By Tyrone McNeil, Exchange Student,
Auckland University of Technology
My hometown is Auckland, the largest city in New Zealand. Auckland has 48 dormant volcanoes in the greater area. The most famous is a symbol of Auckland "One Tree Hill" as well as a sacred mountain for the Maori (native people) called "Maungakiekie." Now unfortunately this volcano no longer has a tree on top of it. Irish band U2 wrote a hit song called "One Tree Hill" about a Maori friend of theirs who was buried on the mountain. Auckland is known as the "City of Sails" and is famous for its Skytower, (the tallest building in the South Pacific) wild west coast surfing beaches and a large Polynesian and Asian population.
My university, the Auckland University of Technology (AUT) is located on two separate campuses. My campus is in the central business district of Auckland City and the second is 15 minutes from there over the harbour bridge on the North Shore. One advantage of being in the heart of the city is being able to go to the many restaurants, bars and cafes after lectures or even go to the movies. The disadvantages are the noise, pollution and costly transport to get into the city.
Comparing AUT with Sapporo University; academically Satsudai has a slightly more relaxed atmosphere than AUT which crams about four years study into three with lots of assignments, tests, and revision material given and this keeps you very busy. The lecture times at AUT are normally 50 minutes compared to 1 hour 30 minutes at Satsudai which I found hard to get used to. But overall there is less class time at Sapporo which I am enjoying.
AUT doesn't have lots of circles or organised clubs like Satsudai does but instead has casual sports teams, lots of live music on campus and a few large pub crawls are organised to go around the city (AUT also has a licensed bar on the city campus open all day!) The Cafeteria food at AUT is very ordinary and it's expensive but Sapporo's cafeteria food is delicious and so cheap.
My situation is not a normal one for an exchange student. Firstly my wife is Japanese and she has come back to Japan with me. Sapporo is her hometown and we were both excited when the chance was offered to study here for a year. I am lucky that I am able to live with her and be close to her family for support so I donﾕt really have any homesickness.
I am only in my third month living in Sapporo but have settled in well. My conversation skills are slowly improving but not as quickly as I had hoped. Secondly I am 32 years old which is older than most of the students I study with in New Zealand or Japan.
I have had many different full time jobs since leaving high school. Starting from Japanese second hand car parts to furniture retail to special effects makeup for film and T.V. (horror, science fiction etc) but these jobs didn't quite turn out the way I planned, especially the makeup one which I had recently hoped to turn into a career.
I decided to learn Japanese two years ago to give me more options for a career in either N.Z. or Japan because I can live freely in both countries. After arriving in Sapporo, I was lucky to get a part time job at a 31 ice cream shop at Jusco Hiraoka and this has been a real challenge for me because of my limited Japanese ability. Not only does it require rolling ice cream but also making crepes, sundaes and various types of drink. I make a lot of mistakes but I am fortunate to work with a lot of really great people who help me out despite the language barrier between us and I enjoy the interaction. I now know what it's like for foreigners who can't speak English to work in New Zealand.
I have done a bit of travelling around Hokkaido and want to see more. I think it is a very beautiful place with helpful and friendly people, great transportation and superb food. The onsen in Hokkaido are great and the scenery and land is very clean and green. The amount of snow that falls here is incredible. When I arrived it was near the end of winter, late March to be exct, (and even then it was bloody cold!) so come December I want to experience the famous powdered snow in Niseko.
New Zealand and Hokkaido are very similar in terms of population, agricultural based economy and wide open areas of nature. I would recommend anyone to study or live in Sapporo. Go Fighters and Go Samurai Blue!