The World Campus Japan program is unique as it offers the chance to experience the Japanese culture from an array of perspectives, through several, differing, perhaps unconventional activities. Among them, on June the 16th, we got to play golf with some members of the local community of Isa.

After a morning spent planting rice in the countryside of the city, we headed towards the local Golf Park, where a group of elderly people awaited, ready to meet us with their equipment in hand. We were divided into couples, and each was then assigned to two ‘buddies’ chosen among the community. In my case, I had the honor of meeting Ichiro-san and Tetsuko-san, who started asking questions right away, showing interest in my teammate and I.

I deeply appreciated how hard they tried to explain the game rules in both Japanese and a little English. Eventually, we managed to successfully initiate the game. They were real professionals (Ichiro-san started 8 years ago and Tetsuko-san around 30!), and seeing them play was a deeply humbling experience (I am myself really not a golf champion, and I was at that moment very aware of it).

Once we were done, we took the usual group picture and we hugged goodbye. Ichiro-san got me and my teammate some candies to thank us for spending our afternoon playing with them. Before leaving, I had the chance to talk to him for a bit, he asked where I come from, what I am doing in Japan, while I asked him more about his life as a professor in Tokyo. Then, we promised each other that we would meet again someday.

Such experiences make you aware of how much kindness strangers can treat you with and show how no matter the age or the cultural background, people will always find a way to communicate with and understand each other.

Alessandra from Italy

By Ezra Newby, participant of 2023 Session 1, from Texas, USA

This is my first time in Japan and the city that I am staying at for 5 days is Kagoshima, I honestly wasn’t really expecting anything spectacular because I heard it was a pretty small city. When I arrived I realized that I was very mistaken. When I drove from the airport to my host family’s house, I was able to see gigantic trees, with the greenest scenery you can imagine, a scene that hadn’t been tainted with large structures as far as the eye could see. That is something I hardly ever see living in Texas, it was a mesmerizing sight. Aside from how physically beautiful the city is, it’s extremely rich in history and interesting information that you wouldn’t ever know unless you went there. As for the locals there, everyone is extremely kind and humble, there was not a single time where I felt as if being a foreigner was a bad thing in the eyes of locals. The residents seemed as if they were eager to have people come and learn about their country and city which made the cultural experience infinitely better.