Botswana students brave extreme weather conditions in Japan

Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University sits atop Jumonji Hara Mountain in Heppu city in Oita, one of Japan’s 47 Prefectures located in Kyushu Island.

On this foggy Sunday morning the 11th of July 2016, as the country votes in a decisive election for Japan’s Upper House (House of Council) representatives, a group of international journalists meets African students studying at this University. Among these are three of the four Batswana currently studying at this globally-renowned University started by former Governor of Oita, Morikiko Hiramatsu, famous for popularising the ‘One Village, One Product’ concept, which has now gained international renown.

Opelo Thapelo Dintwe and Matshediso Wame Lorato Bonita Nare are taking Bachelor of Social Studies on International Relations at the Asia Pacific College while Gabasiane Naledi is studying for Bachelor of Business Administration majoring in Finance and Accounting in the College of International Management. All are in their second year and have two more years to take.

But it is the weather that is getting under their skin. “It’s extreme,” says the short chubby Opelo. “Either it’s a fog, rain or it’s very hot,” adds her two companions, Matshediso and Naledi. The girls live in the city on the lower grounds while the university campus is up on the mountains. “Sometimes it’s raining up here in the mountains and when we get down it is hot and dry,” cries Opelo.

Yet another aspect of Japan that posed something of a cultural shock for the trio is the earthquake. “The last one was very scary,” says Matshediso, the fair couloured one, who’s had to contend with absence of a hairdresser for her hair type in this parts of the world. She has “Yet more frightening are the warning alarms for the earthquake. The phones ring just seconds before the earthquake starts and immediately you feel the tremors,” says Naledi, who hails from Pilikwe.

At the sound of the alarms, foreign students run as fast as their legs can carry them to higher grounds for safety but, the trio has noticed that the locals don’t seem bothered. “I was shocked when in the midst of all that confusion as we were scurrying to higher ground I chanced upon an elderly Japanese man in the middle of the road without a care in the world puffing away at his cigarette!” observes Naledi.

“The earthquakes are frightening, we have already survived two,” Opelo says. Besides extreme weather conditions and absence of a hairdresser, food is another issue the girls had to adapt to much faster. They now know most Japanese dishes including Thai ones and even muster the audacity to arm-twist me to try one of the Japanese noodles for lunch at their cafeteria.

Life in Japan has opened their eyes. Among some of the values they’ve learnt are hard work; timeliness and cleanliness. “Japanese are very hard working, I was embarrassed when I offered this old lady s seat on the bus because she was standing but she politely declined and gracefully endured the ride,” Opelo remembers. Matshediso adds that the Japanese work ethic defines who they are as a people and that they’d even go to the extent of applying it in extracurricular activities at school and in social activities.

“WE have multi-cultural activities here in the University and I was surprised at the precision of choreography that the Japanese students put in their play, you’d swear they are professionals,” says Wame. This strict adherence to set down rules in Japanese everyday lives is rooted in their history and culture. My guide had earlier confided in me that it could be traced to the Samurai Warriors Code. But Opelo thinks the respect especially, was influenced by the humiliating defeat during the World War.

According to Prof Yokoyama Kenji, the school’s Vice President, Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University was established in 2000 and subsequently suffered a drastic decline in enrolment numbers from the years 2001 to 2006. Currently the university has close to 6000 students almost half of which are international students. He said thanks to an agreement that Botswana government has with the Japan, the University has so far graduated over 10 students in various fields of studies.

As for Naledi, Wame and Opelo, although all undecided whether to immediately return home upon completion – the future is certainly bright, as they’ve overcome many obstacles amongst them the language barrier, largely helped by the Japanese language course they take for foundation, although it’s not compulsory but a requirement.

This is an English teaching University anyway, says Prof Kenji, who was flanked during the interview at the campus by Akari Miyakoshi, the lady responsible for public relations and the man responsible for recruitment and admission. The other African students, part of the total 40 from 13 African countries currently studying here, that the journalists talked to, are from Kenya, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Liberia and South Africa.

Some of them won the scholarship through Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Initiative, a product of the 5th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD V), which desires to train some 1000 African students during the life cycle of Yokohama Declaration, whose Action Plan runs from 2013 to 2017. TICAD V was held in Yokohama, a city in Japan in June 2013. TICAD VI will for the very first time be held in Nairobi, Kenya on August 27-28th.