Life Onboard LAST UPDATE  July 1, 2010
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June 1, 2010 Changing Perspectives 1 – Growing opportunities
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Kamigatakuchi Asami would like to work overseas and is particularly interested in moving to Canada.
How does travelling across the globe change peoples' impressions of themselves and the world? In this series, Peace Boat will follow the experiences of three young people as they travel on the 69th Voyage through Asia, Europe and Latin America. Kamigatakuchi Asami is a student of the Global English Training (GET) programme which is held onboard. She says her main aim on Peace Boat is to be exposed to foreign cultures. "I enrolled in GET because I want to study abroad and I am not very confident with my English." Ms Kamigatakuchi is taking the beginners course and hopes to make dramatic improvements during the 69th Voyage. "At the moment I can't really construct a sentence by myself. So by the end of GET I would like to be speaking in full sentences on my own," she says.

The 69th Voyage is special for Ms Kamigatakuchi, because it was her dying father's dream that she travel around the world. "My father passed away two years ago and he always wanted to travel around the world but couldn't because he was working so much," she says. Ms Kamigatakuchi hopes that her experience on Peace Boat teaches her to overcome some of her fears, especially her shyness when talking to new people. "Because this voyage is for my father, I want to learn as much as possible, and grow as much as I can as a person."
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Suzaki Shota was part of a group which donated more than 100 footballs to Palestinian refugees living in Jordan.
Suzaki Shota is travelling with Peace Boat because he wants to learn more about the world. The 21-year-old student in Tokyo is planning to become an English teacher and was considering moving to a country like the United States to improve his language skills. But then he heard about the Global University (GU) Programme, which offers the opportunity to both learn English and also learn about social issues as participants travel to 20 countries around the world. Mr Suzaki wants to gain a first-hand understanding about other countries, cultures and peoples. "I want to know why the world has such a large disparity between the poor and the rich," he says.

GU gives participants like Mr Suzaki the opportunity to learn about these issues, and experience them directly. He says that in Japan he feels disconnected from the harsh realities of those who are suffering. "When I hear about wars in other countries, I do not feel sad or angry," he says. "It might be strange, but I want to feel something when I hear about these wars." He says he is most excited about learning from the experiences of people who are dealing with and overcoming conflicts or extreme poverty. "I would much rather see and feel their problems directly rather than reading or hearing about it."
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Moon Ji Young says she was never taught about how World War II affected Japan while studying in Korea.
Moon Ji Young is one of a growing number of non-Japanese participants onboard Peace Boat. Ms Moon is studying sociology in Seoul and is travelling with the 69th Voyage to gain a better understanding of global social issues, and in particular how they affect Asia. She is participating in the Hibakusha Project, be working closely with ten survivors of the atomic bombing of Japan who are travelling on the 69th Voyage to spread their anti-nuclear message around the world. The 23-year-old says that she only recently found out about the plight of the Hibakusha. "When I was young, nobody taught me about the devastation that nuclear weapons can cause," Ms Moon says. "I read a book about the experiences of the Hibakusha and I was shocked because I did not know that people were so affected by the bombings."

Ms Moon is one of Korean students from Sungkonghoe University enrolled in GU as part of a unique official exchange programme that allows them to use their time with Peace Boat as credit points towards their university course. Ms Moon says that while she can learn about the Hibakusha through history books, she can have a more meaningful exchange speaking to those travelling together on the 69th Voyage. The testimonies of the Hibakusha are especially important because few might be alive when this decade ends. "I want to speak to them and gain an understanding about their experiences before it is too late", Ms Moon says.