Hello everyone!

I am a rising first-year university student, and I’ll be working at this clinic until I start university in Chicago this August.

Having graduated high school in March, I’ve been looking for all kinds of opportunities where I can both work and gain educational experiences at the same time.

 

For the past few months, I’ve been working in Nozawa Onsen.

Nozawa is a small village in the mountains of Nagano Prefecture, where locals and tourists, ski-lovers and hot spring-lovers all come together to create a tight-knit community of mutual respect and support.

 

The village has 13 public bathrooms (‘Sotoyu’), all of which are free and maintained by locals.

The water is burning hot, at around 50℃!

It seems insane at first, but it’s the most soothing experience once you get used to the heat.

 

Every day I worked breakfast and dinner shifts and spent the rest of the day skiing and snowboarding on the mountains.

Although I was only there for short period of time, it has been the most wonderful and life-changing experience ever.

 

Now that the ski season is over, I look forward to my time here at this clinic, where I hope to meet new people, make more memories, and help out our patients in any way that I can!