Special gifts are something visitors to and from Japan routinely present one another. It’s a long-standing tradition. But who could have guessed how special the gift would be when Niigata University students gathered to attempt to learn a few hula steps?
Sheri Gon, faculty in the University of Hawaiʻi Medical Technology Department (part of the John A. Burns School of Medicine) accompanied a UH med tech student to Niigata in spring 2015 as part of a cultural and educational exchange program which the medical school has with dozens of international universities. Sheri is a talented hula dancer, and she had members of her hula troupe, Hālau Mele, record the song Lei Nani, which compares a loved one to a beautiful lei, so that she could teach the Japanese students the hula steps at just the right tempo.
That was just one of the highlights of Sheri’s trip to the Niigata University of Health and Welfare (NUHW), located 300 kilometers north of Tokyo, in an area noted for agriculture and excellent rice and rice products like senbei and sake.
NUHW has one doctoral program in Health and Welfare, with about 3,400 students currently enrolled in the undergraduate and advanced degree programs.
Since 2011, NUHW faculty and students of the Department of Clinical Engineering and Medical Technology visited University of Hawaiʻi-Mānoa (UHM) to participate in classes at the JABSOM Department of Medical Technology. In Hawaiʻi, they have conducted research projects and taken part in educational sessions including English, Hawaiian history and hula.
This year, UH Medical Technology student Sheila Diaz was selected to visit Niigata, accompanied by Gon, a faculty member, who gives us this account of the exchange, and the impressions of her visit to Japan. Our main photograph, at the top of this story, shows the UH Medical Technology faculty team, including (L-R) Sheri Gon, Dick Teshima (Chair) .
