Ten Days in the Land of the Rising Sun
by Eric Flordeliza
I had a lot of expectations on our socio-cultural exchange
program in Japan
that was sponsored by the Tokyo Institute of Technology. I have heard a lot of things from the country
that is also known as the Land of the Rising Sun. I knew I was in for an adventure with my
friends, who were also first time visitors of the country. True enough, those
expectations about the program were met with a sense of content and fulfillment
that brought us a lot stories to share to our families.
The socio-cultural exchange program had a span of ten days
in Tokyo and
was participated by civil engineering students and manufacturing engineering
management students together with Engr. Ronaldo Gallardo, the chair of
the Civil Engineering Department of DLSU, Ms. Ioulany Nayre and Ms. Buagas, both
from the Tokyo Institute
of Technology, Philippine office in DLSU.
During those ten days, I had learned and experienced a lot of things
more than normal tourist would see and do in the city. I learned that they have a different culture
from us Filipinos such as respectful gestures and the like. Aside from the usual historical shrines and
popular landmarks, we had visited different showrooms, markets and parks that
made us want to come back and visit again.
Welcome Party at TIT |
The group visited the sponsoring
school, Tokyo Institute of Technology during one of the school days. It was an honor to witness the institution
and its world class facilities in the campus.
The students from the university toured the group around the different
laboratories that they use such as the mechanical technology laboratory where
they showed different prototypes of their studies. Furthermore, they even
showed us their supercomputers which they use in weather, earthquake and
different kinds of simulation for study.
Towards the end of the day, the sponsoring school arranged a small
welcoming party for the group to enjoy and get to know the students and faculty
of TIT. It was nice to communicate with
the students since we get hear their stories about their life in the school and
we get to know more about Japan
and its culture. The group also had two site visits during the trip. First was in a company named Ebara
Corporation. Ebara manufactures
different kinds of pumps and is one of the leading companies in supplying
industrial pumps in Japan . They also take pride in their premier
product, the centrifugal pumps. They
even demonstrated how these pumps are better than the usual pressure pumps in
the supply of water. The group had a tour
around the facility which they showed how they manufacture different pumps. The
second site visit was a research facility named Ports and Airports Research Institute.
The Ports and Airports Research Institute, or PARI for short, studies
and aids in the development of sea ports and airports. The institution researches different water
and land patterns for the efficiency of seaports and airports. The group had a chance to tour around the
facility which they showed their different modes of research. The group even had a chance to witness an
actual simulation of wave patterns which is used to study sea ports.
On the cultural side, we visited historical and tourist
sites. One of the historical sites that the group had visited is the Meiji
shrine. The shrine, mainly a big area
and garden, was said to have been frequently visited by the Emperor of Japan it
was named after. The whole area had different structures and halls that were
used during the olden times such as government meetings and discussions. Nowadays, it is being used as a popular
tourist site and wedding ceremonial place. We also visited the Tokyo Tower .
It was amazing to see that the structure was made out of steel, knowing that
the steel construction technology was beginning to gain popularity at the time
of construction. aren’t usually visited
by foreigners. The group had a chance to
visit the Odaiba which housed a beautiful view deck of the bridge, Gundam
statue and a replica of the French Statue of Liberty. To further add, there is
a vintage car showroom and Toyota
showroom in the area that were visited and enjoyed by the group. Thrilling and
exciting do not describe the day we had spent in Fuji-Q. The group had their chance in riding four
different record breaking roller coasters during the visit in the theme
park. Aside from the rides, we witnessed
a horror house that was scary and horrifying.
The day made us tired but we were happy to have enjoyed and experienced
the theme park with each other.
One can really do a lot of
things in Tokyo
and I also wish there would be opportunities for us to visit the other cities
as well. Through our experiences and
learning, I believe the students of DLSU really enjoyed and learned a lot from their
stay in what is known as the Land of the Rising Sun. We look forward in going
back to the country to discover new things about the country.
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