Freya Englander, ’99
Kansai Gaidia Osaka, Spring 98

After the spring semester ended at Kansai Gaidai University in Osaka, Japan, I spent two months exploring the Kansai area, as well as other parts of Japan. Three weeks before I left to return home to the United States, Natasha, an Australian friend from Kansai Gaidai, and I took the shinkansen (bullet train) to Shizuoka - an area not far from Mt. Fuji - where we met up with Reider Sensei, a former Japanese teacher from Kenyon, and Tomoko, a former one year Kenyon student and assistant teacher of Japanese. (Both were working at an intensive Japanese language program.) After spending one night in Shizuoka, Tomoko, Natasha and I traveled up to Tokyo for the weekend. Saturday night, we met Emiko, a Kenyon graduate and former assistant teacher of Japanese, and Atsushi, also a former one year Kenyon student. We ate dinner at an izakaya- a Japanese style bar that serves drinks and many small dishes which are to be shared. Afterwards, we made our way to karaoke, a very popular past-time in Japan. During our short reunion, we spoke both Japanese and English as we exchanged Kenyon memories and filled each other in about what had happened since we last met.

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Comments to: Rita S. Kipp
Last Edited: 11/23/98

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