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Campanella Ilaria

Italy, Latisana
School of Political Science and Economics
Exchange Student from The Ca' Foscari University of Venice

The Way to Feel Japan not as a Foreigner but as a Native

Campanella Ilaria
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hen I started to study Japanese and the Japanese culture, I suddenly realized that the most interesting feature of Japanese society is the way Japanese people behave and relate to others. Talking to people in a Japanese environment is not even comparable to the Italian way of communication. In Italy, the main aim of a conversation is to express your own will and conviction about a particular topic, trying to wallop your speaker with a better argument. But in Japan, what is perceived as necessary is, first, please your interlocutor, proving your interest in what he is saying and, second, try to arrange and adapt your own opinion to his. I decided to focus on politics because the world of public speaking is the best place where this difference takes form.

Then I asked a professor at my University: "is there a good place where I can study politics and get an idea of how Japanese people normally behave towards each other?

The answer was "Meiji University". The reasons were that Meiji has a well-known department of Politics and Economics; reliable professors and an amazing number of students. That would give me the chance to improve my knowledge about the Japanese political world and to deepen my understanding of the Japanese society.

My professor was right.

In 8 months I was able to meet a large number of people, to exchange opinions, to laugh and to quarrel, to confront myself and grow not only as a student but as a person. Thanks to my supervisor at the University, I could make amazing experiences such as visiting the House of Parliament accompanied by a member of the House of Councilors, or have a debate with Japanese middle school students on "the right age for voting".

In my personal opinion, talking to people at Meiji is the most interesting thing to do. There are a lot of students of different Departments, coming from different regions of Japan and with different cultural backgrounds. If you take part in a seminar, you will soon realize that they are in some ways similar, but still different from your University. Some of them are sleeping or chatting, some of them are paying attention, some of them are reading carefully their professors notes. But even in the same class they act differently if their classmate is a senior or a junior, someone they knew before, or someone from the same city or region. They naturally change their disposition (and their grade of courtesy) towards the other, based on an idea of right social behavior that to me seemed even too formal at a first glance. But then I realized that maintaining the right distance through words, means simplifying human relations without running the risk of revealing their own willingness too much. I started to get used to it and adapted my behavior as I understood the embedded rules of Japanese human relations. Meiji helped me develop these relationships and gave me the chance to feel not as a "foreigner between Japanese", but as a "student between other students".

Moreover, I have to thank this University because it gave me the chance to meet other exchange students. With them I could share my experiences and the surprising things that happened to me in those few months.

I lived by myself but I could feel the University as a second home, where I could study and concentrate on my research as well as chat, eat and have a good cup of coffee with my friends. The first month I had to adapt to the rhythm of Tokyo, with its trains, millions of people and sometimes awfully humid weather, but I found the city really comfortable. I had to adapt to a different type of University which works on forty thousand students instead of a mere thousand as in Italy.

And I found it working even better! People at the offices are cheerful and reliable and the International Centre is always full of initiatives and helpful information if you find yourself in trouble.

But my favorite space still remains the canteen. The food is good and cheap, it's lively and always open. It is the best place for chatting about your favorite actors, or discussing the last lesson with your classmates, or even giving free lessons of Italian to anyone interested.

I particularly recommend this University to everyone who is really interested in Japan, and wants to enjoy their studies through cross-cultural experiences. It is the best place to find friends of any nationality, and to feel Tokyo from the inside. The Surugadai campus, in particular, is situated in Ochanomizu, 10 minutes walking distance from Akihabara, the city of electronic devices.

In one square kilometer, you can find four or five famous Japanese Universities, besides Meiji. So the place is very young and lively, and the main street in front of the station houses many shops, each one dedicated to one music instrument. This means there is always nice background music when you go to and from lessons.

When I have time I take the elevator in Liberty Tower and enjoy the panorama from the 23rd floor of the main building you can see both the Mount Fuji and the sea. It is a spectacular view that the exchange students who came before me and the ones who will come, will never forget.

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