Field schools

The Department of Pacific and Asian Studies is pleased to offer our students two field schools in Japan. Unlike an exchange opportunity, a field school is a UVic course which brings students and an instructor out of the classroom to a setting “in the field;” in our case, in Japan itself.

One of our field schools is an intensive language-immersion course which requires intermediate-level Japanese language ability. This operates in Kinosaki, about two hours by train from Osaka, in Hyogo Prefecture.

Our other field school does not require Japanese-language ability. This course is an examination of the word “Empire” in Japan’s history, and its continuing effects on the present day.

For more information, please keep reading below, or contact paasadmin@uvic.ca for details of the language-immersion course; or Dr. Timothy Iles:  for details on the Empire field school.

PAAS 397 Field School in Pacific and Asian Studies: Japan: Empire

General Outline:

This three-unit course on the theme of Empire consists of two weeks of lectures at UVic, followed by fourteen days in Osaka, Japan, with excursions to Nara, Kyoto, and Hiroshima. The course will follow the origins, development, consequences, and continuing influences of the Japanese empire, from the earliest times to the present day. No knowledge of Japan or the Japanese language is required. We cover issues of aesthetics, ideology and religious influence, colonialism, militarism, ethnicity, economic transformation, and contemporary international relations around key aspects of soft power and cultural exportation, to see how social structure across many hundreds of years can lead to both cohesion, tension, consequences, and recovery.

Toyooka City International Cultural Exchange Program
PAAS 397: Field School in Pacific and Asian Studies
Advanced Communication in Japanese

Co-sponsors: Department of Pacific and Asian Studies,
University of Victoria, Toyooka City Government, Kinosaki International Arts Center

General Outline:

This Japanese language study field school, held in a small town in Japan, is a joint project between Department of Pacific and Asian Studies and the government of Toyooka City, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan, as part of their regional revitalization effort to make their place known internationally as well as to prepare the local people for welcoming foreign visitors.

This course consists of two components: 1) Japanese language and culture orientation held at the University of Victoria campus from early May to mid-May for 2 weeks; and 2) Training in Japanese language and culture at Kinosaki International Arts Center, Kinosaki, Toyooka City, Hyogo Prefecture, from late May to early June for 2 weeks. This course is designed to develop students’ linguistic, sociolinguistic, cultural, and intercultural skills.  Training focuses on development of the ability to communicate in Japanese in interpersonal and intercultural settings.

Please contact paasadmin@uvic.ca for more information. 

Work experience at Tokiwa Bekkan - a Japanese style Inn in KinosakiWork experience at Tokiwa Bekkan (a Japanese style Inn in Kinosaki) 2017 - photo by Hiroko Noro.

Eirakukan Playhouse at IzushiEirakukan Playhouse at Izushi. 2017 - photo by Hiroko Noro.

Cooking lesson held at Kinosaki International Arts Center by Okesho Fish StoreCooking lesson held at Kinosaki International Arts Center by Okesho Fish Store. 2017 - photo by Hiroko Noro.