- UCLA is like "its own city."

From August 24 to 29, six Japanese high school students visited California as the 2016 "Overseas Project Exploration Team" , a program run by Yomiuri Shimbun and sponsored by Mitsubishi Corporation. Their one-week journey started in Fresno, where they studied food production in California and learned about sustainability and fair trade practices. They then came down to Los Angeles, where they visited UCLA to experience university life in America.

On August 26th, the six students met with UCLA Terasaki Center Director Hitoshi Abe to talk about the meaning of being "Japanese." Using his own multicultural family as an example, Director Abe encouraged them to think more deeply about Japan and the Japanese identity.

The students returned to Japan and wrote about their experiences in California, including struggling with English, learning about social responsibility, and exploring UCLA. The Yomiuri Shimbun article can be found here (currently available only in Japanese).