🌍 Hello World 🌍
I am Miwa, a Community Manager of the Kanto area.
The Machinaka Cultural Exchange Program is a new style of study abroad program visiting host family’s home in Japan and enjoying cooking, playing games and so on. There are lots of Japanese students interested in learning languages and other cultures. And nearly 100 host families from over 40 countries welcome them and they also learn Japanese cultures hosting Japanese guests.
Please find more details here.
*Our program is held with thorough countermeasures against infectious diseases such as wearing masks, ventilation, washing hands and disinfect with alcohol. For more details, please check here.
Machinaka means “in town.” The Machinaka Cultural Exchange Program was created for people to experience other cultures within their own city. The guest, Tomoya lives in Saitama which is also the city of his host family. So this time it was literally Machinaka!!!
I found the Machinaka cultural exchange program when I was doing some research about sharing economy services for work. There were a lot of companies there, but the name “HelloWorld” caught my attention and made a reservation immediately. I decided to attend because I wanted to have some experience to interact foreigners as I want to work with foreigners in the near future.
My host family Stewart and Tetsu live in Hanno, Saitama Prefecture. They picked me up at the station and took me their home where it is full of nature. Their home is wonderful with their own garden.
We started to prepare lunch after they shows their house.
We made scones and “Ploughman’s Lunch” which is a farmer’s traditional lunch.
I don’t cook often and the recipe was all in English, so I was perplexed, but I could make my very first scones with a lot of their help!!!
I will never forget the taste of the freshly baked scones!!!
That was absolutely the best scone that I had ever had in my life!!!
We even baked a pineapple cake for dessert!
I enjoyed so much the lunch, and of course the cake too!
It was impressive that he was so excited talking about the scones! He said,
I never baked scones because I thought it was too difficult for me. I was so amazed that it was really easy and they were incredibly good!
There may be many things that you think are hard to do, but you realize that it is not once you experience it.
We went for a walk after lunch.
It was refreshing walking in the woods and Hanno city has a lot of nature around.
We made some “mashed potatoes” which is a traditional British food and played some board games at night. I was nervous at the beginning of the day, but I was relaxed enough to play games with a lot of laughs as I spent the whole day with them!
This was an amazing experience over the language barrier and cultural differences!
I really feel like visiting another host family after the first time!
I bet you will be excited to think about which country you would like to go to!
I strongly recommend this program, especially those who find it a little hard to study abroad!
I was so happy to hear what he said to me during the interview.
Thank you, Tomoya again for a great report!!!
Tomoya says he feels connected with Stewart and Tetsu after the program despite the language barrier and cultural differences.
I feel that language barriers and cultural differences actually have little impact to feel the connection.
We can feel that we are all humans at the end of the day after spending a whole day together. We believe that we can provide opportunities to build that relationship.
And you reading this blog can give the Japanese students this opportunity!
If you have any questions at all or would like to learn more about the specifics about our program, we encourage you to get in touch with us.
*Our program is held with thorough countermeasures against infectious diseases such as wearing masks, ventilation, washing hands and disinfect with alcohol. For more details, please check here.
