Hello everyone. I'm Huynh Thi Ly, a third-year student majoring in Global Tourism. This blog is about the longest and most memorable experience of my university life. What experiences did you have during the CEP? I think each student has been impressed by something during this internship.As the title of the blog suggests, it's about reflecting on the importance of "ordinary" things for 30 days. Please read on to find out what that entails.

For this internship, I chose Yudanaka Shibu Onsen in Nagano province, a place close to Kanaya Ryokan—a famous Japanese anime shop featured in "Spirited Away." On January 29th, we departed. As we left Kyoto and prepared for the journey, I felt both excitement and a hint of sadness and anxiety. Leaving a familiar place can be lonely. It took us about 5 hours to travel from Kyoto to Nagano. As we neared Nagano, the roads outside the window were blanketed in snow, and I thought, "Ah, I've truly left Kyoto behind." Upon arrival in Nagano, the first thing that surprised me was the absence of ticket vending machines; instead, there were people holding boxes to collect tickets. We exited the station, where our teacher and the person in charge of our accommodation were waiting to guide us to the guesthouse.

The first day in Nagano was mainly spent surrounded by mountains, and the supermarket was quite far away. There were old and worn-out household items here, and we cleaned together and went to buy daily necessities. After tidying up the room, we joined a meal with members of the CEP Program.

The second day in Nagano was a free training day before the internship program started. We visited Snow Monkey Park, a famous tourist spot known for its hot springs in Yamanaka. We climbed up the mountain road and arrived at a park on a rocky mountain in Shiga Kogen, 850 meters above sea level. Upon arrival, we were truly overwhelmed by the magnificent and beautiful mountains and the snow-covered scenery around us. As the name of the park suggests, it is famous for the monkeys living in the natural rocky mountain environment. Especially in winter, the sight of monkeys soaking in hot springs amidst the snow-covered mountains symbolizes and attracts many tourists from around the world. When we visited, there were so many foreign tourists that it was difficult to find Japanese people. Here, tourists gathered with their smartphones and cameras to record every nice moment. After observing the monkey troop and the scenery, we went to a shop called "Tsukushi" and ate soba, a specialty of Nagano. On the third day in Nagano, we began our work at the ryokan. Our team of three was responsible for work at two ryokans, "Koishiya" and "Kadoya." Our tasks included collecting linens, cleaning the hot springs, front desk cleaning, toilet cleaning, and reception.

We started with linen collection. We checked the rooms that had been checked out, gathered items such as used sheets, pillowcases, towels, and yukatas, and then took them to the laundry, guided by the staff at the ryokan. On this first day, the memorable words from the ryokan staff who guided us were, "Greetings are the most important thing in this hot spring area because here the roads are so narrow."In the following days, we continued similar tasks at the ryokan according to the schedule, and once a week, we went to the supermarket to buy groceries. In the first week, as we were not yet accustomed to the work and life here, I reflected on "ordinary" things. In Kyoto, it only takes a few minutes to walk to the supermarket, and you can easily get convenient cooking utensils. But here, we had to go far to buy fresh ingredients, making cooking more difficult.

To be continued to Vol.2