My Journey
Elementary, Middle School, and High School.
… I never knew what I wanted to be growing up.
And I never knew what I wanted to study when I left Maui for college at age 18.
I had an interest in variety of fields in 2016 (vegetarian/veganism, plant based food, architect, nutrition, etc.) but never had an interest in the hospitality or tourism of Hawai’i.
All I knew at that time was I NEEDED TO practice Japanese to maintain my language!
If you’re familiar with Japanese culture, you know how difficult it is to learn the language.
Most people can understand or speak the language but when it comes to writing, it becomes a whole new challenge!
Randomly, at the beginning of Junior year of high school, I decided to discontinue taking architect courses in favor of taking advanced level Japanese. As I took more Japanese, my interest in the Japanese Culture became much more of a curiosity rather than speaking and practicing the language. I decided to continue taking MORE and more Japanese classes in college.
Eventually, I had enough credit to turn it into a minor and one day, my Japanese Professor brought up an opportunity to travel to Japan for a summer course.
And that was the begging of my journey.
The start of… my interest/curiosity in tourism
During 2018 (Junior year of college) was when I attended a summer course in Akita to learn about green tourism in the rural area of Japan. “Green tourism” allows visitors to immerse in nature and experience cultural aspects within the rural Japan by spending time with the local residents. The program was enriched with traditional foods that was provided by the homestay hosts: Oba-chan (grandmas) and Oji-chan (grandpas). In addition, the social interaction with the elderlies and local residents in the small town is/was heart warming. In fact, the ability to get hands on with wood chopping, charcoal making, harvesting mountain vegetables, and making traditional dishes with the hosts were memorable experiences that I will forever cherish.
In today’s world, everything is done in corporate level by mass production which is why we as “consumer” have the tendency to forget to appreciate the labor, time and effort that were put into making. After the experience of green tourism, I have sparked my interest in expanding my own knowledge and the eagerness to sharing the local knowledge of the Japanese traditions and cultures to anyone in the world who may be interested-through the lens of Japanese lifestyle, food, clothing, interaction, and getting hands on experience.