To Nagoya

After leaving Osaka early in the morning, we headed by the bullet train to our next hotel in Gifu to drop off our luggage. After that, we went back to the train station and went to Nagoya University. The campus itself was really pretty. It kind of reminded me of Ann Arbor in that the campus seemed to be settled right into the city. After a bit of walking, we reached the building where we would have a kind of information session about Nagoya University. The room we were lead to almost looked like a kind of board room with its longer tables and project screen. There were already faculty and students from Nagoya waiting for us when we arrived. We had a short information session in which we learned that Nagoya is one of the top Universities in Japan, who some of their university partners are worldwide (UofM is not one of them), and other impressive facts. Right after this presentation though, it was time to head to their cafeteria to get lunch.

The lunch was really good and there were many different options of what to eat (I had ramen and it was delicious). After lunch, we were given a short tour of the campus itself. Like I said before, the campus was quite pretty. Even though this university seemed more like it was a part of a city then the other universities we have been to, it still seemed pretty calm and relaxed. Our tour also brought us to their library which was very impressive. They had a large collection of books, lots of areas for individual and group study, and even televisions that would broadcast shows from around the world. We also saw one of their buildings that honors the four Nobel Peace Prize winners from Nagoya University.

Building with Nobel Prize Winners

Once the tour was over and we were back in the room we started in, it was time to actually talk to the Nagoya University students. I realized pretty quickly that most, if not all, of the students there were going for their masters. We started by listening to two presentations by two of their students. One was a Japanese student, while the other was a foreign exchange student from China. Both of them told us about their daily lives and the expectations from Nagoya University. After that, we were all given time to ask the individual students we were sitting near some questions about their lives at Nagoya University. One fact that I quickly noticed was that not many of them work while going to college and, for the ones that do, they work smaller part time jobs. Next, it was our turn. Each of our groups had a turn to stand up and speak about our experiences as a student at UofM - Flint. Following that, the Nagoya students had a chance to ask us questions. Once we all had a chance to talk for a while, we were told that we had some free time before dinner. Most of us took this opportunity to head over to the campus store and see what they had for sale there. While the store was small, there was quite a bit of food, school supplies, and Nagoya University apparel there. Once our time was up, it was off to dinner.

The dinner was amazing. It was the kind of restaurant where course after course of food was brought out. Every time I thought that the food was done, more was brought out and each one was really good. It was really nice to be able to take this time and just relax and unwind. One of the more interesting parts was that, while we were eating, a large group of students arrived and sat down at the section that was right by us. About ten minutes after they arrived, a professor arrived. It turns out that the group were all engineering majors and one of their professors. They were all joking, drinking, laughing, and just having a good time. The  main reason I found it interesting is that you really never hear about this happening back home. I asked some of the professors from Nagoya that were with us if this was normal and they said it was. Apparently, it is not uncommon in Japan for professors to get dinner or drinks with groups of their students. If anything, this probably helps a bond form and grow, which is useful when the students and professors are going to be seeing each other for the next four years or so. It was actually something I wish could/would happen more back home.

Following dinner, it was time to head back to our hotel. While the day had been really enjoyable, I was definitely ready to go to bed. I was bummed though because, from here on out, there would be no more trips to universities, but I enjoyed each and every one we had been to, both in Taiwan and in Japan.