Seiritsu International Education

The first thing that you notice when you talk to Maika Hamada (3-L class, 18yrs) is how awake and curious she is. To have passed the entrance exams to Keio University, one of the top 5 universities in Japan, she would have to be.

Maika was born in Ibaraki, about 3 hours by bullet train from Tokyo. She attended a Protestant kindergarten and once acted as Mary in a Christmas school play. She took piano lessons, but she was unfortunately bullied in elementary school and then again in junior high school by jealous students for perhaps studying hard.

A turning point in her young life was when her family moved to Moscow due to her father’s work from when she was 13 to 15 years old. The first thing she thought when she saw the Russian written language was, ‘is this really how they write?’ But she studied Russian diligently along with Japanese and English at an international school, where she met other students from many different countries.

Her Russian piano teacher left a strong impression on her, stating she played the piano too technically and that she had to put real emotion into her playing if she wanted to improve.

It took Maika about 12 months to become conversational in Russian and she still talks to friends she made in Russian over the phone from time to time. Russian pancakes (belini) are her favorite Russian food, small crepes she likes to top with sour cream and ikura (salmon roe).

The family moved back to Japan settling in Saitama, just north of Tokyo, and she passed the high school entrance tests to come to Seiritsu. She has enjoyed her time here and has made good friends plus never been bullied, while her hobbies have been continuing to learn Russian, drawing illustrations of people, and making sweets at home.

At Keio University, she has been accepted into the Comprehensive Policy department. But she is going to also try to pass the entrance exams for the Keio Law department and the Waseda University Politics and Economic department as well. I did mention she’s very curious right?

Her dream job is to be a foreign movie buyer, bringing foreign films to Japan. Her favorite film is the aristocratic love story ‘Onegin’ released in 1999, based on the Alexander Pushkin novel ‘Eugene Onegin’.

When asked what she wants foreigners to know about Japan, one thing is that not all Japanese are small, which was what Russians always asked her. The second is that Japanese are able to balance the separate religions of Buddhism and Shinto, both having their peaceful place in Japan.

Maika feels that while in Japan being shy is considered by some to be beautiful, and what one doesn’t say is just as important as what one does say, she would like to see Japanese people express themselves more. If Japanese want to be understood abroad, they need to speak up. As for Maika, she doesn’t seem to have a problem with that, and for sure Keio is happy to have her curious nature from next April.

RM