Niigata Prefecture in White

Looking at Mt. Yagihana covered with snow makes me feel peaceful. People from outside of Niigata may want to enjoy beautiful snowy scenes and skiing on the hills, but for most of Niigata’s residents and many other people in the northern part of Japan, this year’s huge snowfall is a matter of life and death.

My residence in Sanjo City usually does not have too much snow, but as you can see in the pictures below, my house is buried under a blanket of white snow. The snow is not what you might call a “powder snow,” but rather, it is damp and heavy. My biggest worry is that it might collapse the house so I had to clear it from the roof.

Until the early February, we were fighting against the snow, plowing and shoveling. Unlike us, some people living closer to the mountains were completely snowed in, especially the elderly. Fortunately, there is a lull in the weather.

It reminds me of the snowfalls Niigata used to receive in my youth. As the years went by, however, my prefecture has received less and less snow each year, at least until this year. Perhaps our unpredictable weather patterns are due in part to global climate change.

Exchanging Ideas with the UOU

On January 26, 2011, delegates from the University of Ulsan (UOU) in the Republic of Korea visited my university. As members of its Office of International Affairs and Education, they visited Niigata University of Management to meet the president of NUM, the chairperson and vice chairperson of our International Exchange Committee. (I’m the vice chair.) They have been visiting several other sister universities in Japan and our university has hosted their exchange students for many years.

According to its website: http://www.ulsan.ac.kr/eng/index.aspx
Since its establishment, the UOU has contributed to the development of Korea by producing a competitive work force. Now with the support of Hyundai Heavy Industries, the UOU is ready to become a global institution.

The UOU’s accomplishments are well recognized nationally and internationally. (It) was ranked 8th nationally and 272nd worldwide in terms of SCI publications (2007).

Their website also states:
The UOU is currently conducting ‘World-Class Programs’ in Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering, Chemical Engineering and Medicine, (as well as) carrying out various projects which every UOU student benefits from.

During our meeting, we discussed strengthening our relationships and expanding our exchange programs. As recent news articles have noted, many of today’s Japanese students are too inward-oriented and have little desire to study abroad. In order to help reverse this trend, UOU suggested that their established language and culture study courses would be of great benefit to Japanese students looking for an advantage in today’s stagnant economy.

China Beckons Once More

Last week my colleagues and I visited Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology to recruit sophomore students who want to enroll in third-year courses at Niigata University of Management.

According to its website, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, which was founded in 1960, was designated in 1978 as one of the key institutions of higher learning in China. With a scientific research center for post-doctoral students, the university enjoys a complete educational system.　http://www.nuist.edu.cn/newindex/

While there, we met several students fluent in speaking Japanese. Some of them claimed to have learned Japanese from watching popular Japanese animation programs and “trendy” TV dramas.

http://liuxue998.com/11610%20sinsoku%20.html

Wanted: Sister Colleges!

Niigata University of Management is seeking new sister schools, especially in English-speaking countries. Currently, our school has accepted many Asian students from countries such as China, Russia and South Korea. Now the school’s aim is to branch out into other regions.

Our school focuses on business management, and our students mainly study commerce, accounting, bookkeeping and computer science. Recently, we have launched education courses for those who wish to become high school teachers of commerce, social studies, information science and English.

Because of globalization, business students need to be equipped with English skills, the lingua franca of the world. However, recently it has been revealed that fewer Japanese students are studying abroad. Our school wants to do its part to reverse this trend and to also introduce Japan to the next generation of overseas business leaders.

We hope to find a university or college willing to administer crash courses in English as a foreign language for our students. Our university would likewise accept students who wish to study in Japan. Longer exchanges in Japan for the university’s foreign students could also be arranged.

For further information or inquiries, please contact me at the following email address:

ichishima@duck.niigataum.ac.jp

A Trip to China

Niigata University of Management has been strengthening its relationships with universities in other countries. Currently, our university hosts students from Russia, South Korea, China and many others.

So, early this month, I visited Changchun University of Technology in Changchun in the Jilin Provence of China to interview prospective students and to discuss educational matters and socialize with professors (who, by the way, showed me a great time at local restaurants). While the university uses the word “Technology” in its name, it has a comprehensive array of departments including a Japanese language course.

Some students who are interested in learning both Japanese and management come to our university as juniors and, under a program we have developed, are supposed to complete a two-year course of study. If they successfully complete the course, they are awarded with a B.A. in Management Information.

Currently, however, this program is a “one-way” street, much to the dissatisfaction of some of the Chinese professors that I talked to during my stay. They want the opportunity to teach Japanese exchange students and are working to make it possible to accept students from our university sometime in the future.

The picture below shows the welcoming message at the entrance of Changchun University of Technology for the “delegation” from our university.

The Autumn Leaves Fall Outside My Window

I noticed that the scenery outside my office window was quite beautiful. In general, Japanese people enjoy looking at the autumn foliage of deciduous trees in much the same way that we enjoy looking at cherry blossoms in spring. They both are examples of the fragile beauty that attracts my fellow nationals.

These pictures were taken from my office at Niigata University of Management in Kamo City.

My New Used Car

On one of the few fine autumn days we’ve had recently, I bought a second-hand car, a medium-sized four-door sedan.  Its engine is only 1000cc, which is the smallest car that I have ever owned, but it is also very fuel efficient.

My Nissan Sunny was getting too old to survive the severe winter weather in Niigata Prefecture. Since I do not have to drive a long distance on a daily basis, and because we get a tax break for using compact cars that get good gas mileage, I decided I could live with a smaller car. Besides, my wife, whose commute is much longer than mine, has a slightly larger van (it can seat seven people in a pinch), so that, when we have to take longer trips, we can use that one. I really enjoy driving my new car!

Visiting My Son and a Twin Statue

On my way home to Sanjo from Tokyo after a business trip, I met my son at Waseda University and he showed me one of the twin statues of Ichishima Kenkichi (who went by the pen name of Ichishima Shunjo), erected in the Waseda library building. (Please refer to an older post at

 http://yagihana.blogspot.com/2010/08/kenkichi-ichishima-chronicler-of-waseda.html) to read about the duplicate erected in Ichishima Tei or the Ichishima Residence Museum in Shibata City.)

Another reason that I visited the Waseda campus was to see the special exhibition of Aizu Yaichi’s calligraphies and collection of Eastern artifacts, such as potteries and ink-paintings. Yaichi, a distant relative of the Ichishima family, was born in Niigata City in 1881 and was a professor emeritus of ancient Chinese and Japanese art at Waseda University. On his graduating from Waseda, he became an English teacher at Yuko Gakusha, which was then a private secondary school, but is now a public senior high school named Yuko Koko in Itakura, Joetsu City.