Decided to stay in Japan in this summer, I had a chance to take part in a conference in Osaka for 10 days called Peace Conference of Youth (PCY). This event, which was held and sponsored by Junior Chamber International Osaka (JCI Osaka), aims to gather young people in Japan and from all around the all to come together and discuss about problems that we are confronting with nowadays. The conference also encourages the young to consider more about the global issues and contribute more to the society. The main language used during PCY program is English, so it is really good chance for the international students whose Japanese are not good like me to join. Moreover, thanks to this program, I can meet and make a lot of new Japanese friends and also from other countries like Canada, Egypt, and Argentina etc.

This year, the main topic of the conference is about poverty. To help us having overall view of the real situation, PCY provided us three-day trip to Cambodia. In here, we visited an elementary school in the rural area of Cambodia, observed how poverty effects the local people’s lives and also joined in some volunteer works here. We also had chance to talk and study from the NGO which are now trying to find solutions for poverty problems, and also made new Cambodian friends who share the same ideal with us.
Coming back to Osaka after the trips, we started to work on the discussion to find an action plan for reducing the poverty.


 I have to say, these days were really tired, all of us had to wake up at 6 am and the discussion often stopped at midnight. However, joining this discussion created golden chance for me to gain a lot of experiences from the others who are really talented and have the same goal with me and also useful skills such as presentation skills, the tree problem and time management etc. Moreover, besides the discussion, PCY program also gave us the chance to discover Osaka and Japanese culture. During the program, I visited a lot of shrines and temples in Osaka, listened and learnt a lot about Japanese history and culture. I also had chance to join the tea ceremony, Japanese style meditation and especially, for the first time, I took part in the “misogi” ritual, which means that I had to stay under the waterfall and do some ritual to clean my soul and body. It was really an extra original experience for me. After three days of concentrated discussion, we finally came up with an action plan and it was presented in PCY forum. It was also a new experience for me to take part in a conference in Japan, the profession of the conference impressed me a lot.

In conclusion, without paying large amount of money, I acquired a lot of memories and experiences this summer thanks to the PCY program. They are the three-day trip in Cambodia, the trip in Osaka, the misogi ritual and also the discussion days, but more importantly, joining this program created chances to me have a lot of new and talented friends who share the same thought and ideal with me in not only Japan but also from other countries. Due to all of these, I strongly believe that this program will have me a lot in my future. Through this article, I want to send my sincere thanks to Mika Tamura – sensei and Yamada – sensei for recommending and always helping me during the application period of PCY program. Without your help, I would had missed this precious chance. Moreover, I also want to say thank you to the JCI Osaka for holding this program and helping me during the program.
And for the international students in Kyushu University, next summer, if you decide to stay in Japan, please take a look at this program next year. I am sure that you will have a great summer vacation thanks to this program.
(Hung, Applied Chemistry. Right)