Hokkaido Exchange Programme: Guidelines for Students

Living with a host family is the heart of your exchange experience. Your host family is not a hotel, a family that has chosen to share its home and daily life with you.

Please follow the house rules your family explains to you, they seem different from those at home. If you are not sure about something, ask. Japanese hosts may not always tell you directly when something is wrong, it is better to check than to guess.

Help with household tasks such as setting the table and washing dishes. Families appreciate students who offer help waiting to be asked. Keep your room tidy, and remember to take off your shoes before entering the house.

you feel homesick, talk to your host family or your programme coordinator. These feelings are common and usually pass within a few weeks. Your coordinator can be contacted , day or night, on the emergency number on your student card.

Finally, enjoy yourself. The friendships you make here may last the rest of your life.

Dear Mae and Por,

It is snowing again as I write this. When I first arrived, I at the window for hours, but now I hardly notice it. Yui says that means I am becoming a real Sapporo girl.

The first month was harder than I expected. I you so much that I cried on the phone with Grandma, and I did not tell you because I did not want you to worry. My teacher, Mr. Tanaka, told me that almost every exchange student feels the same. He suggested I join a club, I am now on the school volleyball team. My teammates call me “Captain Spike”, although I am the shortest player.

I have learned a lot about Japan, but I have also learned about Thailand. Here, people sort their rubbish into five different bags. At first I thought it was too much trouble. , when Yui showed me how much less rubbish their city burns, I started to wonder why we cannot do the same at home.

I have also noticed that I am more patient than I to be. In Japan, people wait quietly in line, even for the bus in the snow. Nobody pushes.

Mrs. Sato and I cook together every Sunday. Last week I made green curry. It was much too spicy for everyone Yui, who ate three bowls and then drank four glasses of water.

I will be home in six weeks. I miss you, but I am also a little sad that this will end. I think part of me stay in Sapporo forever.

With love, snowy Sapporo,
Ice

Sapporo City · Household Rubbish Collection (Kita Ward, Area 3)

Burnable rubbish (food waste, paper that cannot be recycled, small wooden items): Monday and Thursday. Use the green city bags.

Cans, glass and plastic bottles: Wednesday. Rinse items and remove caps and labels. Use clear bags.

Plastic containers and packaging: Tuesday. Use clear bags. Items marked with the plastic symbol only.

Paper and cardboard: Friday. Tie newspapers and boxes with string. Do not use bags.

Large items (furniture, bicycles): By appointment only. Call the city centre at least one week in advance. A fee applies.

Put rubbish out by 8:30 on the collection day, not the night before. Crows and foxes often tear open bags left out overnight. Rubbish that is not sorted correctly will not be collected and will be marked with a yellow warning sticker.

The Curve of Culture Shock

People who move to a new country often describe their experience as a kind of curve. In the first weeks, sometimes called the honeymoon stage, everything feels exciting. The food is new, the streets are interesting, and even small mistakes seem funny.

After a while, the excitement wears off. Small differences that once seemed charming become tiring. Simple tasks, such as buying a train ticket or understanding a joke, take far more energy than they would at home. Many newcomers feel lonely, irritable or homesick. This is the stage most commonly called culture shock, and it is often strongest between the first and third months.

Gradually, most people move into a stage of adjustment. They build routines, make friends and learn the unwritten rules of their new society. Mistakes become less frequent, and the culture begins to feel less foreign.

Some researchers have criticised the curve as too simple. Not everyone experiences every stage, and some people move back and forth between stages many times. Personality, language ability and the support a person receives all make a difference.

Still, the idea has one important benefit: it tells people that their difficult feelings are normal. Students who know that homesickness is a common stage, rather than a sign of personal failure, are more likely to seek help and less likely to give up and go home early.

Interestingly, many people experience a similar curve when they return home. After months abroad, they may find their own country strange for a while. This is known as reverse culture shock.

What Our Exchange Student Taught Us · by Keiko Sato

When we agreed to host a student from Thailand, I thought we would be the teachers. We would show her Japanese food, Japanese manners and a Hokkaido winter. I did not expect to learn so much myself.

Ice arrived in January, wide-eyed at the snow. For the first few weeks she photographed everything, from vending machines to the frost on our windows. Then, around her fourth week, she became very quiet. My daughter Yui noticed it first. Ice was eating less and spending more time in her room.

I did not know what to do. In our family we do not usually talk about feelings directly, so I simply made her favourite soup and left a note on her door. Later, her teacher told us that homesickness is a normal stage, and that joining a club often helps. Ice joined the volleyball team, and within two weeks she was laughing at dinner again.

What surprised me most was how much Ice changed our habits. She thanks the bus driver every time she gets off. She greets the elderly man next door, whom we had never really spoken to in ten years. Now he waves at all of us. Every Sunday she cooks with me, and she insists that everyone at the table, including my husband, helps to wash up.

Our house will be very quiet when she leaves. Yui has already started learning Thai so that she can visit Chiang Rai next year. I think the best exchange is the one where both sides are changed.