer as possible. As long as you had…
