Last month, I was invited back to Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University as a guest alumnus speaker alongside my amazing senpai, Leo. We were invited to share our experiences as students at APU, our Japanese language learning journeys, and our paths after graduation.

Leo-senpai was the Resident Assistant who showed me my dorm room when I first arrived at the university in 2016. What a coincidence, and what an honour, to be reunited at this event!

Leo-senpai shared his valuable perspective on job-hunting, while I spoke about continuing on to graduate studies. Naturally, many of the students were interested in job-hunting, which has always been a major concern for APU students. At the same time, I was glad to see that some students were also curious about graduate school and found the discussion helpful.

Back then, information about pursuing a master’s degree was quite limited, and I had to learn and figure everything out by myself. So, I was happy to share my firsthand experiences about graduate school with the current students. I hope our talk gave some peace of mind and motivation to those preparing for job-hunting or considering graduate studies.

Special thanks to the Japanese language senseis who invited us back. It is always a pleasure to come back home!