MONJA MIHAJLOVIC
Well, arriving in Japan has been an adventure! It took about 36 hours to fly here, then I had to get on two trains to get to my hostel, and I accidentally got on one of the local express trains which of course does not stop at my stop, so I had to get off, get on a different train and come back. I then could not for the life of my find my hostel (which is tough with heavy luggage in the mountains), until a very friendly woman stopped to help me and brought me there. On the train rides, I did get a great view of Kobe and my observations include the following: 1. It is extremely industrialized 2. There still appear to be green gardens, parks, and rooftops all over the place 3. I saw quite a few solar panels on the buildings, which I liked 4. The transit system appears to be pretty impeccable. My hostel very much reminds me of living in the dorms during my freshman year of my Bachelor’s degree, which is both interesting and slightly stifling.
The first week was great overall, I met with Dr. Matsuda, the professor who is hosting me, we talked about the plans for my stay and it looks like a pretty busy schedule. He also introduced me to one of his doctorate philosophy students, Mr. Akinori Lee, who will be coming to USF to do research in August! I was really excited to find this out, I told him if he helps me out while I am here, I will help him in Tampa. It looks like the Education of Sustainable Development (ESD) program at the university, is actually made up of a combination of different departments. This would include the Departments of Humanities, Human Development, and Economy. Within each of the departments there are professors who study particular sustainability subjects and who are working on specific sustainability projects. I will be interviewing these professors and doing research on the information they provide for me,
I met with the first professor, who talked about the waste management program at the university, specifically about recycling and wastewater management. It was extremely interesting to see how they recycle in a different manner. They have six different methods of recycling on campus, and I think that from my own observations it appears to be rather simple. The students do not seem to be remotely confused or bothered by where they should be putting their trash. I think the more complicated aspect of this is actually picking up the trash and taking it to the facilities to be recycled. I have noticed that Japan in general is remarkably clean for a city that houses over 1.5 million people.
Aside from interviewing the professors, I spend a lot of time at the common area for graduate students, which they kindly gave me access to, and I do research to find out more about each subject. I have also had to revamp my proposal quite a bit because it was really hard to figure out exactly what I would be doing while I was here, so I had to change that up a bit. I think that if the flow of information continues to be as it is now, I will have plenty of information for a great paper. My only fear is that my paper may not be ‘scientific’ enough. I have a lot of statistical data but I am by no means a science student, and I do not plan on writing about subjects which I do not have a background in, so hopefully the paper that I come up with is still regarded as highly informed.
I am taking the liberty to go do a bit of sightseeing over the weekend. By a bit I mean literally every place that could possibly be visited. I have an awesome map that shows pictures of different sights, so I walked to as many as I possibly could, I think I covered about thirty miles total over the weekend. It was great! I noticed that the city had these rough yellow raised parts of the sidewalk, I didn’t know what it was about and I learned later that they are to guide blind people! I thought it was awesome because they are literally all over the city. It is honestly a bit tough to figure things out sometimes because there is almost no one in this area outside of the university that speaks English. This is of course fine, but sometimes if I am lost or hungry it is difficult to communicate. Luckily, as mentioned before, the train system is impeccable, it took me all of a trip or two to figure it out and I think I could probably take it anywhere now. The trains are always on time too, and they play music as the train arrives.
Hm, food is great! There is a local grocery store that I walk to for dinner usually and in the mornings there is a great bakery that I found and the ladies are lovely, so I make sure to buy from them. There is a kitchen at the hostel but since I have no intention of burning the place down, I think I am going to stick to premade dinners for now J Otherwise, I just love the atmosphere here, I am right in the mountains and although it is hard to walk up to the university (it is on a huge hill), I just love the view and the many beautiful areas. Unfortunately, it appears that June is their month of rainy season, so I am not going to get a whole lot of sunshine, but that is fine, I will find it when I come back to Florida.