Exchange studies in Hokkaido University, Japan

Saija Inkeroinen, RN, PHN, BNSc, MNSc student

​I had an amazing opportunity and a life changing experience when I got accepted in Hokkaido University as an exchange student on spring term 2018. I chose the destination mainly based on my personal obsession with Japan, but also Hokkaido University offers a lot of interesting courses about multiculturalism which is my topic of interest in nursing and health care. Applying process was multistage and complicated but in the end worth it!

Hokkaido University was founded 1876 in Sapporo, and since then, it’s been famous in Japan especially for its agricultural science. Nowadays Hokkaido University, or Hokudai as locals call it, invests on internationality. There is an entire international institution which is focused on international education and research. My exchange program, HUSTEP, was part of it. You could really see the effort they have put in to this exchange program. Everything was well planned; we had senior students, help desks, information sessions and almost weekly mails to tell us what to do. That was helpful because studying and living in Japan requires a great deal of bureaucracy, and Japan is not exactly famous for its flexibility about paperwork.

Studying in Japanese university is totally different than in Finnish university. First, I didn’t get any of those multicultural courses I had planned. In Japan, there’s strict rules, and the best way to survive is to be adaptable. In the end, I mainly studied Japanese language. Three other courses where about Japanese society, Japanese energy politics and Japanese management. Every course will be part of my optional studies of my degree. I don’t mind it, because I love Japanese language and all those courses were very interesting.

Second, I had elementary school type of timetable for my studies. Every lecture was obligatory and coming in late was counted as missing the class (at least that’s what they said). At first it felt restrictive, but the bright side is, I could plan my life months ahead since I knew my schedule.

Lastly, I had homework and quizzes almost every day. After I had recovered from the initial shock, I surprisingly liked it. Instead of doing big and months-long written assignments like in Finland, I could easily keep up with my studies with small tasks that I did every day. I’m not taking stand on which way is better for learning, but it sure felt satisfying when you have done every assignment for the next day and you actually have free time.

Besides Japanese language and culture, I learned the true meaning of networking. It seems like every Japanese people belong to some club, association or community. Therefore, Japane

se have good connections everywhere. I realized that I’m alone the other side of the world for almost six months and if I want to survive with my almost non-existing language skills, I need to act like Japanese people. So, I made friends in class, joined school clubs and went to every party I could

find. In Sapporo, there’s also very active Finnish association. It offers Finnish language classes almost every day, and they appreciated that I assisted there as often as I could. After month or two, I was surrounded by so many wonderful people and participated so many events, I

had nights every week when I had time to sleep only 2-3 hours. Nevertheless, it was the best time of my life so far.

I can highly recommend going to exchange in your studies. If you’re ready for a lot of paper work and have adaptable and flexible attitude, Japan can be your dream ticket. After I learned about the culture, experienced the incredible nature and made wonderful friends, I will never be the same. Just say yes to (almost) everything, and it’ll be memorable adventure.