On Tuesday, October 19th, some GP students and Hawaii students went to Osu, which is a traditional Japanese shopping district in Nagoya. We enjoyed shopping, eating ramen at Sugakiya, and taking purikura. What the Hawaii students were interested in the most was stationary like mechanical pencils. They said that such a wide variety of unique stationary was not sold in Hawaii and that this was the first time for them to see such things. When I heard that, I was so proud of the Japanese for their consideration of people and making useful and well thought out goods as well as proud of the advanced technology of Japan. Also, I was surprised that there are some Japanese ramen chain stores in Hawaii. One of the Hawaii students said he liked Tenkaippin the best. Although I am Japanese, and there are a few Tenkaippin restaurants near my house, I have never been to one. Therefore, I thought it was really interesting to take him to Tenkaippin in Japan. Unfortunately, we couldn't do that because of time, but I really want to go to both Tenkaippin in Japan and in Hawaii. I assume that they have something in common, but that there must be a lot of unique differences too. Perhaps I can see the different ways of eatin ramen and also eat Hawaiian style ramen at Tenkaippin in Hawaii. Taking purikura was fun as well. It was impressive that Hawaii students were so active when taking pictures but were quiet and hesitant when drawing in the pictures afterwards. I thought that American people tended to be active towards everything, but they feel anxious about trying something new like me. It made me feel a sense of closeness to them more. I learned many things through this short trip and my interest in Hawaii, its culture and people, increased even more. I really want to go there and see the nice Hawaii students again and experience a lot of the cultural differences.  

by Mei K