Great Hearts Northern Oaks Scholar visits Japan

Headmaster Funes presenting the award to Mr. Alcott.

Great Hearts Northern Oaks junior, Benjamin Alcott was announced as a winner of the 2023 Naoko Mitsui Shirane Foundation scholarship which awarded him a summer exchange program to Japan. Among Benjamin’s experiences as a student ambassador, he visited with a former Chairman of Toyota Motors in Tokyo, and the President of the Lexus plant in southern Japan. Additionally, he visited iconic cultural cities such as Kyoto and Hiroshima, among others. Finally, stayed with a host family on the southern island of Kyushu for a week of cultural and diplomatic exchange. Below is an essay written by Benjamin recounting this portion of the trip.

Visiting the takki (waterfall) with the host family in Isa City.

Before visiting Isa City, I was most worried about accidentally and unknowingly committing offence to my hosts. I did not want to innocently commit offense in the Japanese culture due to my ignorance in the intricacies of Japanese culture and custom—as this is what I was here to learn over the course of the week.

Through open communication, this was avoided and allowed my week and integration into the family to be without offense. Open communication also fostered memorable conversations and questions about the others culture.

In the mountains of southern Japan.

My host family week provided me with unfiltered and undiluted insight into Japanese life and culture that I would otherwise have lacked. During this week I started a series of written lists with the help of my host family that I could bring back, this included everything from how to cook rice the Japanese way to a long list of Japanese words we used on a daily basis (which I referenced throughout the week). I even started a cultural differences list during this week which now has 35 entries! My of these had traditional Japanese roots– such as the heavy use of chop sticks to the commonplace of sliding doors to even the difference in the role of Japanese mother – customs specific to Japan and the area which I had not expected to see still unchanged from global influence and western culture. It was nice as well as intriguing to see that Japan still held aspects of its traditional and unique culture while at the same time being brave to look out to the world for opportunities to improve itself. This theme has its identity in the Japanese word “Kaizen”.

Enjoying a meal I helped make with my host mom.

I had a great time at all three of our cultural events: rice planting, exchange with Meiko Gakuen Junior and Senior high School, as well as the factory tour and management meeting at Oguchi Sake Brewery. Going into all three events I was hoping to experience and have an insight into something specifically Japanese. Thus, my favorite of the activities was our visit to the rice field and being able to plant rice ourselves. The rice fields where the most distinguishing physical characteristic between the community of Isa as a whole and my hometown community as well as country. I enjoyed partaking in something that both has a deep history and influential presence in Japan today. I very much enjoyed writing in kanji and leaning about how the language is used during my time at the academy. It was fun laughing with my Japanese counterparts as they attempted to teach me the correct way of writing. At the brewery, learning about what Sochu is and how it is made was interesting.

Kumamoto Castle. Kumamoto is our sister city and the castle has the same significance as The Alamo does in San Antonio.

Visiting Yamahata Shrine was so fascinating is so many ways. It has been around for ages and yet is still so openly accessible and used by the local community. It has the oldest reference of Sochu in Japan and, in representing a religion and way of thinking, was a manifestation of the source of cultural differences. It was a hidden gem of Isa and of course unlike anything in my home country of Judeo-Christian culture.

Posing with a centuries-old statue guarding the entrance to a shrine.

My experience was one that I would wish upon anybody and hope that all can experience. My thanks go out to the people of Isa, our hosts, and coordinators.

ありがと ございます,
Benjamin Alcott

Practicing the traditional Japanese Kanji at the local Isa City high school. I was taught how to write my name.

We applaud Benjamin as a 2023 Shirane Scholar. Do you have a story or know of a story that you would like to see featured at Great Hearts?  Please contact jason.moore@greathearts.org.

Traditional Japanese painting above a relic statue.