Japan ‐ East Asia Network of Exchange for Students and Youths Second Batch oｆ Students from India

Implementation Reports

(13th May, 2008 - 22nd May, 2008)

September, 2008

Japan International Cooperation Center (JICE)

Outline of the Second Batch of Students from India in 2008

1. Duration of visit in Japan From 13th to 22nd May, 2008

2. Total number of Indian delegation membership 60 people

Students： 54 people（27 Male, 27 Female) Supervisors: 6 people （1 Official of Ministry of Human Resource Development, 5 Teachers)

3. Location of the schools and Number of the students 2 union territories and 15 states

Breakdown

States/ Union territories

# of students

States/ Union territories

# of students

Andhra Pradesh 2 Assam 1 Bihar 1 Chandigarh 4 Delhi 18 Gujarat 1 Haryana 1 Jammu & Kashmir 1 Karnataka 7 Madhya Pradesh 1 Maharashtra 2 Punjab 2 Rajasthan 1 Tamil Nadu 2 Uttarakhand 2 Uttar Pradesh 6 West Bengal 2

4. Program schedule in Japan See the next page 5. Visited prefectures in Japan

Tokyo, Nagano, Hiroshima and Saga

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6. Total number of households participated in the home stay program

52 households Nagano: 18 Hiroshima: 16 Saga: 18

7. Total number of schools participated in the exchange programs 5 Schools

Nagano: Nagano Seisen Jogakuin Senior High School Seisen Jogakuin College Hiroshima: Suzugamine Girls’Hish School Saga: Saga Commercial High School Saga Kita High School

Japan-

PM

AM

AM

PM

Courtesy call on prefecture-gov't.

Zenkoji Temple

HotelKokusai

21

Japanese Language Lesson

Japanese Cultural Experience

HiroshimaInt'lPlaza

Courtesy call on Board ofEducation, Prefecture Gov't.

Saga City Information Center forEnvironmental Protection

HotelNewOtaniSaga

AMMove to Azumino CityObservation (SONY/EMCS)Move to Nagano City

Saga Pref. Space and Science-Museum

Nagano Seisen JogakuinSenior High School

Shinkama Ltd., Factory of Arita-ware

Meet with a host family HS Meet with a host family HS Meet with a host family HS

AM Home stay

PM Friendship Party with host family

AM Move to Nagasaki City

Farewell party Farewell party

AM Seisen Jogakuin College Observation in Hiroshima Saga Commercial High School

PM WorkshopHiroshima Peace Memorial ParkWorkshopJapanese Cultural Experience

Saga Kita Senior High SchoolFarewell PartyWorkshop

AM

PM

AM

105/22(Thu)

AM

5/13(Tue)

5/14(Wed)

AM

5/15(Thu)

PM

5/21(Wed)

5/20(Tue)

5/18(Sun)

9

6

7

8

Move to Tokyo

5/19(Mon)

5/16(Fri)

5/17(Sat)

HotelNewOtaniSaga

HS

Visit Miyajima with host families

HS

HotelKokusai

21

Hiro-shimaInt'lPlaza

PM

Program Schedule2nd Batch of Students from India

HotelKokusai

21

HotelNewOtaniSaga

Move to FukuokaMove to Nagano

NewOtaniSaga

Nagasaki Peace Memorial Park,Atomic bomb museum

Glover Garden, UrakamiCathedral

Suzugamine Girls' High School

HiroshimaInt'lPlaza

Program Orientation

Lecture: about Japan

Move to Hiroshima

Atago-yamaTokyuInn

Arrival at Tokyo from New Delhi (JAL472)

Observation in Tokyo (National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation "MIRAIKAN")

Departure from Tokyo to New Delhi (JAL471)

Summing up meeting / Briefing for departure

Presentation by studentsFarewell Dinner

Atago-yamaTokyuInn

Observation in Tokyo (Senso-ji Temple)

Observation in Tokyo (Odaiba)Observation in Tokyo (Edo-Tokyo Museum)

PM

Home stay Home stay

PM

1

2

4

5

3

Group 3 (Saga)

20 (Supervisor: 2, Youth: 18)Date

Outing to TogakushiHighlands

Group 1 (Nagano)

20 (Supervisor: 2, Youth: 18)

Group 2 (Hiroshima)

20 (Supervisor: 2, Youth: 18)

Observation in Tokyo (Imperial Palace)

Observation in Tokyo (SHINAGAWA Waste Incineration Plant)

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Photos ～ General Program in Tokyo ～

Workshop Presentation(Nagano Group) In front of National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation (Saga Group)

Workshop Presentation(Hiroshima Group) Shinagawa Incineration Plant

(Hiroshima Group)

Workshop Presentation(Saga Group) Farewell at Narita Airport (Nagano Group)

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Photos ～ Group Program in Nagano ～

Sony EMCS Corporation Nagano TEC With college students

With Host Families With Japanese High School Students

Interview on the television Workshop

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Photos ～ Group Program in Hiroshima ～

Opening Ceremony in HIC With Host Family （Hiroshima Int’l Center）

Sitting around the table In front of Atomic-bomb Dome

Performance at School Visit Workshop

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Photos ～ Group Program in Hiroshima ～

Courtesy Call to Board of Education Nagasaki Peace Park

With Japanese High School Students. Teaching Japanese People Yoga

Well Done at Calligraphy Class With Host Families

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Workshop on Findings in Japan 54 Indian students with various hopes and feelings participated in the JENESYS Program, which was held in Japan for ten days. The Program provided school visit, home stay program and other interactions with Japanese students and people, in which the Indian students learned traditional Japanese culture and environmental efforts in Japan. To wrap up the Program, on 19 May, sessions entitled “Workshop on Findings in Japan” were held by Nagano, Hiroshima and Saga groups respectively.

The Workshop was designed to achieve the following points. ① To make visiting students realize their findings（knowledge/awareness） by putting their

impressions at a level beneath their awareness into words ② To facilitate the visiting students retaining their acquired findings

（knowledge/awareness） and keeping the motivation for mutual understandings ③ To intensify their findings （knowledge/awareness） individually by sharing and

exchanging findings with others ④ Finally, to create a message from discussed findings in each group, with which they will

be able to contribute to deepening mutual understandings between Japan and India in the future

Each group vigorously exchanged their frank opinions in the Workshop, which provided opportunities for the visiting students to deepen mutual understandings between Japan and India.

Workshop Reports are on the following pages.

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Workshop Report

Date：May 19, 2008 Group： Nagano

I. Findings about Japan (Category：People ）

・hospitable, punctual, polite, cleanly, warm, friendly, practical, (Culture – Work)

・devoted to work, more priority given to work than family, they do not mix pleasure with religion.

(Civic Sense) ・people abide by traffic rules. There are no stray animals, no beggars, they smoke only in smoking areas

(Others: Infrastructure) – ・better engineering, disaster resistant, well-equipped schools and colleges, economic developed along with environmental sustainability

II. Details of Discussion (Topic: View on Japan though on an Indian eye)

Japanese are friendly, believe in the principle of reciprocation, try to integrate themselves in our culture. Work-friendly environment, optimum utilization of resources, clean streets, bending machines at short distance, safe III. Wrap-up/ Conclusion - Destiny of the world lies in the hand of the youth of the countries. The trip was informative, educative. People are good. Sense of responsibility inculcated. It can cement the friendship between Japan and India.

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Workshop Report

Date： May 19, 2008 Group： Hiroshima

Ⅰ Findings about Japan: Our Observation during the Programme: （Category： People ） *Hardworking (probable because of a bad history which has compelled them to progress faster and faster healthy life style; dignity of people ) *Equal approach toward everyone; (non-practicing of any particular religion.) Equal respect for everyone. *Time-managing and organized people; punctual *Helpful; enthusiastic *ethical; well-maintained; well-mannered. *law-abiding; extremely low crime rate *patient, honest, peaceful *non-religious yet spiritual (probably do not want to abide themselves with restrictions associated with a particular religion.) *Eco-friendly (they have always worshipped nature) （Category： Things: Economy, Infrastructure, Technology） *Eco-friendly (history of dropping of a-bomb on Hiroshima led them to take care of nature)*Advanced technology; latest equipments *Cleanliness; (waste incineration plants and garbage recycling plaza) *Small wooden houses; yet well maintained. (because of the risk of natural calamities ie. Earthquakes, typhoons) （Others） *Perfect traffic control system, trendy youth *People value their privacy a lot. *Workholic, not much emphasis on academics, *Japanese food (mainly non-vegetarian-sea-food) Ⅱ Details of Discussion（Topic： ） As the above mentioned

Ⅲ Wrap-up/ Conclusion As the above mentioned

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Workshop Report

Date：May 19, 2008 Group： Saga

I Findings about Japan （Category：People- National Character, Culture, Education System）

People are cautious. Always willing to help others. They are honest as could be seen in the department stores where the products were displayed without attendance. They consider time precious and are punctual in every aspect of life. They are very punctual about their own and other’s safety. Thus, they are law-abiding and follow the traffic rules strictly even at night when nobody is watching. Even though they could not understand our language well, they try to converse and solve our problems to the best. People have masks around their faces to prevent dust and pollen allergy.

Flashbacks of home stay were like those memories which would be cherished by one and all present here. The humble welcome to Japanese food from exchange of ideas to chatting, it was all so great. The host families gave us all a very warm greeting and presented us some unforgettable gifts.

Royal welcome we got from the students of Saga Commercial High School made us feel very good. And the interactions with the students were very knowledgeable and we enjoyed it very well. We learned Calligraphy from the students of Saga Kita High School. It was very good and memorable. （Category：Things ）

Japan is a technological hub as could be seen from automatic cars to doors and to automatic toilet seats. Here, waste is also regarded as resource resulting in a large number of incineration plants which recycle everything from aluminum, steel to cooking oil and very important and interesting point to be noted was that they use Indian software in Japanese hardware. The roads are generally graveled to make them safer and the cars use 10% ethanol which reflects the eco-friendly mindset of Japanese that they are conscious about their environment.

The houses have solar panels installed and quite a large no. of wind farms were there. This shows the Japanese technology of moving ahead and using renewable energy sources. （Category：Culture ）

Japanese culture is very rich as could be seen by murals in monuments. Every tourist place is very taken care of and beautiful. People love their national language and feel proud in interacting in Japanese. Shrines are the places of worship and camphor trees are planted to keep the environment clean. People are conscious of cleanliness and therefore remove their shoes outside.

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They use Tatami mats to keep the floor warm. Japanese songs presented before us were beautiful pictures of the country like Sakura song. We learned Origami, the paper craft in the bus, it was very enjoyable. The most eye-catching quality about Japanese culture is adapting to the modern times. They have preserved their old traditions and culture and are following them hand in hand with the latest of technology. The youth is very energetic about their traditional forms of arts like Judo, Kendo and Calligraphy. Japanese people are very enthusiastic about their festivals like Mud festival and Saga International Balloon Festival and the list go on…. Wooden architecture is followed all over Japan as it is eco-friendly and very adaptive to the changing seasons. They also serve as a precautionary measure to frequently occurring earthquake. （Others）

The best place we visited was the Nagasaki Peace Park. It was well maintained and one could feel the stark terror of the disastrous event which was the reason for the intense suffering intolerable pain, and horrified sights. Ⅱ Details of Discussion According to respective categories, everyday findings by individuals were presented. Then similar items were sorted out. After that, the historical and cultural background of the findings was discussed as the above mentioned. III Wrap-up/ Conclusion

Summing up, I would like to thank all the people who have made this program successful and have given us more than what we deserved. My thoughts reflect in the following lines of a great Hindi poem which means that we have got more than what we deserved. Thank you.

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Indian Students’ Comments ＜Nagano Group＞ ○ The program was very well organized. I really enjoyed a lot and I am very

thankful to such a worthy program called JENESYS. I got the chance to understand the Japanese culture and the lifestyle of the people and to observe the advanced technology of Japan. And home stay was the best part of this tour. We got a change to visit the beautiful Nagano prefecture and made many good Japanese friends. The Japanese people are really very kind, polite, friendly, and they are very close to their culture just like Indians. Last, I just want to say that this program was perfect and I will not forget these days of my life ever and I would definitely like to visit Japan again. Arigato Gozaimashita.

○ Many experiences in Japan were new, interesting and fun. Almost all things impressed me, but the thing that touched my heart the most was – Japan is a developed and modernized country, but then also the ancient and beautiful statues are well maintained, like road side statues and old, huge temples. Renovation of Zenkoji temple was the most impressing amongst all the splendid places we visited. At the end, I would like to say the program was awesome and I had the best time of my life in Japan through this program. I would like to mention many more, but this was just a drop of the ocean of my feelings.

○ Japan is a beautiful country. The people are very hardworking, professional, punctual, and were of great help whenever needed. During home-stay, the host families treated us as their own children and loved us more than our own parents. Learning more about Japanese homes and lifestyle was a great experience. The visit to the incineration plant in Tokyo was also very interesting. We learnt that Japanese people ensure that optimum usage of resources. The technology is very advanced and I am sure this program has helped me put in efforts to have better relations between Japan and India.

○ This cultural exchange program was a fascinating experience for us to know entirely different and new lifestyle from what we Indians live. We got to learn from the program that it is very important and nice to make new friends. It was a well organized program, and throughout the program, the co-coordinators took very good care of us. Special thanks to them. Through this program we were able to learn more about Japan. At the same time, it was a good platform for us to present our own culture in front of the Japanese people. It is the best experience of our lives. These ten exciting days helped us a lot to improve our personality and our interaction skills. We came to know that Indian and Japanese culture may be entirely different, but the people of India and Japan are bounded by the bond of humanity.

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＜Hiroshima Group＞ ○ It was a god-sent opportunity for all of us the youths of India to have been able

to come to Japan and witness this great nation after it has risen from the ashes of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We were able to experience firsthand the culture, traditions, beliefs, religion, habits and diets of this people and we were all left awetruck. I, for one feel that such visits has deeply influenced all of us and has instilled a spirit of untiring hardworking attitude in us. I would like to thank the JENESYS and the Japan government for having given me this opportunity to experience such an rich cultural country that has got up and started and is one of the leading country in the world; and I would welcome any such opportunities in future. I am sure this win benefit the generations to come.

○ The program is a very useful and important step taken by the government of Japan. It enabled us to learn a lot about the Japanese culture, way of life, etc.

It has also broadened our horizons in the international scenario. Moreover, the concerned persons and our coordinators took care and positively responded to any problem that we may have faced. It was a learning experience with a lot of fun involved in the process of making us learn. All our needs were satisfied optimally. We had fun and yet learned a lot. We were provided with vegetarian food also. If given a chance, I would love to be a part of the program again.

○ I think that the program made us understand the Japanese people and culture. We all suffer from cultural egotism and this program helps us understand and experience culture of which we had a limited view. It is important that we should not be rigid and open ourselves to other cultures. I was very impressed by the Japanese people and their qualities of organization and hard work. The most important thing form me was that the Japanese people have chosen PEACE and are not in the mad race to develop weapons after Hiroshima. It is very easy for people to be scared about war and to increase weapons like a number of nations are doing. But Japan chose not to be afraid and to commit itself to peace. They have the spirit to resurrect themselves after each disaster. We saw all this by visiting Hiroshima in this program. The true Japanese spirit shone through in this program. I would however, love to see more of Japan especially Kyoto and Osaka with which are the seats of history. I would have loved to visit a Japanese factory.

○ DOZO YOROSHIKU!!! I enjoyed and learned a lot. Stay with the host family, supervisors/coordinators was very fruitful. I had a great time as well as I have developed a better image of Japan, and life in Japan. I would love to come to Japan again for some purpose. Thank you !!! ARIGATO GOZAIMASHITA!

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＜Saga Group＞ ○ The JENESYS Program is a very good opportunities for educating the youth of

Asian countries (and Oceania too) to learn about the economy, lifestyle of people, technology, etc. of Japan. It has been a great opportunity to educate us and thus promote world peace and harmony. Such programmers are much liked and appreciated by students. Through the program, I learnt about the lifestyle and mindset of the Japanese people. Finally what I learnt was that : Apart from the cultural variations, etc.; what the Japanese people really are as persons and what we are is the same; as I could relate with the friends and family I met. Thank you for this opportunity.

○ I have not ceased smiling ever since I came to Japan. The only time my eyes were moist was when I visited the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum. Despite suffering from a disastrous memory of atomic bombings, people know how to move forward towards light. I would like to thank the JENESYS program for providing us with such a brilliant opportunities.

○ JENESYS program was a very knowledgeable, helpful and beyond imagination program. It made us feel Japanese culture, language and lifestyle. The schedule was very well organized and the coordinators were very helpful. The prefectures we visited were very, very beautiful and the grand welcome by the school students was very good. Home-stay was the best part of the program, but it should have been a bit longer. The only problem I faced was food as I am a pure vegetarian. We could only eat potatoes in breakfast and that too were not always available. But except this, it was a very wonderful experience and we would cherish all the memories of Japan throughout our life. We have got much more that what we deserved and these 10 days have secured a very special place in my mind. I specially thank our coordinators for being so kind and helping out us in all the problems. We just felt exhilarated and it all flew away like a dream. Till now, these are the best 10 days of my life and I thank and congratulate JICE and Japanese government for the grand success of the program.

○ This program was a turning point in my educational career. I hail and heap praise on the Japanese government. For pioneering what I hope to be a trigger or an epidemic of cultural exchange and cooperation programmers. This program, the Japan East-Asia Network For Exchange of Students and Youth, JENEYSY, is an awesome platform for duding youth. The program in itself, is like the country itself, pure, filled with buss, fun and yet, education-inducing to the brim. Hats off and kudos to Mr.Shinzo Abe, the former prime minister, the Japanese Government, JICE, and all the organizations related the program!

News Items

○ Nagano Group

【News Paper】

・ The Shinano Mainichi Shinbun issued on May 18th, 2008

・ The Nagano Shimin Shinbun (the Nagano Citizens’ New)

issued on May 20 th, 2008

*Both of the newspaper carried articles on an exchange program of Nagano

group at Nagano Seisen Jogakuin Senior High School.

【TV】

・ Nagano Local Station, NHK （Japan Broadcasting Service）

“Evening Shinshu” on May 19th, 2008, reported an exchange program of

Nagano group at Seisen Jogakuin College

・ Shinetsu Broadcasting Corporation, SBC

“SBC News 6” on May 18th, 2008, broadcasted a Togakushi Tour of Nagano

Group.

○ Hiroshima Group

【News Paper】

・ The Chugoku Shinbun issued on May 17th, 2008

・ The Nishihirosima Times issued on May 23rd, 2008

・ Internet Edition of the Nishihiroshima Times http://www.enjoy.ne.jp/times/

*The above media carried articles on an exchange program of Hiroshima

group at Suzugamine Girls’High Shool.

【TV】

・ RCC Chugoku Broadcasting Service

“Evening News Hiroshima” on May 16th, 2008, reported an exchange program

of Hiroshima group at Suzugamine Girls’ High School

○ Saga Group

【News Paper】

・ The Saga Yomiuri Shinbun issued on May 18th, 2008, carried an article on

a visit of Saga Group to Saga-city Eco Plaza.

・ The Saga Shinbun issued on May 22rd, 2008, reported an exchange program of

Saga group at Saga Kita High School and Saga Commercial High School

【TV】

・ Saga Local Station, NHK （Japan Broadcasting Service）

“Morning News, Ohayo Saga” on May 16th, 2008, reported a courtesy visit

of Saga group to Board of Education, Saga Prefecture.