My experience last summer was completely and utterly unforgettable. Even though I had been to Kyoto many times before, this was the first time I went alone. From the moment I arrived I was kindly greeted by staff and transported to the hotel where we had a debrief and checked into our rooms. The staff provided us with suggestions of sites to visit, restaurant recommendation as well as how to get over the culture shock of being in a foreign country. All of this was very helpful and created a bond of trust and respect between us and the supervisors which set a precedent for the next 8 weeks. My favorite part of this trip was navigating the complex and expansive public transport system. I commuted to my internship and was fascinated by the level of engineering that went into producing seamlessly on time trains, and quiet rides. My internship was also a great learning experience where I handled international market research and business strategy. My supervisors at my internship were kind and inviting, even taking me out to company lunches. I immediately felt a sense of community from the CRCC staff as well as the employees at my company which gave me confidence in my transition to working in a Japanese business setting. I always felt like I could reach out to CRCC staff with any and all questions I had. I remember our coordinator, Christina Xenaki, even went with me on the first day of work to make sure I was able to find the right transit route and get there on time. Overall this experience was a great opportunity for me and left a lasting impact. I would (and have) highly recommend pursing CRCC programs to others.

This program was an amazing opportunity to explore Japan and its culture and experience while also gaining professional experience. Japan itself is a great location because of how easy and convenient it is to explore and how rich in culture it is. Being able to go in a cohort with other students was very nice to be able to travel together and build friendships. Interacting with the employees at the company was very valuable because they were able to give insights and recommendations as to what things were must dos while there.

This CRCC Asia internship in the Kansai region was an invaluable experience.From completing my 1 month internship in Kyoto,Japan to the flexibility of being able to explore venture Osaka and Tokyo was amazing.Firstly, my host company (COGNANO),a biotechnology company, were very welcoming and to get past the language barrier I was assigned an English supervisor which was very helpful and a worry before I completed the experience.Whilst completing my work hours during the weekdays I was able to explore and took part in various activities during the weekends and during the Japanese holiday.

Some of the activities involved getting together with other interns on the program and delve deeper into the food culture of Japan with a food cooking class and others revolved around the history of Japan with visiting various temples and the earthquake museum(beautiful attractions might I add).

I was able to develop skills to further my career in my field of study engineering by getting first hand working environment experience and complete various experiments and learn the steps behind them and was granted the opportunity to be apart of a hsareholders meeting and see how they ran.

Overall,this program granted me a better insight of my field of study,working environments and allowed me to explore Japan (a country I’ve always wanted to visit) and understand the variety of historical and food culture that comes with it.

My internship in Osaka had to be one of the best experience I've ever had to me it was pretty great and a lot better than I expected. This was good because I was really skeptical ongoing in the first place because first off it is pretty expensive and is unpaid. But I feel the people I met and immersing myself in the experience made it really worth it for me.

The Internship:
My internship was for a month doing Market Research and Web Analytics for a new tourism agency offering experience in the city of Osaka. Most of the internships were for startup companies and although not directly my major, I was still able to learn new skill on the job, a bit about myself, and cultural differences of Japan. I communicated with one of my coworkers who was fluent in both English and Japanese to my boss to help me understand my work tasks. Otherwise, I was fine with my placement and enjoy working for the company and working with my coworkers. My fellow interns had varying experiences as well but overall I feel they were also fine with their situations.

CRCC Asia:
The staff was very helpful throughout the entire program whether we had any issues or questions they were there to solve them. They went above beyond what I was expecting and were personable and felt more like friends then advisors throughout it all. We had a generally small group of 16 interns compared to Tokyo's 50+ but this made it nice because I was able to get to know everyone pretty well.

Accommodations and Services:
The accommodation I stayed in was brand new and furnished no roommates or shared parts except the lounge. We stayed at a social apartment where we got to know Japanese tenants as well as our fellow interns. This isn't the case for all the program locations and possibly future programs so I have to say we were lucky. CRCC offered tours, business events, and cultural events offered once a week that was great to attend we visited many tourists destinations, networking events, guest speakers, etc. We generally had free time on weekends and holidays to do whatever we wanted as well and we weren't obligated to go to the events.

Overall thoughts:
I'm overall pretty satisfied with the program. I believe we had the best program based out of all CRCC Asia. The coordinators that were on-site definitely made the program for us and I greatly appreciated that. There aren't many things I disliked at all other than the cost because it is pricey once you factor in travel, transportation and food it can be costly. However, I feel that if you do this program you will learn and gain a lot from the experience and make a many great memories along the way.

Dear future participants! I am an intern who has just finished my 1 month Placement at Andeco Inc. in Osaka, Japan. In short, this programme is not just an internship experience, this is a complex, a mixture of professional and personal growth package. However, there is no pressure or strict line on how you could develop your skills or improve your potential.

My programme team has travelled to Osaka, Nara, Kyoto and Kobe in just one month! We had amazing cultural and business events, like tea ceremony wearing Kimono, Innovation Hub networking session, YMCA International School volunteering, meeting industry professional from RGF Recruitment of Japan, Welcoming Banquet and Leaving Ceremony at Grand Front Osaka, visiting Shin Sekai, Namba, Expo City, Universal Studios Japan, and many museum, shrines and greeting Deers! Also, my Supervisor took us to different kind of business trips, such as we went to Mie prefecture to attend a factory and prepare a pop-up store for the local governmental auditing.

Moreover: After completing your professionals obligations, you can also plan your own trip as well. I have been fortunate to travel to Hyogo prefecture, which has a famous Kinosaki onsen, Hiroshima prefecture, where I visited Peace Memorial Museum, Miyajima one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and of course Tokyo!!!

The programme managers and coordinators are the first contact that they will guide you and help you to make the best experience you could accomplish.

I am more than 100% recommend you to be part of this amazing programme and get unforgettable memory. This is such a rare opportunity and alive experience to understand and learn about other country's culture and enjoy the beautiful nature by seeing it closer in reality!

I wish you all the luck and great success.