Brenton Clutterbuck

University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia
Exchange to Nagoya University of Foreign Studies, Japan

Japan has been one of the most epic and brilliant experiences of my life. I'm the kind of person who can't stand to be sitting still for more than 5 minutes, and Japan – if Japan was a person – could hardly sit still for one. It was a time where I was constantly busy, working, writing, partying, and traveling. I learned a lot in Japan. I learned a lot about the Japanese culture, and the secrets hidden in the language about how everyone manages to read each other’s minds. I learned a lot about the language — the real language — and have undone all my Japanese teachers’ good work by developing a casual slangy dialect.

Most of all though, I learnt a lot about me, about who I am, and what I'm capable of. Japan's not scared of stress. Japan's happy to give you a pile of homework as big as your head, 50 words to revise and a Korean birthday party drinking game all on the same night. Japan can push you to what you think is breaking point, but it's really just a bending point; and that is particularly liberating. I sang insane black metal in Japanese in a smoky karaoke bar, wandered off to a lake in the middle of the night to see if a recent typhoon had brought the fish out to be caught, ate sushi so fresh it was swimming only hours ago and was threatened by a drunken Brazilian in a club, who later bought me a drink.

I'd pass groups of “Gaijin” (foreigners) in the street, huddled together speaking English and I'd feel sorry for them, and how little they'd see. They would wander on back to their respective countries never knowing the effect of “Shochu” (sweet potato vodka) and karaoke on a mind driven mad by 5 days of intense study, or relax in the cool breeze outside the Castle just down the road, where there were no tourist shops, just an earthy forest.

The Cheung Kong scholarship made this all possible. Especially when you wake up one day to rumours that the entire financial system of the whole world has allegedly, erm, COLLAPSED and you have only half as much as you had yesterday. Without this scholarship I'd have been lost, and I'd have only seen a fraction of the incredible and invigorating Japan.

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