Hello. My name is Haru Abe, a 1st year student living on the Hakusanroku campus. In July 2025, five high school students from Columbia city in America visited Hakusanroku campus. This time, I will write about what I feel about living with them in ICT as study abroad buddies.

 On June 7th, American students arrived at Hakusanroku campus. All the students are tall, and I was surprised by how mature they look. I was a little nervous because it was my first time meeting American students, and I couldn’t talk with them in English. But American students talked with me, perhaps because they were interested in Japan. Therefore, I was able to ease my tension. With the American students, I was able to have a lively conversation about Japanese, overseas animation, and sports.

 Every after school, we played basketball together. When I saw the tall American student dunk, I was surprised. After that, because he also plays American football, he taught me how to play it. But that was very difficult, and I can’t throw as far as he does. Also, after that we went to the onsen.

 For sightseeing in Kanazawa, we went to Kenroku Garden. I haven’t gone sightseeing in Kanazawa, so I’m not very sure about it. But I taught American students how to buy some food in shops, and because of that, I think that I fulfilled my buddy duties.

 At the time, I didn’t have confidence, and I was nervous because I wanted to improve my English skills. Also, I want to be able to talk more with native speakers at the next opportunity. See you again!

 Hello, I am Shunta Tamura, a 1st year student. I learned many unknown and interesting things, when I communicated with American student. However, I am not good at English, so I had a hard time.
 First, the American students were very kind and funny! The most interesting part was about the favorite foods of American students. They were sushi, pizza, and many other foods, but the most surprising of all was that an American student said, “I like natto!”.
 The next thing that surprised me in my interactions with American students was that most of them were so tall. I am not very tall, so I envied them.
 Finally, unfortunately, I had some the difficulties in interacting with the American students. I am not very good at English, so it was very difficult for me to understand what they were saying. If I did understand them, I was also worried that they would not understand what I was saying. Luckily, I was happy because I had some good English conversations because I used English words and gestures to communicate what I couldn't tell. I am happy that I did not give up and continued talking because I could gradually understand what they were saying after talking with them every day.

Shunta Tamura 

Hello, I am Shuntaro Tanaka, a 1st year student. I currently live in the dormitory at the Hakusanroku Campus. Since late January, it has been snowing heavily here, and everything outside is covered in white. The snow has piled up higher than my height, and it is so light that I was surprised when I saw it for the first time.

On Friday, February 7th, 2025, we went to Hakusan Ichirino Ski Resort, which is about 15 minutes away from the Hakusanroku Campus by bus. 1st and 2nd year students who wanted to join took part in this ski trip. In the morning, those who were new to skiing attended a ski lesson, while the others enjoyed skiing and snowboarding freely. The weather was clear in the morning, but around noon there was a brief snowstorm before it calmed down again, leaving behind soft powder snow.

 I have been skiing since I was a child, so instead of taking the ski lesson, I went snowboarding for the third time. I was really impressed by how soft the powder snow was and how "it doesn’t even hurt when you fall."

 After lunch, we met up with the students who had attended the ski lesson, and in the afternoon, everyone enjoyed skiing and snowboarding together. At first, those who took the ski lesson struggled, but three of them quickly got the hang of it and were able to ski smoothly. The other two had a harder time and fell many times, but with the support of the faculty, they kept trying. By the end, they had improved a lot and could ski with more confidence.

 At that time, I could already snowboard, but my turns were a bit awkward, and I was struggling to control them. One of the faculty members, Omihito Matsushita sensei gave me some advice, which was helpful. Thanks to Matsushita sensei instructions, I was able to fix the movements I had been struggling with right away. However, the time passed so quickly that I still felt like I hadn’t snowboarded enough. I hope I get another chance to come back so that I can improve even more.

Shuntaro Tanaka

  Hello everyone, I am Aki Yamamoto, a 3rd year student at ICT. By the way, how much do you know about New Zealand? If you are reading this article, you are probably thinking of entering ICT in the future. In this article, I would like to introduce some interesting points about New Zealand based on my experience of traveling and staying there.

  First of all, when we think of New Zealand, we think of beautiful nature and wilderness. It is full of outdoor activity sites. If you like to get in touch with nature, you will find plenty to enjoy. I recently went on a family vacation in New Zealand for the summer. Our first destination was Lake Tekapo, a 3-hour drive from Christchurch. Photo 1 shows a mountain road I took along the way. It looks like a beautiful photo from a mineral water label, doesn't it? Next, Photo 2 shows Lake Tekapo, which was the main destination for that day. The water is a nice light blue! It was so beautiful that I forgot that the weather was cloudy.

  The next day, we went trekking on the Hooker Valley Track, the most iconic hiking trail in Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park. Photo 3 shows Hooker Lake, located at the end of the hiking trail. I was surprised that you can see the glacier even in summer. It is incredibly beautiful, and the water's surface reflects so perfectly that you might not be able to tell which way is up or down.

  We also enjoyed a thrilling boat tour, speeding down the river on a high-speed jet boat. Additionally, we visited Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland, where we marveled at the unique landscapes formed by volcanic activity. Photo 4 shows “Devil's Bath”, a lake created by volcanic activity that looks like a pool of slime. We experienced many other natural wonders as well.

  Now that you have probably gotten a better idea of what makes New Zealand so appealing. I would like to talk about my life in New Zealand from here. School hours are basically from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm, which is not that busy. I am almost done with classes, having completed most of my course credits, and I am only taking engineering design classes now. As for the difficulty level of obtaining credit, I would say that it is almost the same as ICT. Furthermore, I think it is easier to pass the math course than the ICT course. At Otago Polytechnic, where 3rd year ICT students study abroad, 95% of the math content is a review of what we learned in ICT, and there is no new content in particular. This means that there is a lot of free time after school and on weekends. In my case, I play badminton with friends at the sports center, which students can use for free, and visit nearby sightseeing spots.

  Studying abroad is often thought of as challenging, but ICT's New Zealand study abroad program is an easygoing experience, so why not give it a go?

Aki Yamamoto

Hello, I’m Taichi Eguchi, a 2nd year student.
 On Saturday, October 19th and Sunday, October 20th, 2024, the 35th National College of Technology Programming Contest (Kosen ProCon) was held in Nara Prefecture. A five-member 1st year and 2nd year student team competed in the Themed Section. For more information on the Kosen ProCon and the presentations by the ICT students’ team: Five Students Participated in the 35th National College of Technology Programming Contest

 In the qualifying round, we had less than two months to come up with an idea from scratch with our team members. We worked out what kind of product we would make, had Meguru Ito sensei check our qualifying materials many times, made many revisions, and submitted our proposal well in advance of the deadline.

 We received an A grade and passed the qualifying round. After this, the team members were assigned different roles to complete the product. I had the job of creating the mobile application. I had to use a JavaScript framework called React Native. It was the first time I used React Native and JavaScript, so first I had to research these programing languages so I could create the mobile application, step by step. It was a lot of fun to learn new things as I researched and implemented them one by one, and to see things that I envisioned coming to completion.

 I was also the leader of the team. All the team members worked on their own jobs and consulted with me on matters they did not understand. I was able to trust them and concentrate on application development without having to spend much time managing the team. I have the impression that the project went smoothly. I felt a great sense of accomplishment when the application was completed.

 Due to time constraints, we were not able to experiment with the finished product. However, we received many suggestions for improvement that we did not notice on our own or that would be problematic if we used the product.

 At the end of the two days of the competition, we did not receive any special awards, but I thought it was a great experience for the team to think and work from zero to completion of the project. Also, we completed the project, which made me feel relieved. After having participated in the programming contests last year and this year, I decided that I wanted to do it again. When I become 4th year student, I want to use the feedback the team received at this year’s competition and win an award.

Taichi Eguchi