Last Blog: Home and the start of the Next Adventure

It has been about a week since I returned home to Hawaii from AIU (Akita International University). It is nice to be back home because I get to sleep in my own bed, walk my dog, and relax before I begin my final year at UHM (University of Hawaii at Manoa).

Before I left AIU, I sold my bicycle to my friend, and I went to the Kanto Festival. I forgot to bring
my camera with me, so I got these pictures from my friend.

Pictures from Kanto

Community Development

This semester I took mostly Japanese courses. Compared to last semester, I was studying by myself a lot in the library. In addition, a lot of my Japanese classes conflicted with the school events, so I was unable to sign up for them. The only other course I took this semester that was not Japanese was this course called "Community Development."
  
I signed up for "Community Development" because as an exchange student, I did not have that much classes with Japanese students. Also Keli'i recommended this class to me after taking this class during the fall semester. I did not know what to expect when I signed up for this course, but I am happy I took this course because I made a lot of great friends, and I realized that I want to do something in the future where I can cause positive impact on the community.  

For this course, I had to learn about the definition of community development, find examples of how community development is related to Japan, and give a presentation with Japanese students in Japanese about what we learned about the rural areas in Akita and how can we improve a community like Akita.