Photos by Yuna Guu (ArtCenter College of Design), Student Correspondent for AICAD in Japan, Spring 2024
CET Presentation Project
The CET students had an ongoing project throughout the semester and would pick a topic to research to compare the differences between their culture and Japan’s culture. At the end of the semester the students would present the results of their findings after interviewing locals and gathering enough data. A poster presentation was held in one of the buildings in the school, where students of OGU as well as locals near the school would visit to listen to the students present their findings in Japanese.
Nara Park
Golden week is a public holiday period in Japan that comes at the end of April and the beginning of May. While there was no holiday for CET students, my friend and I still found time after doing our studies to go to Nara Park to go and see the deers. Nara Park is around an hour away from where we were and is a great place to go and visit after school. Since Golden Week was so busy, we weren’t able to get there early enough to buy shika-senbei (rice crackers) to feed the deers, but still had a lot of fun petting and interacting with them. Highly recommended!
Character Creative Arts Department at OUA
April is the beginning of the academic and work year in Japan, and since I’m part of the AICAD in Japan program, I have the opportunity to attend both Osaka Gakuin University and Osaka University of the Arts. My time at Osaka Gakuin University begins in January, while my time at Osaka University of the Arts begins in April. I was accepted into the キャラクター造形学科 or the Character Creative Arts Department. Pictured is the building for my department, a building modeled after the Disney castle.
Character Design Class
This semester I’m taking a character design class. We started class with a few weeks of figure drawing at the school fountain together with a few other classes, totaling up to perhaps even a hundred students. Students then sat around in the circle on the steps while two or three students modeled in the center. I was pretty surprised this was the set-up, since in my college in America, each class has a maximum of 12-15 people, and we always did figure drawing on horses in the figure drawing rooms.
The next few weeks were more focused on how to draw a character, especially in different angles. We were given handouts on different angles of the faces and then told to draw a woman, man and a child, all in different angles. Usually, classes begin with the professor explaining the topic and handing out necessary handouts. Then, the rest of the class is given to us as time to do the assignment of the day. One thing I’ve noticed in these classes here is that there is rarely any homework given. And in the rare case that there is, it’s to finish what you haven’t finished in class.
Farwell Dinner and CET Students
In the last week after finals, we had a farewell dinner with everyone in the program. We sat with our housemates and enjoyed one of our last meals together. As we ate, some of my friends volunteered to sing a few songs. We all had a blast singing along!
The Spring CET semester ends on May 10th, and students have to officially leave CET housing as per contract. Most students leave Japan on this day as well. However, as the only student in the Spring AICAD in Japan program, I don’t leave until August. Until then, I stay in CET housing with an OGU student. My OGU friends and I ended up sending off our friends at the airport to say our goodbyes. The night I returned back home alone from the airport felt like the quietest night I had experienced in a long time.