Category Archives: 長野県上田市

Ueda School Visit 2023

Sara waving goodbye to the students

By Sara, Participant of Session 2, From USA

Today we visited several schools in Ueda City, Nagano Prefecture. While visiting Daisan Junior High School, we were met with such an extreme amount of kindness and energy from the students! The students made us feel welcomed into their school through their excitement and made conversations feel natural even through the language barrier. The students were also very knowledgeable on the topics we were given and showed that they had put lots of time into preparing for our discussion. It truly was an amazing experience as it was my first time visiting a school outside of the United States. I hope that we left as good of an impression on them as they left on us and that World Campus is invited to visit again in the future!

Pedro’s Testimony


I took part in WCI 2010’s 3rd Session in Ueda and Toride.

Being part of this program brought many amazing changes and opportunities. At first, I could have not imagined how this whole experience would be: the multicultural staff and participants, being in a foreign country with such a unique culture and customs and the thing that turned out to be my favorite, being inside the life of a regular Japanese host family.

Through WCI, not only we could have access to facilities and do things a regular visitor wouldn’t be able to do, but we can interact and live with locals. Additionally, even though it takes place in Japan, the program is not all about Japan; it’s about learning to see the world with a more internationalist point of view, knowing other cultures and losing biased prior views which we build throughout our lives.
During the program I stayed with two host families, both were really nice and open minded to the “flaws” that we foreigners commit in Japan, such as using the toilet slippers inside the house! But with one of the host families, the relationship I built with them was so intense and strong that our relation got stronger with time. We exchanged mails and I was able to visit them one more time after the program. I such a great time during New Year’s holidays with them and they made me feel as a member of the family!

In a nutshell, the program made me open my mind to the differences, correct my pre conceptions about Japan and other countries, and most importantly, made me leave a part of my heart with each of the good friends I made there.

Pedro Aguilar
Brazil

Regarding March 11, 2011 Japanese Earthquake

March 12, 2011

Dear Friends of World Campus International,

The shocking earthquake hitting the north-east part of Japan has caused massive destruction to the region. Currently, the Japanese national and local governments are working to assess the degree of damage.

Though there are areas of Japan that have been severely affected, all of our partner communities seem to have avoided tragedy. Currently, we do plan to facilitate the World Campus – Japan program from June 23 thru August 30.

Because the damages are reported in the northern region of Japan, and our community partners are located in central to western Japan, we are confident that our summer program will not be affected by the earthquake.

We have already contacted several community partners who are hosting our summer program and confirmed that they are OK and not severely or at all affected by these tragic events. We will continue to reach out to the rest of our community partners and communicate to you via this website any updated information.

Thank you for your understanding.

Hiro Nishimura
Chairman and CEO
World Campus International, Inc.

Update: Message from CEO, Hiro Nishimura on March 17, 2011

Update 2: Message from CEO, Hiro Nishimura on April 06, 2011 – Regarding New 2011 World Campus – Japan Program plan

美味しい『ありがとうイベント』

World Campus Cooking

この日は『ありがとうイベント』の日でした。たいてい『ありがとうイベント』の前にはスケジュールが詰まっているので、影響がないように上田市の実行委員会のみなさんが『ありがとうイベント』終了後にポットラックパーティを予定してくれました。

プログラム参加者はこの日、ポットラックパーティのために料理を作りました。5つのチームに別れ、それぞれの国や文化から違う料理を作りました。アメリカからはオーブン料理、メキシコのグワカモレ(アボカドを使ったソース)、ギリシャからはパプリカとトマトの中身を詰めたもの、カナダのマッシュポテトと牛肉料理。すべて本当に美味しかったです。

私たちは日本で手に入る食材で作れるものを作りました。ホストファミリーも私たちも料理を美味しく食べました。でも一番重要なことは、一緒に料理することでお互いのことをより知ることができ、チームワーク、それぞれの味や文化を学べたことです。みんなが素晴らしい時間を過ごしました。