Why Okinawa, you ask?
While we’re busy preparing the school premises and training local staff to make sure that our new Okinawa branch keeps the same level of quality education as Genki’s other Japanese schools, we thought we’d take a minute to explain how we decided to open in Okinawa, of all places.
Reason One
First of all, there currently are no other Japanese language schools focused on short-term study in Okinawa. While there are other Japanese schools, they all offer mainly long-term (1-2 year) programs, and they’re very different from the fun-packed student-centric environment GenkiJACS provides.
Reason Two
And that’s a shame, because Okinawa is great, especially for short study programs! Summers are no hotter than other places in Japan, but the sea is always close by for a dip (and swimmable for most of the year!), and in winter daytime temperatures generally still get up to a friendly 20℃. If you’re the kind of person who hates being cold, it’s hard to overstate how good it feels to be able to go out in a shirt in the middle of winter!
While much of Japan is deservedly famous for its beauty, the Okinawan islands are especially gorgeous. All of Genki’s other schools are in the center of big cities, but with Okinawa we decided to move a little outside the center, to make it easier to get to nature, and of course the beaches!
Reason Three
The location lets us offer a completely new course, Japanese Plus Marine Activities. This is only available in Okinawa, and wouldn’t be possible at our other locations. We’re also taking full advantage of the location by implementing a program to take students outside school for classes on the beach, in parks, or even while hiking! This takes GenkiJACS’ experience-based learning to the next level.
Reason Four
Genki is deeply aware of the environmental impact of our activities. People flying to Japan undeniably creates carbon emissions, and we’ve been looking for ways to offset this for some time. Okinawa is the perfect location for us to implement a program of green initiatives, including both direct action and education.
Reason Five
Finally, our Okinawa branch is the first step in our plan for the establishment of a new kind of school in Okinawa, one that will eventually combine Japanese language learning, climate change education and environmental activism, to help raise the next generation of climate leaders. We’re committed to doing our part to mitigate the climate crisis, and Okinawa is the perfect location for that.
We can’t wait to see you there!
