Photo Credit: Tokyo graphic by Summer Sit '25
By Quill Nishi-Leonard ’27
Copy Chief
On Oct. 1, four Mount Holyoke College students who recently returned from studying abroad gathered in Ciruti 109 to present their experiences at the Japan Study Abroad Information Session. While the experience of studying abroad isn’t an uncommon one at the College — over 40% of students will have studied abroad by the time they cross the stage at Commencement — only seven of the over 150 study abroad programs available to Mount Holyoke College students are located in Japan. Mount Holyoke News interviewed two of the students who presented to understand their experiences, stories and takeaways from studying in Japan.
Associated Kyoto Program
Eleanor Freed ’25 studied abroad in Japan with the Associated Kyoto Program, also known as AKP. AKP students study at Doshisha University’s Imadegawa campus, which is located in Kyoto. In an interview with Mount Holyoke News, Freed elaborated more on why they chose AKP. “AKP was my first choice … being in Kyoto would mean that I could easily spend time with my friends in Nagaokakyo,” they said.
Freed’s hometown is sister cities with Nagaokakyo, which is located only a few miles away from Kyoto. In the past, their family had “hosted students through” a separate program, which is what initially inspired them to study abroad in Japan.
In addition to their personal ties to the area, Freed said that another bonus of studying in Kyoto was the city’s “history, much of which is visible in the older architectural styles and the shrines and temples.” They spent much of their time abroad studying Japanese history, culture and traditions, and found that physically exploring Japan often “helped contextualize” what they were learning in class.
Students participating in AKP are able to go on one overnight group trip as part of the program. For Freed’s trip, students spent several days exploring Himeji, Hiroshima and Miyajima. “Miyajima is an island off of Hiroshima known for its shrines … We stayed in a traditional Japanese inn … and had most of the day to just explore the island,” Freed said. It was in Miyajima that Freed found Daishō-in. “Daishō-in … may be my favorite temple that I saw,” Freed said. “[It] has a miniature version of the Shikoku pilgrimage; there was also a ceremony going on to bless old kitchen knives that are no longer usable.”
All AKP students take an eight-credit Japanese course, alongside two four-credit electives. Every elective class “goes on at least one field trip,” according to Freed. During their presentation, Freed said they “highly recommend” taking an elective course called Religion, Tradition and Temple-Tourism in Kyoto because of its frequent field trips to temples and shrines.
Freed “loved that Kyoto is such a wanderable city” and spent much of their free time exploring, aided by Kyoto’s robust public transportation system. “I would often get off at a train stop [part way] home and wander around for a bit,” Freed said. “I found some awesome little shops and shrines by just walking around without much of a plan.”
“I can’t talk about my semester without giving a shout-out to my host family … for doing so much to make my semester as fulfilling as possible,” Freed said. For Freed, living with a host family was integral to the development of their conversational Japanese skills. “Forming a relationship with them was a key part of making my experience in Japan so meaningful,” they said.
CIEE Arts Tokyo
Gillian Tomlinson ’25 went abroad with CIEE Arts Tokyo; CIEE is an acronym for the Council on International Educational Exchange. CIEE operates various programs in different countries and cities, but Tomlinson was drawn to study abroad in Japan because they “wanted to go somewhere … completely different” that they wouldn’t have normally been able to “stay in for a long period of time.”
Tomlinson chose to study abroad with CIEE specifically because of its partnership with Sophia University, its robust support system for students and various field trips. According to Tomlinson, Sophia University has “a big international student draw” and much of the academic programming “felt very similar to Mount Holyoke.” Students at CIEE Arts Tokyo take a total of 16 credits, with four credits in Japanese language and 12 credits in the School of Faculty of Liberal Arts. Tomlinson opted to take classes in history, film and Japanese literature for those 12 credits. As a film media theater and English double major, Tomlinson found that their elective classes “felt very familiar, but still very different.”
Like Freed, Tomlinson found that public transportation played a key role in their independent explorations of Japan. Students enrolled in CIEE Arts Tokyo are given commuter passes for Tokyo’s train system. Since Tomlinson was given their pass by CIEE, rides between Yotsuya Station and Musashi-Kosugi Station — which are located by the university and student dormitories, respectively — were free. “It was so clean and so efficient, and people are so polite,” Tomlinson said. “The train system looks really confusing, and then once you get a hang of it, it is not.”
“Because I rode for free between those two stations … I could basically get a discount sometimes, when I would come home from somewhere else,” Tomlinson added.
While Tomlinson was able to go on a variety of field trips as part of CIEE’s program — their favorite of which was to Yokohama and its Cup Noodles museum — one of the trips they remember most fondly was actually one they arranged by themselves. “I went [to Hakone] at the end of May, which is nearly the halfway point of [CIEE’s program],” Tomlinson said. “It’s nestled in the mountains, it’s beautiful, it’s scenic … It was like, the first trip I truly went on by myself. … That felt very special to me.”
For students who are interested but unsure about studying abroad in Japan, Tomlinson recommends taking advantage of the Japanese courses offered at the College. “For my comfort, it was very helpful to have those four semesters [of Japanese] under my belt,” Tomlinson said. “The professors here are amazing.”