Why choose Fukai Kankei to start your own "deep relationship" with Japan?
At Fukai Kankei Taiken ("Deeply Connected Experiences"), we believe in the boundary-shattering power of travel. We're driven to get beyond Japan's tourist facade. Leveraging our founder's 3-decade long relationships around Japan, we go deep into the Japanese culture. Rather than checking another tourist landmark off a list, we spend hours cooking together with Japanese friends, walking the streets of tsunami-ravaged Tohoku towns with those that were there that day, or living with a 5th generation Buddhist monk who is a world renowned authority on Rinzai Zen Buddhism.
We deepen the experience further by extensive preparation. The 6 months of weekly language, culture, and history classes before the trip ensure that you're ready to understand what you're experiencing more fully.
Most Japanese tours advertise about seeing sights, often referring to outdated orientalist stereotypes about "experiencing the mystery of Japan" or "seeing the essence of Japanese culture." Fukai Kankei is about deep relationships with communities and people, developed over decades. There is no singular "essence of Japan," and no "mystery." There are, however about 125 million individual stories, bound together by a common culture and history. We get to know several of them, participating as welcome parts of those communities.
FKTI offers a 28 day, world-class Summer Semester in Japan for youth 13-18 years old. The semester includes 2 weeks in Kyoto, with daily deep-dive cultural immersion experiences that leave us feeling as if Kyoto is a second home to us. The second half of the trip is spent exploring southern and central Japan, as far south as Beppu, and including stops in Hiroshima, Toba, Nagoya, Nagano, Kanazawa, several rural areas, as well as Tokyo. The trip caps at 12 participants, half of whom will be from tuition paying families, and half of whom are selected by the Boys and Girls Clubs of Fitchburg and Leominster - these youth are selected for their drive and determination from families who would otherwise never be able to afford this type of experience.
FKTI funds these spots with an annual Stewardship Journey for adults, as well as bespoke private journeys for families and groups. These adults pay slightly more for their experience to fund the scholarships for the Boys and Girls Clubs youth.
Tuition is $13,950, all inclusive(transportation, food, luggage, even daily spending money is included - you will not pay another dime), and some of that tuition is a tax-deductible contribution to FKTI. Limited financial aid is available.
Fukai Kankei Taiken Summer Semester in Japan
Harvard MA
617-447-5491
Website: https://www.fkti.org
Email: greg@fkti.org
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fukaikankeitaiken/
Business Review
Jamal Grant, Japan Trip Participant:
"When I first heard about the Japan trip as an 11th grader in high school, I turned down the opportunity. I thought I was no good at learning new languages, I had no desire to learn about things that I thought weren’t relevant to me and I did not want to sacrifice my beloved basketball season to take an extra class. However, with much encouragement from Greg, I decided to take the risk to add this additional class to my workload and drop my senior year basketball season. This decision has paid dividends for me in a number of ways to this day through the life-long friends I’ve made, my love for travel, appreciation for culture and willingness to take chances.
Over the course of the Japanese class and trip, I was able to build relationships were enhanced and strengthened by our experiences on the trip. I forged friendships that will last a lifetime, across lines of generation, race, and class that I would not have felt as comfortable crossing before this experience. These friendships have led me to funding for my college tuition, travel opportunities as far as the Himalayas, and a broad network of peers and mentors that supports my current success. Because of a trip with so much knowledge-sharing, laughter and great discussions, I was able to build such strong relationships with people who have shared a desire to learn and try new things.
The Japan trip experience has helped reaffirm, in my life, the importance of open-mindedness and stepping out of my comfort zone. I used to always say that I would never live anywhere but Boston—a statement that I made well before I had really been anywhere else, not coincidentally; but with experiences like this one, I have gained an affinity for traveling and, subsequently, a desire to see and learn about other places. Before Japan, I had traveled to 2 places outside of Boston. Since Japan, I have traveled to 11. Most recently, in February, I traveled to Rwanda where I studied the Rwandan genocide, the culture and the country’s history. The trip planted some of those initial seeds of curiosity, appreciation and desire to learn about the people and places that make up this world.
The Japan trip, for me, was many things; it helped to build self-confidence in my ability to learn languages and, has helped me redefine my definition of a “good” investment and has allowed me to build relationships and interests that still contribute to my life and activities today. The Japan trip became one of the best teachers in my life- bringing me insight and value that could never be replicated in a classroom. I went there expecting just a good time and some fond memories, but left with a start of a paradigm shift in my perspective that has been developing ever since. I would like to leave off with a quote from Miriam Beard that I have found to be more applicable than I would have ever previously imagined as a high school student. “Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.”
