While I was teaching at Te Puke High School in 2005 I met Saki Mikami a Japanese exchange student with NZIIU. (NZIIU was an organisation that I worked for co-ordinating homestay groups in 1989.) Saki is now in her first year at Akita International University in Akita.
We had 3 days left on our Japan Rail Pass ticket that we had bought in Taiwan so used it to head north to Akita.
Saki looked great and her English was greatly improved as she has all her lectures in English. A condition of her university is that she has to go to an overseas university for her 4th year of study and has to score high on a English language test as well. We visited her uni about 20 minutes from Akita city and it had some great facilities. There were about 100 overseas students of the 600 at the uni.
Akita is well-known for its 'onsens', hot water mineral baths, so Saki took us to a rustic place near the ski resorts in the mountains.
We also visited an ancient Samurai town where many of the Samurai houses have been renovated and are open to the public. We also ate the local dish of noodles at a restaurant overlooking the street with its autumn leaves. The area has revived the tradition of making wooden articles from the bark of the cherry tree.
The streets were lined with gingko bilbao trees like we have at our place. These had fruit that they use in a baked egg dish.
It was wonderful to see Saki as an independent, confident, young lady and we wish her luck in her English studies.
We had 3 days left on our Japan Rail Pass ticket that we had bought in Taiwan so used it to head north to Akita.
Saki looked great and her English was greatly improved as she has all her lectures in English. A condition of her university is that she has to go to an overseas university for her 4th year of study and has to score high on a English language test as well. We visited her uni about 20 minutes from Akita city and it had some great facilities. There were about 100 overseas students of the 600 at the uni.
Akita is well-known for its 'onsens', hot water mineral baths, so Saki took us to a rustic place near the ski resorts in the mountains.
We also visited an ancient Samurai town where many of the Samurai houses have been renovated and are open to the public. We also ate the local dish of noodles at a restaurant overlooking the street with its autumn leaves. The area has revived the tradition of making wooden articles from the bark of the cherry tree.
The streets were lined with gingko bilbao trees like we have at our place. These had fruit that they use in a baked egg dish.
It was wonderful to see Saki as an independent, confident, young lady and we wish her luck in her English studies.
