During freshman year, there’s always a friendly competition about who lives farthest away from school. Some students come from Kentucky while others live in Hawaii. For Nobuhiro (Nobu) Fukuoka, though, this contest was over before it even began. From nearly 7,000 miles away, Nobu comes straight from Tokyo, Japan.
A senior this year, Nobu says he choose Wesleyan because of its athletic training major.
“We do not have athletic training in Japan,” Nobu says. “The counseling center that I used in Japan had a connection to this college, so here I am.”
It’s a good thing he’s here, too, because he excels in the athletic training program. Nobu was selected for a two-week internship in Arizona this past spring, where he worked with two Major League Baseball teams: the San Diego Padres and the Seattle Mariners. He spent one week with each team, helping them prepare for practice and games. He says the internship taught him “the importance of communication between athletic trainers, team doctors, coaches, players, and other staff members.”
Nobu also wanted to join “various communities” throughout his freshman year. He certainly achieved that goal. He now works as an athletic trainer for the football team, and he’s also a member of the International Student Organization (ISO) and Theta Xi fraternity.
“The system of Greek life seems very different from our culture,” he says. “So it’s interesting. But America is so cool in itself. I’m glad I came to Wesleyan.”
Nobu claims his favorite thing about America is meeting and talking to different kinds of people. Specifically, he “loves some cultural behaviors of American people,” such as shake hands.
“We just bow to each other when we first meet, which is sometimes awkward,” Nobu says.
Although he loves Wesleyan, he does miss authentic Japanese food and his dog. Despite these desperations, Nobu says he hopes to stay in United States for a few more years so that he can work as a certified athletic trainer.
All in all, he says he will miss Wesleyan and Buckhannon after graduation because “time flies.”