Lessons from Hiroshima: Navigating the Learning Curve
By Benjamin Echikson ‘22, Hiroshima (2022-2024)
Hiroshima, Japan. February 1st, 2024.
I have lived in Hiroshima for about a year and a half now. You could say that I have gotten used to living in Japan, but there still is something “weird” about living alone and working here . “Weird” in the way that I sometimes still find it hard to believe that I am no longer in the US or Europe. When I took my first Japanese class on my first day of class at Oberlin, I did not fully expect it to lead here. It was just a class I tried out of curiosity and enjoyed that snowballed into me wanting to live in Japan and eventually finding Oberlin Shansi.
When I first walked out of Hiroshima station, I was not sure what to expect. It was my first time in the city and I was going to have to make it my home for two years. In the time since, I have navigated Japanese society and bureaucracy and peeked at the inner workings of the UN and local NGOs. Most of all, I ventured outside my comfort zone and was rewarded with a unique experience I would not trade for anything.
My first ever cherry blossom season in April 2023. This one at Hiroshima Castle
One of the big draws of this fellowship was the opportunity to work for a UN agency, and I would say the experience has been worth it. Of course, it remains a full-time job and there are boring parts such as logistics; but the excitement of creating and executing training programs makes up for it. One interesting program that I assist is the Nuclear Disarmament and Non-Proliferation Training Programme. It assembles Asian ministers of foreign affairs departments from Kazakhstan to Timor-Leste to participate in a week-long training on the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Participants learn to argue for nuclear disarmament through lectures by experts and engaging in workshops and simulations. This was the closest I had ever been to genuine international relations as I learned alongside the participants about the current state and risk of nuclear weapons in the world, and saw government officials carry out diplomacy. I saw before my eyes a way to promote global security through dialogue and cooperation.
The top of Hamada Castle Ruins from a trip to Shimane Prefecture, North of Hiroshima, in August 2023
The cute small hot-spring town of Yunotsu from a trip to Shimane Prefecture, North of Hiroshima, in August 2023
My other job at the NGO has turned out to be the bigger surprise. I go to the small grass-roots organization ANT-Hiroshima once a week for a variety of volunteer work from giving tours of Hiroshima’s Peace Parks to editing English pamphlets. I had never volunteered at an NGO before and did not know what to expect. The environment is different. The spoken language is Japanese compared to English at UNITAR. It is the best place for me to improve my Japanese through talking to the convivial staff and volunteers. Tomoko, the head, has a constant smile that welcomes anyone and encourages people to open up about recent experiences in Hiroshima or recent travels. ANT is also the easiest spot to make friends of my age in Hiroshima, as many volunteers from local universities help out. And despite ANT’s local Hiroshima nature, they open their doors to people from all over which has allowed me to befriend interns not only from Japan but also from South Sudan and Fiji.
View from the Shimanami cycle, November 2023.
The activity I learned the most at ANT was presenting to schools in Japanese. ANT engages a lot in peace education and we are often asked by schools and organizations to speak about Hiroshima, and NGO work—especially ANT’s work. Interns talk about their personal experiences, goals, and reasons for volunteering. I have spoken at elementary, middle, and high schools, and even at universities. It was hard at first. I had done presentations in Japanese in front of classmates and teachers at Oberlin, but here I would have large audiences of up to 200 kids listening to me. The first time I was nervous and still getting used to speaking Japanese daily, and barely managed to squeak out a tense and uninspired speech. Yet I learned much about language and delivery. Session after session, I began to engage with my audience, and I even made jokes to keep elementary school kids attentive (I think). The more I presented, the more confidence I gained. If I can present in Japanese, I can present in any language!
The top of Mount Ishisuzhi, the highest peak in Western Japan. November 2023
Life in Hiroshima has forced me to adapt, such as my hobbies. Throughout my life, I participated in a lot of sports; at Oberlin, I was on the tennis team. One of my biggest disappointments about my time in Hiroshima is that I have not been able to pick up my racket and play. I could not find a partner to regularly hit with, and Japan does not have a good system to pair people looking for players (at least not one I found after an exhausting search). So I turned to other pastimes and converted my disappointment into new possibilities. I started cycling more. Not with a racing bike but with a used outmoded six-gear hybrid bike. On a sunny weekend, you may catch me biking to new spots to eat and to new views for a stylized photo. I have also begun hiking. Japan is surrounded by nature and mountains that are relatively accessible. I climbed many of the local mountains that surround Hiroshima City such as Mount Sokayama and Mount Ushiyama, then I took the train to the countryside to climb Mount Shirakiyama, the highest mountain in Hiroshima Prefecture. In November, I challenged Mount Ishizuchi, the highest mountain in Western Japan and a physical test. I was worried about how I would manage since I had done much less sports since I graduated, but I made it to the top and was rewarded with a magnificent view. My time in Japan has allowed me to experiment with new experiences and push myself outside of my safety bubble.
Trip to Gifu Prefecture in September 2023. Filled with charming medieval towns, the left is Magomejuku and the right is Shirakawago.
Another important part of this fellowship for me has been travel. I briefly wrote about it in my last Story from the Field. I have bicycled from Japan’s main island of Honshu to Shikoku through a range of islands connected by 7 bridges called the Shimanami cycle. I have visited multiple UNESCO heritage sites such as Iwami Ginzan, a former silver mine nestled in the mountains, and Shirakawago, a village famous for its old gasshō houses characterized by thatched and steeply slanted roofs. I have visited hot-spring towns, some sleepy such as Yunotsu Onsen which looks to be stuck in time from a hundred years ago and with hardly any traffic, to world-famous Beppu and Noboribetsu with dramatic volcanic waters of red, blue, and green. I visited the historic cities of Kanazawa and Takayama with many remaining Edo-period houses and an abundance of charm. I swam in the Sea of Japan in Hamada and skied in Hokkaido, the northernmost island of Japan and one of the areas with the heaviest snowfall in the world. I even got my Japanese driving license last year, enabling me to drive alongside sunny coasts in Ehime Prefecture and tipsy-turvey mountain passes in Nagano Prefecture. I left Japan for the first time since the beginning of my internship, traveling for a week in Korea. Trips remain a highlight of my fellowship, and I hope to visit more new places.
With just under six months remaining in my fellowship, I am thinking about what is next after Hiroshima. I am applying to graduate school and jobs, but nothing is concrete as of me writing this. Yet I do not feel that much pressure about the next step. My success in this fellowship through my work and personal life has given me the courage I need to face what comes next and the ambition to go for an opportunity that excites me as Oberlin Shansi did. I know I still have a lot more to learn and experience to gain, but I feel ready to go on another adventure after this.
Trip to Hokkaido, Japan’s Northernmost island, in January 2024. Skiing at Niseko on the left and Lake Toya to the right.