Peace Boat's Global Voyages

I had an opportunity to be part of the Peace Boat Global Voyages to travel to Singapore, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. I loved every bit of my time on the boat where I was exposed to lectures by accomplished professionals from different field. More ever, what was more important to me was to get to know these activists and professional personally and discuss my opinions and concerns off the stage.

During the port calls, I had an opportunity to learn more about different approaches to solve social problems by visiting NGOs, citizen's groups and hearing the testimony of locals.
Overall, it was a trip for a lifetime where I made friends, learnt about the world, its problems and people who are trying to make a change and contribute in some way! All of it, while travelling across countries on a very comfortable boat.

Peace boat offers you the chance to learn from a wide range of experts whilst travelling the world. Once you reach a port you'll have the opportunity to see first hand what you have been learning on board. The "Sailing for sustainability" program offered an intensive learning, and hands on experience on each of the four countries visited. This very holistic approach to learning and experiencing the world is with out a doubt a once in a life time opportunity.

The organizing team were always helpful, and friendly. The atmosphere on board was very cheerful and it provided the participants a space to engage each other in a deeper and more meaningful way that for sure will result in life long friendships. It is a life changing experience that I recommend to everyone.

The programme offered many experiences that were authentic, motivational, flared new ideas, new awareness and life-changing. Along with meeting some phenomenal young people just like me in the developing world who does fantastic work.

The programme had a range of localised examples of how sustainability is being implemented in the 4 countries we visited. The Peace Boat offered an extensive range of presentation topics on peace and provided numerous linkages to other subject areas, with an environment to engage the presenter on a deeper level. Also, we had opportunities to share which were particularly proud moments but inspiring from the levels of engagement we received after each of them.

In preparation for this voyage, the staff was very responsive and supportive before and during the programme. They formulated a fun experience for learning that simply can not be forgotten!

Peace Boat's youth voyages are an incredible opportunity. While on board the Peace Boat, there are dozens of events and lectures daily. Their guest speakers provide the participants with fascinating academic discussions. While in the ports, the youth for the SDG's scholarship winners are able to visit and network with local NGOs.

Spending 3 weeks with Peace Boat in Southeast Asia was a life changing experience. I had the opportunity to met so many amazing community leaders. I learned more than I could have ever imagined. I am so grateful for this opportunity!

This whole voyage has been a life changing experience, my first time in Asia and my second time on peaceboat has definitely provided me with what it promised and more,
an amazing cultural and educational experience where the exchange with great professionals and seeing the world´s most innovative projects and NGOs has impacted me.
I have learned a lot from the different projects the other scholars are involved in their countries.

Every detail was very well planed and the program surpassed the expectations! it was EXTRAORDINARY!

I joined the Peace Boat trip for three weeks after working as an intern at the Peace Boat office in Tokyo.

The experience at the Peace Boat was amazing; you will be able to travel through the open ocean and visit so many different cities, opening your eyes to the world. The organization and safety rules work very well. I would highly recomend Peace Boat if you are learning Japanese or if you are interested in learning more about the Japanese culture, social, political and ecological topics.

While I enjoyed the trip a lot, it must be clarified that I wasn't participating in any training program etc. I was simply enjoying the voyage, and randomly participating in some education and volunteer activities, as well as partying. Anyway, the experience was just great.

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.