Student Life

Ms. Valanaraya Pantitra from Thailand

My name is Valanaraya Pantitra. I came from Thailand and I’ve been studying in Japan since 2012. In Thailand, everyone calls me Pan-pan but in Japan people call me pan-chan.

Nagasaki may seem to be a small city but it is a multicultural city with good sightseeing places, famous tourist spots, fresh seafood, and great people. For example, Nagasaki has flowers like sunflowers, cosmos, tulips, lily and hydrangea and so on to enjoy all year round. I’ve been to 20 prefectures in Japan and tried a lot of their delicious food, but among them I can confirm that hamachi/buri sashimi (raw fish) in Nagasaki is the best! Plus, in Thailand I used to eat a lot of Chinese food and Nagasaki’s “sara udon” is very close to it, so whenever I’m homesick I’ll always go to “Ringer Hut”, a famous chain restaurant of “sara udon” and “chanpon” here.

Since, I’m a transfer student from a business college to 3rd year in the Faculty of Economics, all of my classes are in Katafuchi campus, a separate campus only for economics faculty, not the main Bunkyo campus. This campus really close to “Suwa Shrine”, one of the famous shrine here, and is within walking distance to “Meganebashi” (another tourist spots) and “Hamanomachi” (a downtown). Since “Suwa Shrine” is on a high place, my recommendation is to be there at dawn to enjoy both sunset and night view together. It’s a great time to be with yourself with beautiful and serene surroundings around you.

One of the best things in Nagasaki University for foreign students is the event aiming for cultural exchange between exchange students and Japanese students like English café at lunchtime, and international cooking class and etc. Throughout these programs, not only will you meet Japanese students who are interested in other countries, but you will also meet other exchange students whom share the same joys and difficulties. Nagasaki University may be in Japan but you can be surrounded by all of the foreign students coming from all over the world and become an international person here.