Hello, my name is Moe Honda and I am a co-LCA engineering major. I studied at Lapland University of Applied Sciences in Finland from mid-January to early June 2020, and lived in a small town called Tornio. Due to the spread of COVID-19, the university issued an order for me to return to Japan in mid-March, and I returned to Japan halfway through my classes, abruptly left my life in the dormitory, and left behind many other things. After returning to Japan, I honestly didn’t know where to start, but I took online classes from late March until the first half of June, and also went job hunting during the same period.
 
The class I took was a business class where students took the initiative to think of approaches to solve the problems faced by local companies. At first, I was struggling to understand the technical terms used in the class, but through reviewing the class in the dormitory with other students, I gradually became able to keep up. The content of the class was mostly about business related to the circular economy, which was very interesting to me as I was interested in creating eco-friendly products and systems to encourage environmentally-friendly behavior. In the non-business classes, I learned Finnish. By writing my diary in Finnish and having my writing corrected by my teacher, I became more interested in the language and have continued to study it since returning to Japan.
 
Tornio, where I lived, is located on the border between Finland and Sweden. It is a much smaller town than Akita City, but it is a quiet and comfortable place to live, and since Sweden was only five minutes away from my dormitory, I could hear Finnish, Swedish, and sometimes English when I was about in the town. Ten days before I left, there was a biannual market in Tornio that was crowded with people. As for prices, bottled carbonated drinks were very expensive, about 300 JPY for 500ml. On the other hand, fruit was cheap, and I could buy a kilogram of apples for less than 200 JPY. I don’t buy carbonated drinks anymore, and I think my eating habits have improved dramatically while living in Tornio. As for the climate, the temperature outside was about -15 degrees Celsius, but I felt coldest when it was around 0 degrees Celsius. The dormitory room I originally lived in was cold and the heating system was not good, but I still remember how impressed I was when the renovation work was finished a few days before I left and the room became warm.
 
When I was instructed to leave by Akita University, it was only the second day of my living with my new roommate. There was so much to experience. I was surprised to see Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin declare a state of emergency in the parliament, the first since World War II, on TV, and I spent hours calling call centers to get a flight back home. I cannot put into words how torn I felt when the dorm manager said that I should stay in Tornio, and I was filling in the job hunting form in the hotel just before I returned home.
 
At the time, I was in a near panic and was so stressed that I couldn't sleep at all, but now everything is an irreplaceable and precious memory. In particular, I will never forget the northern lights I saw from the plane window when I celebrated my birthday on the flight back to Japan.
 
Although I can’t easily visit my friends who have returned to their respective countries, the people I met, and the local people who supported me, I hope that one day I will be able to visit them again for a different purpose than studying abroad. Kiitos.