Hello! My name is Chiharu Oya. I have been to Vladivostok, Irkutsk, and Tanhoi. I really enjoyed this culture exchange program for 13 days. Broadly summarizing, We leaned about nature and indigenous people of the area. We learned about animals, nature, and how rengers protect them at popov island, Barabash Village, Furugelm island, and lake Baikal. People living in nature was enjoying nature, using nature, but taking good care of nature. I realized that I was always using too much artificial power. Many people would think we should not use nature to protect nature, but that was wrong. We should use nature moderately to get along with nature.

Lecture at museum in Frugelm Island

Learning animals and plants at Leopard trail

Waking eco trail and learning about nature

We also learned about the indigenous people. We saw many indigenous people's house made of wood. They used wood to make house, furniture, and so on. We saw indigenous people's effort to survive but not to destroy nature. In Japan, there was indigenous people too, but it is far removed from us. That's why I was surprised that there are still people who lives using those houses. We can learn something from them to get along with nature in Japan.

Learning about indigenous people in their house

We visited some universities and had cultural exchange with their student. Many students are learning Japanese and talked to us in Japanese. They also said they like Japanese culture. I felt really about it. I'm proud of my country. My dream is to be a Japanese language teacher, so this experience encouraged me to fulfill my dream!

Doing Origami with students from Irkutsk University

Again, I learned about Russia, nature, culture, and myself in this program.
Thank you very much for letting me join this program.