Traditional and Modern: Experiencing Japanese Culture in Tokyo!

With orientation and introductions out of the way, our brave navigators were ready to dive right into the program! Their third day in Japan began with their first gaming class with instructor Steve Ross. Mr. Ross has previously taught both university and high school students in Japan, and also works as a Japan Correspondent for CGTN America.  In this first lesson, students explored the concept of “fun” in games and the many different ways in which people find enjoyment in them.  In small groups, they also began developing their own concept for a game using what they had just learned.

After lunch, the navigators headed to their first Japanese class. The instructor for this class is Ms. Atsuko Iwamoto, who did a wonderful job of introducing them to the basics, such as: hiragana and katakana (two of the three main Japanese alphabets), sentence structure, and some vocabulary words.

After Japanese class, our navigators did yet another thing for the first time! They took the subway all the way to Harajuku to partake in the cultural activity of the day. This part of Japan is known mostly as a fashion and shopping district, focusing on teenage culture and the “underground fashion” scene. Students spent most of their time in Takeshita Dori Street, where most of the trendy shops, boutiques, and crêpe stands are located. This was the first time students really got to experience Japanese pop culture up close.

Wednesday’s schedule was quite similar to that of the day before. In the morning students took their gaming class with Mr. Ross, where they continued to work on their game design. After that, they once again headed to their Japanese class where they continued to learn helpful phrases to navigate Japan and communicate with others.

The cultural activity of the day involved visiting an origami museum known as Origami Kaikan. Origami, the art of folding paper in order to create figures, is something many of our navigators were already familiar with. However, at the museum they were able to observe both an experienced origami artist, and the dying of washi, traditional Japanese paper used for this art form.  

These two days were full of many new experiences and meeting different people, but our navigators took on the challenge and quickly adapted to their new routine. They also had the opportunity to interact with both traditional and modern aspects of Japanese culture. Up next, they will get to experience another side of Japan apart from Tokyo, with our trip to Yamanashi prefecture. See you then!