Arrival in Fukuoka

Saturday morning, we took the bullet train once again all the way to Fukuoka. There, we began interacting with Samford’s sister university!

Seinan Gakuin University

Our first stop in this new city was to tour the campus of this private Christian school in Fukuoka. Founded in 1920 by Baptist missionaries, Seinan was first a boys' high school before evolving into the university it is today. Samford and Seinan have had a relationship for many years, but our group was among the first students to meet with theirs.

Our Group with Seinan Students

We were then met by the Baseball Club’s Creative Team, who had prepared ice-breaker games for us! We introduced ourselves to each other using drawings, played guessing games, and talked about our hobbies and college experiences! Worlds apart, college students are still college students!

Nighttime View from a Bridge in Tenjin

We finished the day by exploring the city and finding a hole-in-the-wall barbecue place for dinner. Only three people worked there: a world-traveling Japanese chef, a Sri Lankan waiter, and a Vietnamese sous chef. This experience, and others since then, have led us to observe that Fukuoka is a much more diverse area than Tokyo: full of international students, residents, and tourists.