Message from Mr. Emil Rantanen, the exchange student from Finland in autumn 2019

"I thoroughly enjoyed working in a lab environment at NIT Sendai College. The facilities at the campus were well organized and the convenience shop, which I frequented, had a nice selection. There is also a nice packed lunch store next to the train station near the school, and the variety of morning coffee you can get from the vending machines both in the school and on the way there was more than a Finn could dream of.

Near Sendai I'd recommend visiting any of the onsens towards Yamagata, the site of Aoba Castle and the beautiful scenery of Tashirojima island.

Back in Finland I only had a couple of days in school before the shutdowns due to the pandemic. On the positive side remote studying came at a convenient time for me since I could move to my new apartment in peace.

The last couple of weeks I have been relaxing in the countryside of North Ostrobothnia, and it has been nice seeing Finnish countryside with fresh eyes. The beautiful scenery of Japan taught me to appriciate the uniqueness of Finnish nature as well.

June has been hot so far but last September in Japan was a lot hotter.”