The Oshōgatsu Taiken Program
The Heidelberg University Office, Kyoto (HUOK), in close cooperation with Heidelberg Alumni Japan (HAJP), is looking for prospective hosts – no matter if single, families with kids, couples or senior citizens – anywhere in Japan to meet Heidelberg students staying in Japan. In the New Year’s season, the hosts will give students the opportunity to participate in individual activities and offer them an in-depth experience of local holiday traditions.
The program aims at providing the students an authentic glimpse of the Japanese New Year’s culture and your individual everyday life. Let's have fun and learn from each other at the same time!
Time and length, as well as the details of the joint activity can be set individually. Activities could include making rice cakes (mochitsuki) in your neighborhood, an afternoon of preparing new year’s dishes (osechi-ryōri), a new year’s dinner or maybe a new year’s shrine visit (hatsumode) with your family.
You can meet somewhere outside for an activity, invite the students to your home for a couple of hours or, if you like, spend even a few days together: Adjust the program to your personal means and interests.
The guests participating in the program are students of Heidelberg University who are currently enrolled in an exchange or joint program at a university in Japan.
All students have a good command of English and most students already know some Japanese or are in the process of acquiring Japanese language abilities. Heidelberg University is very international, so not only students originally from Germany but also from other countries will be participating in the program. All participants will surely be happy to talk about the traditions in their respective home countries. Travel costs and additional expenses (e.g. pocket money) will be covered by the students.
The HUOK initiates the contact between the host and the students. We will provide suggestions for matching participants according to language abilities, interests and preferences listed on the application forms.
If you are interested in becoming a host, please complete the application form (PDF) and send it to the following email address: info@huok.uni-heidelberg.de
We also accept applications by post to below address:
Yoshida International House, Kyoto University
64 Yoshida Nihonmatsu-cho, Sakyo-ku
Kyoto 606-8501
Please do not hesitate to contact us, if you have any questions:
info@huok.uni-heidelberg.de
Tel. +81 (0) 75 753-5413
