"Tadaima Nippon (I’m Home, Japan) - A Study Abroad Video"

Tadaima Nippon (I'm Home, Japan) - A Study Abroad Video from Kyle Kien on Vimeo.

My student from last year put together this film after he returned to the United States. I was happy to hear from him and very happy to see his film.

Kyle's description of his film (from his Vimeo page):

"Tadaima Nippon/ただいま日本" or "I'm Home, Japan" is a narrative about peace-building. Just over a year ago, I visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial and listened to an atomic bomb survivor ghastly describing her experience that paralyzed the whole lecture room. It was a field trip provided by my school and I returned home wanting to release a video that I had captured during my study abroad in Spring of 2015: a video concerning the importance of how studying abroad enhances our understanding of one another on a global scale--and I hope for the future, we could prevent such disastrous events like that of the atomic bomb simply due to misunderstandings oceans away. Now in this new globalized world, these oceans are slowly becoming ponds but its still not enough to break the walls of ignorance. Japan was my home for those 5 months and I tried my best to capture it, as well as condensing months of footage down to this mere 20 minutes, along with interviews of fellow students recalling how the experience has affected them.

Environments brings about different mindsets in people, different languages have speakers of those languages view concepts differently (like the difference of Green and Blue or Pink and Red as a small example). I think many societies around the world are stuck in their own bias where there is no vital feedback to clear the walls of ignorance when viewing other cultures/societies but if one could go abroad with an open mind for just a few months, a simple transaction of laughs, hugs, and joy, can move us forward in the right direction.

Check it out!