Academic Year 2023 Participant
My favorite part of the program would have to be making friends and traveling the country. I visited so many historical sites, temples, castles, shrines, etc. and it was really cool. Sophia University's Tea Ceremony club was also really fun! It was hard to introduce myself but I made some really good friends there, and I recommend it to future students who go because only me and one other exchange student in the entire school participated in it.
Academic Year 2023 Participant
My favorite part of studying abroad was definitely having the ability to fully immerse myself in the language I'm learning, and to also learn about the culture alongside that. Through attending activities with my host family, club activities provided by the university I studied at, and making friends, I was able to gain a much deeper understanding of Japanese. Additionally, by doing all these things, there were a lot of aspects of Japanese culture that may be less obvious when looking in from the outside that I was able to observe and learn from.
Academic Year 2024 Participant
My favorite part of the program was the daily immersion in Japanese language and culture, both inside and outside the classroom. Studying at Sophia University allowed me to experience Tokyo in a way that felt authentic and connected to the community around me. I loved being able to practice what I learned every day, whether I was ordering food, navigating the trains, or talking with classmates. Those small moments of real-world interaction became the most memorable and meaningful parts of my year abroad.