* UCF Vers head to Hokkaido, have volcanically good time

By Linda Toews

With the assistance of UCFV’s International Education
department a study tour from UCFV visited Hokkaido
Community
College/Takushoku
University in
Fukagawa,
Hokkaido, Japan

in May. The 15
participants were
primarily students
and faculty from
the Early
Childhood
Education,
Agriculture and
Business
departments at
UCFV. In addition
UCFV Board
member Wendy
Lee, Bill
Weismiller,
District
Agriculturist from the Chilliwack office of the Ministry of
Fisheries and Food, and Linda Toews from International
Education accompanied the tour.

The group had a variety of tours and educational sessions
covering a fairly large geographic area on Hokkaido. Much of
what the group saw was a Study in contrasts. We toured a huge
new state of the art, environmentally conscious pulp and paper
mill, and an outdated coal powered thermal plant. We had the
opportunity to hand plant rice seedlings (and in the process
appear on Japanese national TV) in a field right next to a
mechanized planter. The Japanese have taken the best ideas of
technology and gone one step better, in many cases. An example
which particularly impressed us was that not only could you buy
virtually anything from a vending machine, but many machines
sold both hot and cold items at the same time. The technology
was explained to us as follows: “The hot items are heated by the
heat produced from the cooling mechanism chilling the cold
items.’ What a wonderful idea, and so energy efficient!

Many opportunities for future links and study tours came to
mind as we toured. As well as continuing the relationship with
Hokkaido Community College/Takushoku University in our
Agriculture, Business and Early Childhood Education
departments and developing new “agri-business” directions,
three new areas which seem like possibilities are
anthropology/sociology, in particular in the areas of
comparisons of native/aboriginal peoples, geography and
environmental studies.

Regarding anthropology/sociology, we visited a museum of
Ainu culture on southern Hokkaido. We all commented on the
similarities to B.C.’s native cultures. From the construction of
their buildings, the burning of sweet grass, the stitching and
beadwork decorating their garments and blankets, woven

Some of the Hokkaido exchange participants with their Japanese hosts.

Headlines/Oct. 19, 1994

baskets, to the chanting and dances, it was simply amazing how
similar everything was.

As far as
geography/environmen
tal studies are
concerned, as two
separate fields of
investigation or a
combination of the
two, Japan, and
particularly
Hokkaido, 1s literally
a hotbed (pun
intended) of volcanic
activity, which is very
accessible to the
public. There are
gondolas and
walkways right up to
volcanic craters and
stem vents, sO you
could feel the heat
and get the smell of
sulphur firsthand. In
addition we were treated to a tour of the Institute of Volcanic
Study. This would also be interesting as part of an
environmental studies program. We saw one textbook example
of a potential global environmental “what not to do” at the Naie
Thermal Plant, which is coal-powered. Also, the systems of
water control and irrigation, and related land use were
interesting from an environmental standpoint.

The whole town of Fukagawa (pop. 30,000) welcomed the
visitors from UCFV and the group met the mayor and
vice-mayor several times. The Canadian visitors were a bit of a
novelty, probably one of the first large groups of western
visitors in the town, and we were treated like VIPs everywhere
we went. It was quite common for the group members to receive
a ‘gift’ from a merchant after making a purchase, and both the
town and the hotel loaned the college their buses for tours.

Most of the UCFV group stayed in ‘homestay’, and had the
experience of living ina home in Japan, and some have quite
funny stories about the differences in bathrooms, laundry
facilities and food. The townspeople of Fukagawa were very
hospitable, even though most of them speak no English, which
led to more funny stories about communicating and
mis-communicating.

On the way back to Canada, most of the group stopped for
three days of R&R in Seoul, Korea. Sightseeing, shopping and
eating were the orders of the day providing a rare opportunity
for the group to familiarize themselves with Korean culture,
food, and lifestyle, which is very different from Japan.

If there is enough interest from the UCFV community, the
International Education department would like to coordinate
another study tour to Hokkaido in May, 1995. Please contact
Linda Toews in the International Education, Room E240 at
theAbbotsford campus, if you’re interested.