Yesterday all of the participants arrived from all over the UK and Japan. We met for an informal introduction and reception in the hotel, however most of the Japanese students were suffering from extreme jet lag, and everyone wanted to be refreshed for the next day, so we all had an early night (after a quick trip to the pub, of course!).
This morning we met in the hotel and walked to the beautiful Bristol University campus together, taking in the sights and sounds of the city as we went. The day consisted of many introductions and interesting discussions, including overviews of Bristol city, Kyoto city, the concept of sustainability, and working together across interdisciplinary (and international) fields. And of course, we had the opportunity to have many personal introductions with people involved with the RENKEI programs as organisers, guest speakers, and the participants (which included a quick-fire "speed networking" session, which was exhausting, but helped showcase the vast diversity across the participants. There seems to be students from almost every field across academia, in addition to people of many different nationalities from across the world. So there are so many new exciting views and opinions in this program.
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| Participation in encouraged through using post-it notes to share ideas and questions. |
Professional relationships and the diverse experience and input are not the only promising factors, as already the group has started to form keen friendships. The UK students are trying to be as accommodating as possible, by introducing as many features of British culture as possible (including pubs!), and the Japan students are taking the chance to explore and absorb as much as they can in their time here. Tonight we had an exchange of Japanese and British drinking games, which is cultural co-operation at its finest if you ask me!
Anyway tomorrow will be another busy day, so I am going to try to get to sleep, and hopefully we will update again soon! おやすみ!!
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