CET Japan: Pretty People and Places

Photos taken by Nicholas Yee (Yale University), Student Correspondent for CET Japan, Summer 2024

A Walk Home…

My walk home from Aikawa Station back to SpaceGreen is 20 minutes—not the most convenient, especially in bad weather. But on good days, I get to see the pretty side of Japan’s suburbs with amazing sunsets and vibrant colors, which is something I’ve come to cherish.

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Cooking with my Local Roommates

Making and eating dinner with my OGU housemates will be one of my fondest memories at CET. It’s the best time to practice Japanese in a casual setting—where you’ll learn the practical skills most necessary to improving your conversational skills. Rui and Yuusei got together with Cameron, Kaella, and I to celebrate Cameron’s 21st birthday with some homemade takoyaki, Osaka’s famous street food that has now made it worldwide.

Another long night of studying came with a quick pasta run to the supermarket with Rui in the shared space at SpaceGreen Osaka. I made my best attempt at a pasta alla vodka while Rui had some mentaiko (pollock roe) pasta, something not found elsewhere but popular in Japan.

On another day, Rui invited some friends over and we had another Japanese adaptation of a Western staple—taco rice. It’s all you can ask for in a filling meal with tomato, ground meat, cheese and rice.

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Rescue Cat Café

We had the amazing opportunity to visit a rescue cat café with the program in Tenjimbashi. We were able to hang out with the cats for an hour, taking photos and playing with them. It was basically a cuteness overload.

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Traditional Japanese Storytelling Workshop

Our day was shortened as our class joined another to engage in a rakugo workshop, which is traditional Japanese storytelling. After listening to some hilarious stories and puns, as well as another telling of the “cat and the plate” story in our textbook, we were given a chance to try rakugo ourselves.

Given just a towel and chopsticks we were challenged to sit on a platform and come up with a funny story to act out in Japanese. It was definitely stressful to perform, but it was a great way to practice my on-the-go Japanese thinking.

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Osaka Gakuin High School

The whole program had the chance to visit the Osaka Gakuin High School (the affiliated High School of OGU) in Aikawa. We had a great time seeing what Japanese high school life was like, and interacting with the high schoolers in Japan was super fun.

The students welcomed us with posters at the gate, as if we were guests at the airport, a super fun surprise. A few of the CET students then became dance leaders and led the macarena and the cha-cha slide. We also had the opportunity to play volleyball, a Japanese version of dodgeball, and the red light green light game from Squid Game.

After lunch and nearing the visit’s end, we got the chance to see a demonstration of the school’s taiko team, Japanese drumming, which was insanely impressive. This was especially reaffirmed when we had the chance to try it ourselves. This was one of my favorite CET experiences so far!