I dreamed about this: Elizaveta Muromtseva about student’s international mobility in Tokyo University of Foreign Studies

Hello everyone! I am a 2nd year graduate student at the programme «Socioeconomic and political development of modern Asia». At the moment of writing this post, I am in the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (TUFS). Around a week ago, at the end of November 2019, I celebrated the halfway mark of my study here.

I got to Tokyo through the official HSE-facilitated Student Exchange Opportunities. The decision to participate in the competition for the chance to study abroad was a well thought-out one: I obtained my bachelor ’ s degree in Japanology completing my 4 year-study at HSE ’ s School of Asian Studies, but, unfortunately, I did not land a 6-month internship in Japan as an undergraduate student due to certain life circumstances, although both my academic performance and the university itself allowed me to do so easily. Therefore, when enrolling in the Master ’ s course, I knew for sure that at the beginning of my 2nd year as graduate student I wanted to go to Japan for the fall term - to compensate for the disappointing gap both in my CV and in my life in general. This desire was directing my actions from the very start - I was putting it all into my studies, I learned everything about the student exchange procedures and prepared the necessary documents - all in advance. Eventually, to my great joy, my efforts payed off, and at the end of September 2019, as planned, I boarded a Domodedovo-Narita plane that brought me to Japan. Thus comes my first recommendation for those who want to give the student exchange competition a try: know that you have such an opportunity and treat this knowledge seriously. If you do so, I am sure you will definitely hit the jackpot - and it will be not just luck or coincidence but a legal expected result, which, however, will not make it less pleasurable for you.

The fall term at TUFS lasts from October until the end of January, but you arrive at the university at the end of September, one week prior to the start of your classes. The university campus is located in the Greater Tokyo, but outside of Tokyo the capital city, in the suburban Tokyo area. If you get a room at the university ’ s dorms, it makes your student life very comfortable: everything you might need for life is there for you on the campus. It significantly cuts down your commuting expenses - you will need to spend money on trains and buses only if you want to go explore Tokyo, which everybody is doing at their own pace and in accordance with their own plans and desires. The administrative support at TUFS is operating really well (fortunately, as expected from the Japanese), and you are definitely not going to face any considerable hardships or difficulties in this regard. The studying style itself might be a little bit unusual for students from Russia, especially those who have the experience of studying at HSE: you are given a long period to try different subjects and compile your own curriculum from the ones that you like; Master’s level students can choose from both undergraduate- and graduate-level subjects. Nevertheless, the subjects picked at TUFS might thematically fit with the curriculum of your HSE programme, which slightly limits your choice opportunities. The teaching staff at TUFS is incredibly diverse - there are both Japanese and non-Japanese professors; TUFS students also hail from a very internationally diverse background, so the university feels quite cosmopolitan. The classes, however, after years of HSE-backed academic training, seem a little bit too relaxed and too slow-paced to me - on the one hand, you feel like you are sucked into an alternative reality where time seems to have slowed down, but on the other hand it is actually good to have more time for yourself and to explore Japan - a truly unique and charming country where you want to take a closer look at everything surrounding you. Here you again feel this craving for knowledge that sometimes grows weak at HSE due to a high pace of studying a sometimes overwhelming study load.

On Japan itself: it is my 3rd time in the Land of the Rising Sun, and I have command of Japanese. That is probably the reason for why I feel like I am in that particular space just beyond my comfort zone where one ’s personal growth occurs: you are surrounded by a lot of the unknown, but there is also a lot of the things familiar to you for you not to feel scared, uncomfortable and lost. Japan, no matter how many times you visit it, is truly astonishing with its surreal level of orderliness - you can see and feel in everything from its nature to the infrastructure to the way the administrative bodies work, and even in the way people’s interpersonal relationships and interactions function. This well-ordered and structured balance possesses a meditative kind of beauty particularly striking to me as a person who grew up in Russia, in a much more chaotic environment. At the same time - and I think it is natural when facing a different culture - in Japan, you start feeling yourself with all your strengths and weaknesses more acutely, you start appreciating all of your accumulated knowledge and skills, and you actually finally notice yourself as a well-accomplished valuable individual. You are surrounded not only by orderliness but also by unconditional, breathtaking beauty - the one that you want to watch endlessly and imprint your memory for ever. Moreover, there is a lot of beauty even in mundane, everyday things - the Japanese manage to breath life and beauty almost into all the things they deal with. In this kind of environment, you get a clearer understanding of yourself and your desires, and constructive, feasible ideas of what can be done in the post-graduation life emerge profusely. So here comes my second recommendation to those considering studying abroad, be it in Japan or somewhere else: definitely go for it, especially if you feel the urge to understand you own self better, get a grip on your life and your plans for the future.

Summing it up, I can say that a am grateful - to HSE for providing me with this amazing and truly rewarding opportunity to study abroad and facilitating my internship, and to myself as well - for having made the decision to give it a shot and treating the student exchange competition seriously. To all considering studying abroad via the Student Exchange Opportunities - good luck! If you go to Japan as the country of your choice, I am sure you will not be disappointed and will bring back home many unforgettable memories and experiences.