Orientation week

Jan 04, 2012 (Wed.)

One of the most exciting, but also hectic periods of the year for the Asian Studies Program is drawing to a close. During the orientation week the newly arrived students have their first experiences of Japan, and begin to get used to this truly unique country

Living arrangements, course registration and numerous forms must be taken care of, while informational meetings provide a good opportunity to understand some of the intricacies of living in Japan.

Everything is not forms and meetings though. The student assistants at the ASP arranged several popular expeditions to, for example, local supermarkets to help the exchange students familiarize themselves with their surroundings and the unusual delicacies that crowd the shelves of the stores.

One particularly successful tour invited the exchange students to a conveyor belt Sushi restaurant to give them a first real taste of Japanese Sushi. The Sushi restaurant was soon filled with happily chatting international students, who eagerly tried out the delicious and surprisingly cheap treats.

Finally, during the weekend, students who had arranged for a homestay finally got to meet their host families and moved in to their new homes, while the students staying in the seminar houses said goodbye to their temporary roommates and celebrated the extra living space they left behind.

Both homestay students and seminar house residents have many new experiences ahead of them and their seminar house roommates, or host families may well become trusted friends during the semester ahead of them.

The orientation period is ending, but the real semester is just about to begin!