In this 14-day course, you will enjoy an authentic cross-cultural opportunity as you travel to Doane's sister school in Japan. Before your departure, you will work as a group to prepare a presentation about Doane College, Crete, and Nebraska, which you will share with the students, faculty, and staff of Tokyo Junshin College (TJWC). You will experience the language, culture, and educational system of Japan and will stay in a campus dormitory and/or in the home of a TJWC student. You will have hands-on opportunities to create things on your own. These experiences include Japanese ceramics, tea ceremony, Japanese calligraphy, battledore and shuttlecock, ikebana flower arranging, rice cake making, fan making, wearing a kimono, and working as an intern in a Japanese elementary school. Special instruction in Japanese expressions, currency, culture, holidays, and celebrations will be provided. While in Japan, you will travel to Kamakura, Enoshima, Odaiba Seaport, Shibuya, Shinjuku, Harajuku, Akihabara, Ginza, Ueno National Museum, Asakusa Temple, Takiyama Castle, and will visit a Sumo training session. TJWC students will volunteer to accompany and assist Doane College students. A certificate of completion of the course will be presented by TJWC to Doane College students at a special farewell reception.
Learning Objectives: You will gain a foundation of cross-cultural competence, a basic understanding of various aspects of Japanese culture, and will gain a personal understanding of the process of cultural adjustment.