【留学レポート】PUR受入 Mburukagaさん

ルワンダ?プロテスタント大学より2023年9月から2024年7月まで本学に留学していたMoses Richard Anthony MBURUKAGAさんが、留学していた1年間についてのエッセイを書いてくれました。ぜひご一読ください！

Mburukaga’s stay report in Japan.

My stay in Japan avail both opportunity and challenges. In this report I will share some of the challenges and opportunities.

My name is MBURUKAGA Moses Richard Anthony, I am a South Sudanese. I am a student of Protestant Institute of Arts and Social Sciences-Rwanda. I major in peace and conflict studies. I have been at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies for my exchange program from 26^th September 2023 to July 29^th 2024 (ten months). I can say, been in Japan was a dream come true, as I always had wanted to visit Japan one day in my life and I happen to get the opportunity through the exchange program which I didn’t know that I could get it but finally I got it.

Opportunity to learn from exploration.

All I knew about Japan was Toyota cars (Land cruisers) and the World War II (Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombing). However, after my stay in Japan I have learned a lot more about Japan though not all because I cannot learn everything about a country since there are visible and invisible aspects of the culture. I should say I am proud of my stay in Japan.

I am a person who is always interested in knowing how the international community works and interested in international and national politics. And during my stay in Japan, I should be able to attest that I realized this through some classes that I took and interactions with the other international students that I met at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies. This is because the university brings people from various corners of the world and this represented how the international society works and I met my interest to know how the international society works through the fellow students and university lectures.

During my stay in Japan, I visited a lot of places and experienced a lot of cultural shocks/differences. These cultural shocks presented opportunities to learn and develop myself for my future endeavors. Among the places that I visited was Yasukuni Shrine around Tokyo, this is place that exposed me to the cultural aspect of Japan of men lead society and learned how young people used to sacrifice their life for the sake of the emperor (Kamikaze).

Another thing that learned from Yasukuni Shrine was the role of the women that it was not represented in the shrine but what I learned from there was, women are not so much involved in violent acts or engage themselves in violent situations as compared to men. This can be evident in the act of Kamikaze as I read about it at Yasukuni Shrine and Chiran Peace Museum in Kagoshima it all portrayed young men in the act of Kamikaze not young women.

All the above, experiences in the shrine and museum taught me a greater role women can play in building peace in a society if we take look at aggressive society of Japan during the war times (World War I and World War II) majority of the aggressors were men and women did the background role as it is not much related to violence (taking care of the wounded).

I also visited families, during my time in Japan I had the opportunity to visit a host family and through the host family program I learned a lot of cultural aspects of Japan. This came through the help of Internationals Students Home Visit program. This program exposed me different cultures that I did not know. It also gave me the opportunity to test varieties of food (Takoyaki, Sushi, ramen, and takoyaki which was my favorite food in Japan) and family practices (care for the children). I also had the chance to play with the kids as a person who loves the kids.

There is aspect of the Japanese culture of saying sorry regardless of the situation. I moved around Tokyo, Saitama, Yokohama and Kagoshima prefectures. I learned that it is part of the culture of the Japanese to say sorry even it is not their faulty or something has fallen from their hands they can still say sorry.? Found this culture very interesting as the is one of the concepts of reconciliation to say sorry or to ask for forgiven sincerely to build the relationship that was once broken.

During my stay in Japan, I had the chance to conduct my three months internship at Seibo Japan. Which is a NPO mobilizing funds to support/feed school children in Malawi and I participated in some activities like selling coffee at Sophia University (100% profit goes for charity) and interacting with students about charity at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Koenji Junior High and high school and Osaka International School (online presentation). Through this internship I learned a lot of things about charity and how little efforts can have an impact on others lives. For example, 15? makes a meal for students in Malawi and the effort of Seibo Japan is commendable in realizing this.

During my visit to Kagoshima, I felt the love from a family and I found the true meaning of a family. I missed my family for two years and half but when I visited the family of ayari San I felt like I was at home with my mother as I lacked nothing, had the company and support from the family.

Challenges faced during the stay

I faced very few challenges compared to the above lessons learned. To start with, first time to learn the characters of Japanese and get to play around with. And this is also closely linked to language barrier as it was my first time to be in Japan and face the reality of learning and experiencing the language in reality. As I visited the host families, I knew little Japanese but limited because it was not much up to that of conversation level. It limited my interaction with all the family members.

I should also indicate this, I had wanted to visit Hiroshima when I found out that I would be coming to Japan, unfortunately, I could not make it due to expensive tickets to go there and return. However, I don’t regret not going there as I have learned a lot about it in some classes that I took and through the visits to the museum and shrine (Yasukuni Jinja Shrine and Chiran Peace Museum).

In conclusion, I should be able to state how helpful it was to have Japanese friends (Mana, Takahito) around me who helped me to settle in well really easily, and how helpful they were and the fact that Japanese are really nice people, once you reach out to them for help, they are ready to offer a helping hand to you at any time. I should also state the love and care I received from the family of Ayari San in Kagoshima prefecture was commendable unforgettable moment.

I should not forget the unforgettable help of the JASSO scholarship and the help of Yuko San, Chihiro Sensei and everyone/staff who made sure all my needs we were accomplished and guidance from every one at the African Study Center.