For future Light fellows

For future Light fellows who may be checking out this blog, choose HIF if you want to:

• experience Japanese family life
• practice your Japanese every day over delicious home cooked Japanese meals
• travel around Hokkaido during the mid-semester break (when else are you going to make time to go all the way up north?)
• study in a small city and live in the countryside (it's beautiful)
• participate in a Japanese festival and parade - dressed as a samurai, no less
  
• watch fireworks done the Japanese way (the right way)
  
• be part of a well run program with a long history of international exchange
• meet students from other American colleges who all share an interest in Japanese and Japan
• befriend Japanese college students!
• enjoy 2 months of good weather while your friends melt in the Tokyo sauna - expect mostly blue skies, warm but dry afternoons, and cool evenings

HIF is extremely well organized, and the staff members are truly helpful and on top of things. They had a particular fondness for surveys and evaluations. The culture classes were varied and ensured that we had plenty to do in the afternoons. Workload differed depending on which class, but was for the most part reasonable. As cliche as this sounds, most of the learning took place outside the classroom - a lot of words and phrases I thought I had "learned" in Japanese 115 were reinforced and consolidated into my long term memory through daily use. The people of Hakodate were incredibly friendly and welcoming, and though small, the city itself was charming and beautiful (especially the area around HIF). Because you'll spend most of your summer away in the inaka, definitely travel after the program - if you're short on time, at least take a week to marvel at the efficiency of the train system, check out the temples in Kyoto, and experience Tokyo city life. Thanks to the Light Foundation this has been one amazing summer. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns!