Program Reviews

I decided to take part in Peace Boat's 69th Global Voyage because I liked the idea of travelling the world on a Japanese cruiseliner together with hundreds of Japanese people. And in fact you can imagine Peace Boat as a floating Japanese city. Being one of only about 20 foreigners on board, I took the chance to get into toch with my Japanese cabin-mates and other passengers. At that time I studied Japanese language, culture and society for more than 3 years and so it was quite easy to make friends on board. One of the good things about Peace Boat is that you will have to speak and listen to Japanese every day. This alone will definetly help you to level-up your communicational skills very fast. Furthermore you will find so many different persons you can talk to. There are people from different parts of Japan and different social backgrounds and therefore you can experience Japanese regional dialects, informal language and slang. You will be able to learn things which are normally not thaught in language classes and which will bring your conversational Japanese to another level. Most of the time I spoke with Japanese youngsters about everyday life and contemporary cultural phenomena in our different countries. On the other hand I also used the opportunity to discuss historical and social problems with some of the older people and pensioneers taking part in the journey.

I also really enjoyed the port days. Together with Peace Boat's international staff we organized our own trips or took part in Peace Boat's programms. For me as a scolar of Japanese Studies it was really interesting to experience how this international NGO promoted Japanese culture and Peace keeping-activities in other countries through direct interaction and exchange.

All in all I have to say that this journey was a lifetime-experience and that I would highly recommend it to everyone who is interested in cultural exchange, global issues such as ecological sustainability and peace, as well as Japanese people and their culture. I recommend Peace Boat's Global journeys to younger students who are willing to learn Japanese and to those who already studied it for some time. The experience you will make will also contribute to your studies if you are researching Japanese civil-society, cultural diplomacy and volunteering in general.

Before I came on peaceboat I had traveled for many different roles on Semester at Sea 3 separate times. I would without pause recommend peaceboat to anybody, at any age. You are right from the start immersed in a supportive but very novel, multi-skilled, storied, and exotic community onboard. Everyone from the Captain to the cleaners and all the staff and passengers in between treat each other with kindness, curiosity, and respect that is rare in for-profit study abroad programs nowadays in which kids feel nearly-chaperoned or babysat. Peaceboat will make you fast and forever friends, and expose you to many freedoms and choices in how to use your time and your travel to forge the experience you want.

Don't be deceived for a second by the short port times - You can get off and come back on at any point, for one, and you are before, during, and after the ride LIVING in Japan, which is in my opinion a world-class destination and culture-shock. The countries Peaceboat visits are once-in-a-lifetime and highly daring ports such as Eritrea, Madagascar, Papua New Guinea, Easter Island, Borneo, Cuba, and Saudi Arabia, and the voyage itself makes the ocean and the ship just as much a destination. We sailed to the bottom of Cape Horn and Patagonia, visited Palestinian refugee camps, transitted the Panama and Suez canals, and partied and socialized just about every night with people from all throughout the world at one of its several restaraunts and bars. I even got married on the ship on one voyage, in the middle of the pacific on the equator! I couldn't think of a more positive and supportive place for any type of personality and nationality. You will know a lot about Japan, alot about the world, alot about yourself, and alot about the ocean by the time you finish. You will meet friends forever and come out a different person. Go for it! And they are not paying me to say any of this!

My PeaceBoat experience was the most education 105 days of my life. On port days, I participated in cultural exchange tours that would not be possible without a program like PeaceBoat such as visiting a Palestinian Refugee camp and an overnight home stay in a rural Turkish village.
Daily life on the boat was just as exciting. Non-port days were filled with participating in passenger run sessions, staff run events, and lectures given by guest speakers from around the world on several current topics.
I also led sessions for other passengers in language, arts, crafts, and dance over the 3 1/2 month voyage. I participated in panel discussions about my cultural experiences being American and American of Japanese decent.
The biggest difficulty was not being able to understand enough Japanese to participate more. Many of the passenger led events did not have translators. Throughout my time on the ship, I kept feeling like I was missing out because I didn't understand enough.
After I got off the ship, I realize how much my language skills had actually improved, and I would have to say that I learned more Japanese and became more fluent in the 3 1/2 months on board the ship, than in the 4 years I lived in Tokyo working for an American company.
It turned out to be the most memorable and educating experience.