Michele Heng's Japan Exchange Experience 2004

"My own past, which made me what I am, is a part of human experience... If my story helps you and others to understand even a part of what we are, I shall be satisfied."
-NATSUME Soseki, Kokoro

It's a difficult task to sum up 9-months into one webpage. Above that, to write something meaningful from my own experience is a challenge. That being said, lend me your patience and understanding as I attempt to share my past with you.

First, let me give you an executive summary of the Japanese Exchange experience. The exchange program between the University of Waterloo and Tottori University was started by Professor Keith Hipel and Professor Norio Okada in 1987. I arrived in Japan in April 2004 and studied the same courses that 3A systems students take at UW until the end of July. At the university, I was assigned to Professor Kita's lab and was warmly welcomed by the grad students and given a desk in their room where I often studied. During the term, I also joined the girl's basketball circle. In the month of August, I participated in an 8-day Japan Tent conference with 350 other international students from all over Japan. I started my work term in September with Ark Information Systems, Inc. in Tokyo. In December, my work term came to an end and I returned to Tottori University to do a final presentation and to say goodbye.


Tottori University's President Michiue and UW's Professor Hipel

The purpose of this webpage is for me to somehow transfer some bit of insight that I have acquired while in Japan so that you might be able to take this knowledge and use it in the context of your own experience. To this end, I would to say 3 things.

  1. I went on exchange because I'm selfish.
  2. If I didn't expect it, it happened.
  3. I had an amazing time.

So I believe that to go on exchange is very much a selfish thing to do. It has to be. I leave my family, my friends, and my school to go to the place on earth that couldn't be any further away from home - to learn a new culture, to pick up a new language, to make me a better me. In the end, what do I have to show? A bit of a debt for my parents to pick up...a few catchy phrases to impress the Japanese exchange students...beautiful pictures that don't do justice to nature...and the memories and thoughts shaping my mind to be fully conscious of the world and people whom make this world worth each and every day that the sun rises. In the end, I did it for me.


Second Row: Hiro, Nana, Miyu, Mako
Front Row: Hashi, Chika, Michele, Ami, Natsu

Tottori Campus - Engineering Building

The second thing I'd like to say is that everything worked out in the end. You can fret all you like and worry about the process til the cows come home, but I've learned to just enjoy the moment and take things as they come. Don't worry about anything because what the bad things that you expect to happen will happen. But the good things you don't expect to happen may be just around the corner and you just have to wait and it'll happen no matter what. Two other UW students from ECE and I were told that we would be taken care of while in Japan and indeed we were. Everything, from lodging to bedding to banking to classes to alien registration to our jobs, we didn't have to lift a feather. In being assigned to a lab, the grad students took care of me. I applied for the Japan Tent Conference and I stayed with two host families that were absolutely amazing to me. I was handed to a company that really took me in and really made me a part of their company. I asked myself, how did I get to be so lucky?


Sayonara Party - Dec 10, 2004

Knowing that I didn't deserve the things that came my way, while I was there and to this day, looking back on the experience I can honestly say that I had an amazing time. And this is something that could've gone the other way. When you go abroad, you usually expect to have the time of your life no matter what, and perhaps that's generally true and people do, but I would argue that that is not the case with Japan. For foreigners in Japan, it can be that you love it or you hate it. Sometimes it's not what you expect. When I went to Japan, I had expectations to have a good time, to make friends, to have stories to tell when I came back. I was being selfish and this was the reason for going on exchange. But I realized that I was a guest in this country. I realized how lucky I was to have opportunity and that really made me appreciate everything. From my lab friends to my host families to my colleagues, I am currently and forever endebted to them because they made my experience in Japan absolutely amazing which they didn't have to do, but they did!

So forgive me for being a little incoherent and perhaps not making much sense but I hope that you can understand my experience when you find yourself in the same situation. If we realize how undeserving we sometimes are then we'll appreciate what we get because it is so much more than what we may have thought.


Sayonara Party - Dec 10, 2004

My lab was awesome! I love those guys.

The professors of the laboratory were Professor Hideyuki Kita, Professor Keishi Tanimoto, Professor Muneta Yokomatsu, and Michiko Yamamura.

The greatest grad students of all time were Koji Iwakura, Morimoto Hiroyuki, Takayuki Okumoto, Yasuhiro Fujita, Tadashi Yasuda, Tsubasa Ishimaru, Yuichi Ito, Masato Sugahara, Takahiro Takeuchi, Yasushi Katayama, Oshihiko Matsuoka, and Shuichi Tsukioka.

The sweetest and cutest 4th year students were Takashi, Masanori, Takuya Matsunaga, Ryo Noda, and Kanako Shimada.


The systems planning laboratory - Dec 10, 2004

My awesome Labmates - Dec 13, 2004
A link you may find funny!