Field Study of
Economics Department
経済学科のフィールドスタディ

Report from Student 1,Hawaii, 2019

First overseas

　From September 2 to 15, 2019, I visited Hawaii, USA, and learned about Hawaii’s environmental issues, tourism and economy at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. By actually going to the land in Hawaii, I was able to get to know another aspect that was different from the image of Hawaii. For example, Hawaii is famous as a tourist attraction, but there are more homeless people, and the government is focusing more on tourism than homeless assistance, and promoting renewable energy to protect Hawaii’s environment I was able to know information that I could only go on. I had a sense of expanding my values overseas for the first time. I learned a lot by touching the values and life of Hawaiian people. I couldn’t speak English, but I could understand and speak English little by little by continuing every day and trying to communicate eagerly with Google translation and gestures etc. In addition, I felt that the lives of the people in Hawaii were slower than in Japan and I was spending my day with a calm feeling. In Japan, it is important to keep the time, and the customer service is required to be the best, but in Hawaii there was no such thing and everyone felt that they were living with a relaxed heart. It was a very good experience for me to be able to communicate even if I couldn’t understand the language, and to know about life in other countries.
This time, I learned consciously about alien species as the main, but I found that I had to handle alien species properly to protect Hawaiian native species. I also learned that the effects of alien species on Hawaiian people are immeasurable, and that they are subject to a wide range of academic studies, including economics, oceanography, and biology. Some of the alien species are Japanese creatures, and I learned that even if there is no impact on the land in Japan, simply changing the land drives the endemic species to extinction. I think that knowing this kind of knowledge and not knowing will change the awareness of environmental issues. I felt that it was important to know what the people of Hawaii are doing and what measures they are trying to take.
I was able to gain a lot of experience through this FSA.I think that thank you for student at university of Hawaii. I was excited for the first time abroad, but I felt that I wanted to go to various countries with the wonderfulness beyond my imagination. It’s a waste to just accumulate the knowledge that I learned this time, so I would like to talk to my friends in Japan and tell them what is happening in Hawaii. I want to keep my parents on a trip to Hawaii, and when I visit Hawaii, I will continue to make efforts every day in Japan so that I can show Hawaiian people a more mature appearance. Thank you to the University of Hawaii and Meiji Gakuin University teachers and students.