Guide to Hokkaido, Asahikawa City and Asahikawa University

This guide provides you with some useful information and various links on Hokkaido, Asahikawa City, Asahikawa University and Japan.

Hokkaido is surrounded by the Pacific Ocean, the Sea of Japan and the Sea of Okhotsk. The island features a diversity of breathtaking mountain scenes, extensive wetlands, natural lakes and marshes with beautiful landscapes. It has a cool, dry climate, with little concern about rainy seasons or typhoons. Although it is at the northern end of Japan, its latitude is about the same as those of many major American and European cities.

http://www.pref.hokkaido.jp/index-e.html

For a complete guide to living in Hokkaido.

http://www.sap-hok.com/frameH3.htm

Asahikawa is Hokkaido’s second largest city with a population of about 360,000. It is an interesting city surrounded by beautiful mountains. It is the gateway to the Taisetsuzan National Park. The city is also noted for its winter amusements and fantastic hot springs.

A complete guide to Asahikawa City with maps and lots of helpful information can be found at the Hokkaido Information web site. Click on "Hokkaido Cities & Towns" in the sidebar, then click "Asahikawa".

http://www.sap-hok.com/frameH3.htm

For photographic images of Asahikawa City.

http://plaza14.mbn.or.jp/~shoppe/WalkEg.htm

In 1997, Asahikawa University and Webster University signed an agreement for the exchange of faculty and students. It signed a similar agreement with Western Oregon State University in 1994. Rather than give you the standard publicity material on Asahikawa University, we asked four former faculty members for their honest opinion about Asahikawa University. Draw your own conclusions from their comments.

Dr. Gerry Tierney: "One of the greatest resources that Asahikawa University possesses is its students. I taught one class to a group of first year students and three classes to upper division students. All the classes were taught in English. I found these classes intellectually stimulating. I found the students to be very interested in the topics of multiculturalism in the United States and culture and communication in the United States. The students were eager to learn all they could about Americans and their cultures and they appeared to enjoy engaging in discourse about the topics under discussion.

Small class size and the ability to teach in an informal environment was a plus. I received the full support of a very competent administration who were always available to me, and always very supportive of my teaching methods.

I also took note that the office workers were very attentive to the needs of students and interacted with them on an individual basis. This is quite a remarkable achievement in the culture of academia in which, more often than not, the student does not receive individual attention. Both teachers and students benefit by the University's international approach. The faculty have been supported in their global research by an administration that values the experience gained by living and working in another country. The students are also encouraged to travel abroad through a generous student exchange program.

I've taught classes in Europe, the United States and Thailand, and I can honestly state that I have never enjoyed any teaching experience more than the one experienced at Asahikawa University. I highly recommend Asahikawa University.

I spent one year (1999) at Asahikawa University teaching and conducting research due to an exchange faculty program between Asahikawa University in Japan and Webster University in the United States."

Asahikawa Courses: Cross-Culture and Communications Studies, General Studies, English I

Research Field: Ph.D. research field: Social Science (Anthropology). Research Interests: Homelessness in Alaska/Women's Studies/Life, Histories of Women

Research link: http://www.webster.edu/~tiernege/

Nationality: American

Link: Webster University: http://www.webster.edu/depts/artsci/bass/faculty.html

Prof. J. Sean Curtin: "I have broad teaching experience, having taught at universities in Sweden, Taiwan, Britain and Japan. In my opinion, Asahikawa University is one of the most international and egalitarian institutes I have been lucky enough to work for. Even though I am now a tenured full professor at another Japanese university, Asahikawa University is the place I feel most at home in and most loyal to. The harmony and sense of belonging between the academic staff, administrators and students gives the place a real sense of community that you simply don’t find at most other universities. I particularly admire the environment of gender equality that the university has created in its academic and administrative structures. It makes a refreshing change from other institutions I have worked for in Japan and is a model for others to follow.

From the academic year 2000, I will teach two social science classes as an adjunct. I was a fulltime member of faculty at the campus (1995-1998) and look back on those days as the happiest of my academic career. I highly recommend this excellent university."

Asahikawa Courses: Social Science I, Social Science II

Research Field: Ph.D. research field: Social Science/Japanese Studies. Research Interests: Family structures, marriage, divorce, gender equality in education and the workplace.

Research link: http://www.shef.ac.uk/uni/academic/D-H/eas/r_stud.htm

Current Member of Regional Research Institute — Asahikawa University:

http://www.asahikawa-u.ac.jp/chiki/nenpou.htm

Nationality: British

Link: Japanese Red Cross Hokkaido Nursing University: http://www.rchokkaido-cn.ac.jp/

Dr. Romit Dasugupta: "I spent eighteen months as a Visiting Researcher at Asahikawa University, over the period April 1998 - October 1999. In addition to my own research, I was also involved with a certain amount of undergraduate teaching. Consequently, I had ample opportunity to interact with both academic and administrative staff, and students at Asahikawa University, and found the experience stimulating and enjoyable.

In particular, I found the personal and friendly nature of interaction between faculty and administration, and staff and students at Asahikawa University to be a refreshing change from the larger-scale university organizational cultures I was accustomed to in Australia. Moreover, this lack of bureaucracy has allowed Asahikawa University a degree of flexibility and innovation in its courses and community-outreach programmes unusual among Japanese universities."

Asahikawa Course: Foreign Book Subscription and Reading

Research Field: Ph.D. research field: Gender Studies/Japanese Studies. Research Interests: Constructions of gender/sexualities (particularly masculinities) in Japan, Popular Culture, Contemporary Japanese Society

Research link: http://www.arts.uwa.edu.au/ASWWW/our_people.html

Nationality: Australian

Link: University of Western Australia: http://www.arts.uwa.edu.au/ASWWW/our_people.html

Prof. Kirsten Refsing: " I spent two years from 1977 to 1979 as a teacher at Asahikawa University and they were a very happy time. The University and its beautiful surroundings gave me some very happy memories. Being a small university, everyone was very caring and friendly towards this "hen na gaijin" who suddenly came to live among them and I soon felt completely at home. I especially remember my students with great fondness. Their curiosity about the world and their open and friendly way of approaching me made a deep impression on me."

Asahikawa Courses: Comparative Culture and Communication, General Studies, English I, English II

Research Field: Ph.D. research field: Japanese Studies (Ainu Culture). Research Interests: Ainu culture and language, gender issues, ethnic identity, Japanese society

Research link: http://www.hku.hk/japanese/researchproject.html

Ainu Research: http://www.hku.hk/japanese/refsing/ainu.html

Publications: http://www.hku.hk/japanese/publication/krpub.html

Current Member of Regional Research Institute — Asahikawa University:

http://www.asahikawa-u.ac.jp/chiki/nenpou.htm

Nationality: Danish

Link: University of Hong Kong: http://www.hku.hk/japanese/staff.htm

Prof. Ryoji Yamauchi (United Kingdom)

Prof. Satoru Sasaki (United States)

Prof. Xing-Qi Jiang (China)

Associate Prof. Tamotsu Onozaki (United States)

Dr. Bo-Chen Pan
Subjects: Chinese I, Chinese II
Nationality: Chinese
Link: http://www.asahikawa-med.ac.jp

Mr. Norman Delaney
Subjects: English II, English III, English IV
Nationality: American

Ms. Yan-Fei Cheng:
Subjects: Chinese I, Chinese II
Nationality: Chinese
Link: http://www.asahikawa-u.ac.jp/chiki/nenpou.htm

Mr. David Fairweather
Subjects: English I, English IV
Nationality: Canadian

Mr. Shen Jing:
Subject: Language Seminar (Basic level)
Nationality: Chinese

Mr. Adrian Tanner:
Subject: English II
Nationality: British

Mr. Xiao-Zhe Wang:
Subjects: Chinese I, Chinese II
Nationality: Chinese

We are an economics university with a truly international outlook. In the new age of globalization, students need to think on a planetary scale. That is why we are dedicated to giving our students a comprehensive world view of economics. To this end, we are committed to continually strengthening our university with international faculty of the highest academic caliber. To meet the unique challenges of the global era, we aim to create a dynamic university incorporating the very best in academic excellence.

Foreign Faculty at the Asahikawa University Comparative Culture Symposium 1999 http://www.webster.edu/~tiernege/asahikawa/sld024.htm

Clockwise: Dr. Dasugupta, Dr. Tierney, Ms. Kamimura, Prof. Fujiwara, Ms. Miyata, Prof. Curtin and Associate Prof. Abe.

Japan Times
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/

Daily Yomiuri
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/index-e.htm

Mainichi Daily News
http://www.mainichi.co.jp/english/

Nihon Keizai Shimbun - Nikkei Net Interactive
http://www.nni.nikkei.co.jp/

Japanese Government Ministries

Ministry of Home Affairs
http://www.mha.go.jp/eng/index.html

Ministry of Health and Welfare
http://www.mhw.go.jp/english/index.html

Ministry of Foreign Affairs
http://www.mofa.go.jp/index.html