The Public Health Perspectives program provided a lot of information, collaboration, and opportunities to better understand not only public health in Japan, but public health as a whole. However, we were provided with plenty of free time outside of the program. Most days, the program activities ended at 5pm. So, we had the rest of the day to do what we wanted to do. Here are some of the activities the student group did outside the scope of the program.
The first weekend was super busy. Having an entire weekend without any planned activities and being in the biggest city in the world left us with endless options of what to do. It was impossible to see it all, but we wanted to see as much as we could in Tokyo.
Friday night, we went to see what the nightlife was like. We started off in Shinjuku, an urban shopping area. We went to try Mister Doughnut since Ibaraki sensei said it was his favorite. We then made our way to the Godzilla store. Since me and my friends are huge fans of the Godzilla series, I got us some shirts as souvenirs. Then, we walked to Kabukicho to see a different side of Tokyo since it was right next to where we were.
Saturday was one of the heaviest walking days of the trip, despite there being no program activities. We started out by going to the Asakusa Shrine. At the shrine I drew a bad fortune, but I could tie the piece of paper it was on to a pole and “leave it in Japan” so it does not come with me. We then looked at some of the local shops in the area. After that, we ascended Tokyo Skytree, which is the tallest building in all of Japan. Then, we went to the imperial palace grounds, which was neat, but we could not find the emperor. Finally, a few of us went out on the town and got drinks to end our day.iversity of Tokyo festival, which had live music, food, and full of art and science demonstrations by the students. We then walked to another shrine where they were also having a festival. We toured around the shrine museum and went to get dinner and called it a day.
There was so much to do in Tokyo, we could not fit it all into one weekend. So, when program activities ended, we tried to squeeze in what we could. For example, on Monday, we went to the Nintendo store since my sister wanted a souvenir from there. Nintendo is a Japanese company, so it made it more valuable to her. On our last day in Tokyo (not counting the final dinner), we went up Shibuya Sky, a tall tower in the shopping district of Shibuya and saw Tokyo at night. We then went to an arcade and played ping pong with Japanese students we met and University of Tokyo and Azabu University. Spending time with the other students was a unique experience and they were very helpful in telling us what we should do around Tokyo.
There were plenty of other activities we did outside of the program, with these being some of the highlights. I wish I could have stayed longer.
