Kirsten Holt

Swinburne University, Australia
Exchange to Kansai Gaidai University, Japan

Kansai Gaidai University in Osaka, Japan, is the one place responsible for the most amazing four and a half months of my life. In about August of 2006, one of my closest friends at Swinburne left on an overseas exchange for one year. She was just one of the many people who motivated me to embark on such a wonderful experience. After talking to her, Jessie in the Education Abroad Office, and a couple of my Japanese teachers at Swinburne, my decision was made and I was off to Japan in the second semester of 2007!

I arrived in Tokyo on August 11 for a solo 2-week adventure before university started in Osaka. Prior to arriving in Tokyo, I was a little apprehensive about being by myself, perhaps because I’d never been overseas on my own before, and although I could get by, I wasn’t fluent in the Japanese language either. However, after surviving 3 consecutive decent-sized earthquakes at 4am on my second morning in Tokyo, I realized it was an experience I had to go through with, and at the end of it all, I would look back and wish I could do it all over again. And that’s exactly what happened.

I did a lot of solo sightseeing in Tokyo, which was a little lonely at times, but I still enjoyed every minute of it. I went on tours, where I met different people from around the world, and wasn’t lonely from then on. The only problem I had in Tokyo was when everybody I’d met left about 5 days before I left for Osaka, the nights were very lonely. Eating out alone, sitting in my hotel room alone, and watching TV alone. Needless to say my family and friends back home got a lot of phone calls those nights!

On August 25, I left my beautiful traditional hotel in Asakusa, Tokyo, and boarded the amazing bullet train to Kyoto Station, where I was greeted by about 15 other exchange students, and finally an Englishspeaking Japanese woman holding a clipboard. She seemed quite busy, but as I approached the group, (assuming they were also Kansai students) one of the boys said to me, “Kansai?” and I nodded my head. That first person that spoke to me ended up being from Sydney, and we talked the whole bus ride back to Osaka and became good friends.

I arrived at my temporary new home around 6pm that night and was pleasantly surprised when I walked through the doors. My bubbly, bright, and very excited resident assistant, Taka, came quickly to help me with my bags. “American or Spanish?” he guessed before I could get a word out. “No. Australian,” I replied. “We haven’t got any Australians in this dorm yet, you’re the first one. Congratulations!” he giggled. I was welcomed with open arms and very happy to be there.

After giving me a booklet and briefly explaining my duties for the night, I was shown to my room by a beautiful Colombian girl who turned out to be one of the best friends I have. She told me that she had studied at Kansai the semester before and was looking forward to her final semester. She asked me the room number on my booklet, and when I replied with “4326” she seemed surprised. “Oh? That’s great! You’re living in the room next to me and your roommate is my best friend from Colombia!”

My roommate was the most beautiful person I met in Japan, and I know we’ll be friends for life. I’ve already planned my trip to Colombia in December of 2009, and we speak via the internet quite frequently. We taught each other a lot about our home countries and lifestyles, she taught me a little Spanish, and I taught her some Australian English she wasn’t familiar with! My memories of the many times we spent laughing and crying together are ones I won’t forget for a very long time. As she had also studied at Kansai the semester before, she explained to me how the university runs and what is expected of me, places to eat, shop etc. It was a great advantage having her with me in the beginning.

We started orientation programmes on the Monday, and formal classes the following Tuesday. The university had great, organized events planned and informative health and safety sessions too. After that first week of orientation, I felt as though I’d been there forever. I’d met most of the people living in the dorm, selected my units of study, knew my way around the campus, and was confident about the experiences that awaited me.

Kansai Gaidai Hirakata Campus is a huge university with excellent facilities. Its Centre for International Exchange (CIE) is big, easy to find your way around, and run by part-time, final year students, fluent in English. It has a big library, several Japanesestyle cafeterias, a bookshop, convenience store, gymnasium, huge sports grounds, and of course many buildings full of classrooms. The CIE staff were extremely helpful in getting us organized and always willing to help out. They had frequent excursions organized, accompanied by 2 of the students, and all we had to do was sign up and turn up at the meeting place on the day. Some of the trips included: Universal Studios; Japanesestyle cooking classes; tea ceremonies; camping; theatre performances, and much more. This also encouraged us to make new friends, with both local Japanese students and international students.

The CIE were also helpful when I became quite sick about half way through the semester. I had been in Tokyo for the weekend with a couple of other international students, and it rained the entire 4 days we were there. It was really cold and I ended up with bronchitis and bad asthma. The 6-hour overnight bus from Tokyo back to Osaka was a nightmare, we arrived around 7am and I couldn’t wait to get to university so I could get to the doctors. I went straight into the CIE and they noticed I looked unwell. One of the staff came with me to the doctor’s surgery, which was within walking distance of the university, and translated into English exactly what the doctor was saying for me. I ended up having to take several tablets a day, and cough mixture, along with my asthma medication. I took a couple of days off class, and the CIE checked on me daily. That was probably my only bad experience in Japan, and realistically, it wasn’t THAT bad.

I was lucky enough to have my parents visit me for 4 days in late September, and we had a fantastic time together. As I live at home with my family, and always have, I didn’t realize how much I would miss having them around. For the weekend they stayed, I booked them into a hotel near my dorm, and stayed with them most nights, as we had early mornings and late nights and our days were packed full of adventures.

Along with my trip to Tokyo, I visited Hiroshima, which is so peaceful, yet full of new life. The atomic bomb museum is a must-see, and if possible, talk to a survivor – it was a huge eye-opener. I visited Kyoto, the old yet beautiful city, many times as its only 45 minutes by train from Kansai. Many of Japan’s famous temples are in Kyoto, along with great shopping and restaurants. I also managed to get over to South Korea for 5 days with my roommate and some friends. Although much different to Japan, Seoul was very interesting. We did a tour of the “demilitarized zone” and learnt a lot about the history of North and South Korea. When we had long weekends, we definitely didn’t put them to waste. Even though we all studied, we did get the most out of our time in Japan and tried to fit as much in as possible.

Japan is such an amazing country, it has so much to offer in so many ways, the various sights are incredible and the local Japanese people have such a beautiful, kind nature towards others. The opportunity I was given I am so grateful for, and I can’t explain in words how much I gained from the experience. The friendships I’ve made are forever and what I learnt while in Japan will benefit me both academically and socially in whatever my career path may be. My Japanese language skills improved immensely and I hope to continue Japanese culture and language studies in the future. All I can say about my time in Japan is that I don’t regret a thing and if I got the opportunity again I would take it in a heartbeat.

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