今回は主に花蓮と台中を訪問しました。どちらも素敵な街でしたが、田舎でのんびりした花蓮に対し、大都会台中、という感じでした。また行って、まだ行けていない台北や他のいろいろな場所を旅してみたいです。

　話は変わり、先月は一か月、ザンビアのプロジェクト関係者を招へいしていました。初めて日本に来た方々に何を見てもらうか、いろいろ悩んで、いろんな方々の助けを借りて、なんとか楽しんでもらえたのではないかと思います。もちろん忙しかったけれど、価値のある交流になりました。うちの学生もいろいろ学んでもらえたのではないでしょうか。

　大学生の間に、異なる考え方に触れ、いろいろな文化を見て、体験することは本当に重要です。これからも学生のためにいろんなところからいろいろな人を連れてきて会わせてあげたい。将来何をするか、何が必要とされているのか、ということを広い視点で知るきっかけにしたい、と強く思っています。

   I have been to Taiwan for a week. Collaborations with Asian countries have not really been on in my team so this was a good opportunity for me to get to know each other, in relation to our agriculture and environment related issues. Similar to us in Hokkaido, Taiwan has issues of nutrient loss from farms to rivers and oceans, traditional culture and the land use and the evaluation of organic farming systems. It was a very interesting experience. 

   Hualing and Taichung were the main cities that I traveled this time. Hualing was more like a rural city while Taichung city was big and lively. I hope to visit there again to see more. 

   Changing the topic, I have been hosting visitors related to our Zambian project, for a month. We planned well to make sure they visit many places and experience a lot of things while in Japan. I hope they had enjoyed the stay. I was very busy last month but it was all worth it. I hope my students experienced Zambian culture a lot too. 

   It is extremely important to expose ourselves to different type of thoughts/people/culture when we are young. I really hope that I should invite more and more people from other countries for my students. Students should think what they want to do in their future, from the wider view/perspective. Also they should know what type of people are needed by the world. This type of experiences is essential to achieve that.