Category: GE3: Tohoku University

Last weekend, a tour hosted by Tohoku University’s Foreign Student Association allowed foreign students such as myself to visit two towns: Onagawa (“Female River”) and Ishinomaki (“Rolled Stone”). What makes these two towns special is their location in regards to the tragedy that had occurred 6 years ago; a magnitude 9.0 earthquake, followed by 3 ...

This past week, my friends and I had traveled to Shiroishi, a town located around an hour south of Sendai, with the purpose of visiting Shiroishi-jō. Shiroishi-jō, meaning White Stone Castle, was built in the 1300’s, destroyed and rebuilt in 1591, again destroyed in 1819, rebuilt in 1823, only to be destroyed once again in 1875 and rebuilt ...

This past week I had been given the opportunity to learn how to create Japanese pottery and dumplings, known as togei and gyoza respectively. These are items that can be found in multiple areas outside of Japan but it does not mean the style and design are the same. Given the opportunity to make Japanese pottery meant ...

Today, my culture class was given the opportunity to be served tea in traditional Japanese manner! With our hosts being the Tea Club at Miyagi Gakuin Women’s University, we international students were forced to humble ourselves as we experienced the serving of tea in the same magnitude that was given to extremely formal events. Upon ...

One of the BEST ways I love spending my time abroad is to be locked up within a 100 ft. x 100 ft. square laboratory looking through a microscope all day, not going outside at all except for lunch at 12. Of course, I’m acting grumpy, but I really can’t complain. As much as I ...

Memories are weird. They get in way sometimes and remind you of things you’d much rather not recall. In my case, high school sports festivals.   This past Saturday, partnering organizations at Tohoku University held a joint sports festival     to try and unite both native and international students together through exercise and activities. ...

This past November 3-5, Tohoku University had celebrated their 69th annual university festival! To say I was lucky with this year’s theme is an understatement; the festival felt nostalgic even for me, an international student who has never been to a single festival in his life! It was an absolutely wonderful experience that I hope ...

Yesterday, my Japanese Culture class had a fun little trip going to the Izumi Kamuri village (name meaning “mountain spring”), a community of only 1,500 about an hour away from Sendai’s city center. It is here that the traditional Sword and Deer Dances had originated. The Deer Dance, or shishi odori, was originally created to commemorate deer ...

Today, the Tohoku University Foreign Student Association (TUFSA) decided to take out the international students to tour around Sendai and visit quintessential locations near and around our dormitory. The first few stops were cheap (in an absolutely great way for a college student as myself) vegetable and halal shops. Next, we stopped by other grocery ...

Matsushima, translated as Pine Islands, is ranked as one of the Three Views of Japan. It is located a couple kilometers northeast of Sendai and is composed of a small town, a bay, and over 260 islands all covered in pines (hence, the name). A couple friends and I went there a few days ago ...