Take a class where you learn through experiences. Read what we did in 4 days: from staying 2 days with a Japanese family, experiencing soba-making, seeing the destruction left behind by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, and realizing the impact that science and technology have on our lives.
In February 2024, I participated in one of the best humanities and cultural courses that Tokyo Tech offers: the Tohoku Co-learning Camp. Why was it so good? This course lets you experience for yourself not only Japan, its culture, and its language, but also the signs on the earth and the memories of people left by one of the most complicated and powerful events of this century: the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and the Fukushima nuclear disaster. This camp’s main objective is to immerse students in a multicultural setting. Students participate in activities and discussions on how science and technology could be implemented in our society to make our life better and create an environmentally sustainable future. All this while practicing your Japanese and skills and staying with a local family for two nights. So, as we say in Japanese, “ikimasho (let’s go)!”
I found this course through an announcement (in September 2023) on the Tokyo Tech Portal. I filled out an Expression of Interest form and did an interview to be selected, as there were limited spots available. By the end of December, I knew that I would take part in the course, which also counts towards one credit for Liberal Arts and Humanities. The camp was held over 4 days and 3 nights, each student paid around 20,000 yen, and let me tell you, it was well worth it. Here’s a quick breakdown of what it includes: transportation, 1-night hotel stay, a soba-making experience, and admission to museums and the Fukushima Aquarium.
Day 1
In the early morning, we got on a bus and set off for Kakuda City (Miyagi Prefecture). The first activity was the visit to JAXA Space Center! JAXA has different facilities around Japan, and here they test rocket engines, which sometimes you can even hear. Unfortunately, there was no testing while we were there. Here, we learned about the evolution of Japanese rockets, its space capabilities, and saw some engines that were once high in the sky and splashed down into the sea.
Filled with space tales, we reached the next venue, where a welcome dinner was awaiting us! At dinner, we met our host families. Little did I know that they wanted us students to do an improvised karaoke session and sing songs from our home countries. I knew that Japanese really liked karaoke, but this was truly unexpected, especially for someone who is not a singer outside the comfort of her own shower. The evening ended with a cultural performance by a local group, and then we separated into groups and followed our respective host families. Each family hosted 2 or 3 students, but in my case… I, the only student that spoke little Japanese, was alone, paired with a family that spoke little English. But you know what? That’s how you learn a language: by totally immersing yourself in it (and lots of hand gestures).
Day 2
The family who hosted me lives in what foreigners would consider a very traditional Japanese house, the one we see in movies or anime, surrounded by agricultural fields and nature. For the first time ever, I slept on a futon and had a traditional Japanese breakfast. Being a simple breakfast girl, who eats cereals with yogurt and drinks coffee, I had a full cultural experience.
After leaving my amazingly comfy futon, I stepped into the dining room, where a Japanese breakfast awaited me. It was a salty breakfast which included miso soup and many other small dishes, like eggs, sausage, fish, pickles and vegetables, what my host family always has in the morning. This is completely different from what I’ve always been used to. For me, breakfast is something quick, but this time it felt like something that will fuel you until lunch time. I admit, I struggled to eat some dishes, like miso soup, but overall it was OK (yes, I will be sticking with my coffee and cereal).
The day’s schedule was packed. We started by making soba noodles and eating them for lunch. Then we visited a flooding disaster prevention pump (and the view was just amazing). We finished the day by visiting a strawberry farm and eating strawberries! What impressed me about this farm is that inside their greenhouse, they use bees to pollinate strawberries, thus creating and maintaining and internal ecosystem!
Photo 4: Soba noodles workshop. The thin soba in the front was made by professionals; the thicker soba in the background was made by us students.
What also stuck into my mind was the craft that goes into making soba. People can take 10 years to become masters of this art, and most experts know how much time the soba dough needs to rest before it can be cut based on the ambient temperature. It was amazing seeing the passion and commitment behind every dish of soba.
With the day coming to an end, we returned to our host families for the last night. After saying good-bye the following morning, we headed towards Fukushima.
Day 3
As we approached Fukushima, we used a small Geiger counter to monitor the level of radiation. We saw the radiation increasing and decreasing constantly, and it makes you realize the repercussions that still follow us today of an event that happened 13 years ago, and that will be imprinted in Earth’s stratigraphic history for centuries to come.
We first visited the ruins of Ukedo Elementary School, destroyed by the tsunami and left still in time. We then moved closer to the nuclear power plant, and we could see the structure from a distance. While we did not have time to go closer ourselves, there are now guided visits on site. It was still impactful to see on one side, the destroyed school, and on the other, on top of a cliff overlooking the ocean, the nuclear power plant that changed the minds of people about nuclear energy after the accident. When it was active, this power plant supplied clean energy to all Tokyo. But now, nuclear energy is perceived as something dangerous; so dangerous that people began to demand the decommission of other active nuclear power plants around Japan, as they do not want a repeat of the same disaster. Throughout the day, we heard a lot of stories and visited two museums that showed different aspects of the earthquake and the nuclear disaster. One museum showed the human hardships, the victims’ stories, how they returned to a new normal, and the environmental damage; the other focused on how the accident happened, how workers and managers could not have prevented it, and the present and future decommission work. Yet, you are left with the sense that it could have been prevented (as many other survivors also think). You are left with the feeling that people will always refuse this clean energy. It doesn’t matter how far technology and engineering have come to make nuclear plants safer, because of the fear that this could happen again, the fear of being moved 5-8 times from one emergency camp to another because the radiation won’t stop spreading — that fear will never leave you and will almost always prevail. If you are a scientist, this camp is for you, because you will realize how important it is to learn to communicate with the public.
Day 4
After spending the night at a hotel (and enjoying the breakfast buffet), we made our way to Aquamarine Fukushima, a marine science museum and aquarium, to spend a few hours learning about marine ecology and what has been done to protect and restore it after the Fukushima accident.
We then visited a fish market for a super early lunch, and afterwards headed to Naraha Center for Remote Control Technology Development. Here, we were shown the technologies used to decommission the Fukushima plants and how robots are going inside and trying to retrieve the melted reactor. We also experienced, in virtual reality, what it is like to be inside the reactors now, and the challenges that engineers and robots must face to retrieve the leftover radioactive material.
After gaining a better understanding of what goes on behind the scenes in decommissioning a radioactive nuclear plant, we headed to a vertical tomato farm. And yes, they used bees to pollinate the plants here, too! After some explanations on how they cultivate their plants without using soil, they let us roam around for a few minutes to pick and taste some of their tomatoes.
“Tadaima (I’m back!)”
And here is where the trip ended. We boarded the bus, after getting last-minute tomato souvenirs, and headed back to Tokyo. We accomplished the goal of learning more about the 2011 earthquake and its consequences. But we also got to meet other students that we normally may never have met, because as graduate students we spend a lot of time in our labs and books. This experience was also a great opportunity to discuss your research with students working outside your area of expertise. Because science is interdisciplinary, we can all benefit from each other’s expertise and fresh points of view.
If you have the chance, I recommend this camp to both international and Japanese students. It helps you understand an event that impacted the lives of people in the past, the effects of which remain in the present, and will propagate into the future. You will realize the importance of international and interdisciplinary teamwork, while also immersing yourself in the sights and culture of a Japan that is the opposite of the concrete jungle of Tokyo.
These are the kinds of classes you will remember for years to come, that let you experience firsthand the impact that science will have on our future, and how we can be a part of the change.
