Trip to Asia Pacific University on Kyushu Island

What an amazing trip! From Friday afternoon until Monday I spoke Japanese almost all of the time, hung out with Koreans (who speak Japanese fluently) and Japanese and other exchange students and talked about how to make universities more exchange student friendly. All the discussions were in Japanese too, so I did my best to get my thoughts across. Because so much happened during this trip I think it'll be better if I list the best parts of it.

1. 12 hour overnight boat trip to get there that included lots of noise and alcohol being consumed in our sleeping quarters
2. slept in the same room as 50 other people (all from Ritsumeikan) on futons (mattresses) on the floor. There were no windows, AC and the lights got turned off at 11.
   It was compared to being either
   a) an animal transport to the butchers
   b) the way smugglers pack their boat with illegal immigrants
   
3. slept 2 hours in a full body massage chair because the room was too hot
4. arrived at Beppu city at 7am, followed by a 30 min bus ride to APU
5. talked about being a foreigner in a homogeneous society like Japan, in Japanese
6. learnt the rules to a Korean card game by just watching, this was followed by me taking part and eventually winning my money back. We played for 10 yen each time so overall I only won about 60 yen
7. slept in bunk beds with 7 other Koreans in my room
8. held a presentation in front of 80 people in Japanese about what students should do to break cultural boundaries
9. went to an onsen (hot spring bathing house) with the Koreans.
10. had a naked onsen, was walked in on by the female owner who "needed to dry the floors", got stared at by the Japanese men, had a guy do yoga (NAKED) about 1 m in front of my face
11. had my head bitten by a Japanese spirit (god) to remove my wrong doings
12. was filmed again by Japanese TV. this is the 3rd or 4th time now
    
13. ate the most amazing ramen
14. got back on the ferry to party more
15. searched for JJ for over 1 hour since she got drunk and disappeared. Luckily she was found in the bathroom on a different floor
16. slept 3 hours in the 50 person room
17. arrived at Kyoto and Ritsumeikan in time for my 10am class; which I attended

The sleeping arrangements on board the boat

Aibek and I on the ferry going under Osaka bridge

Joss and JJ after getting off the ferry at Kyushu

The view from APU

My Korean mates - sleeping in the guest dorms at APU

The god that bit my head - Their followers worship the healing properties of the onsen that I was at

Outside the Onsen with group (Koreans and Japanese)
-I was the token white guy- hahaha

The old and famous Onsen in Beppu, Kyushu that we visited