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As touched on in 6.3.3, GFC appeared to be intent on grouping the Japanese students together perhaps in an effort to help settle the students quickly, but this was at odds with their desire of making non-Japanese friends and becoming international. Inevitably, it created tension. Many of the new students were disappointed when they arrived and found large numbers of Japanese students at GFC. It appeared that affordances for making friends may not have been obvious to the focal students. They may have viewed making non- Japanese friends as being too hard and requiring too much dedication. Furthermore, there seemed to be a lack of will by the institution to support the students in making non- Japanese friends, which was a popular pre-arrival expectation, even though the literature suggests that non-co-national friendships would struggle to form without some form of intervention. The end result was that most participants found it easier to stick with

175 Japanese and became members of small Japanese-based groups that made up the large Japanese-based group at GFC. These groups appeared to form naturally at GFC due to the large number of Japanese students and their proximity to each other (see 6.3.3). Taka also suggested that forming groups was a Japanese trait in even the most basic facets of life, such as using the restroom:

Almost all Japanese people wanna make the group only Japanese people. So, if one people decide to go the bathroom, two people or a few people follow him. ‘Do you really wanna go to the bathroom?’ I wanna ask them. It’s like bad habit of Japanese people. (Taka 3)

Kami also commented, somewhat regretfully as she looked back at the initial few months at GFC, about the group-mentality of the Japanese student groups, stating that in general, “Japanese people tend to gather, Japanese and Japanese” (6).

Many study members observed that it was not just the Japanese students who formed exclusive groups; in fact, all nationalities at GFC seemed to do this. According to Kayo, the dining hall was the environment where nationality grouping was most evident as students sat and ate in their national groups and spoke their native tongue. In her fifth interview, she stated: “Kiwis are always having dinner with only Kiwi students, and Indonesia, Vietnamese as well, Japanese as well” (5).

Because of the evident grouping of students at GFC members of the cohort saw themselves as separate to the other international students. In her last interview, Ai also turned her attention to the groups found at GFC and provided a possible reason for group formation:

176 and Kiwi students and then international students. I also feel like we are not

included in international student. Maybe for Japanese student, international student means Vietnamese, Thai, Indonesia student, not Kiwi, not Japanese. (Ai 6)

Ai suggests here that the origin of the perception that Japanese students were separate from other international students may have been their numbers. Ai’s use of the word ‘we’ in the first line indicates her belief that the Japanese students were a separate entity at the college and this appeared to be widespread amongst all Japanese students and possibly the other student groups as well.

Without doubt, all of the participants considered Japanese students as one of three student groups at the college: the local students, the international students and the Japanese

students. Hiro talked about the student dynamics he discovered when he arrived at GFC and how he began differentiating students into groups. In the same interview he stated: “Of course the Japanese can speak the mother-tongue, Japanese, and Kiwi students can speak very good English, native speaking, and international students are the middle” (Hiro 5). By calling Japanese ‘the mother-tongue’ of GFC, Hiro may be drawing on a perception similar to the Dejima metaphor introduced in Chapter Three. In his final interview, Hiro added:

I divide the people, Kiwi or Japanese or International because of the language…Of course, I care about the nationality; Chinese, Taiwanese and Vietnamese…but they almost the same, they are categorized into

International. (Hiro 6)

177 her first year at GFC, Shihoko provided evidence that the college management also

differentiated them from international students in the way they officially broke down the student body:

Japanese are not international students. I attended SA14 meeting and

everything is divided into three groups, like Japanese, International students and Kiwis. We have a questionnaire during the semester and it says,

‘Japanese, Kiwis or International’. If you are Japanese tick Japanese, or Kiwis or International. Cos GFC is doing that means it is official. (Shihoko 6)

Shihoko recalled that in official meetings GFC’s manager, Fukuyo-sensei, spoke in a way that indicated he considered Japanese students as unique:

Fukuyo-sensei said, ‘International student wa’ [in regard to international students]. He uses that way means you know we are going to consider we are Japanese and the others are internationals. (Shihoko 6)

It seems evident that GFC management considered the student body as consisting of Japanese students, local students and international students. The way international students were referred to, the special accommodation rules for Japanese students and the TOEIC night classes all appeared to be deliberate efforts to separate them from other nationalities

178 at the college.

It could be argued that even new connections between Japanese students were intercultural. Yuka and Kayo were surprised to find that being a member of the Japanese group required negotiation because the Japanese were not as homogeneous as they appeared to be from the outside.

First year everything new for me and then to meet the people who come from another prefecture like Osaka or somewhere it's also for the first time. They grow up different culture, quite different because their personality is kind of strong. So, I didn't know how to deal with that cos I don't have family in here. I need to have a friend, but it was so hard cos I don't know who I can trust. (Yuka 5)

Kansai people talkative. Kansai's people talking is funny, but Hokkaido's is not so funny. They don't care if their talking is funny or not, but Kansai people really care about that, so if I talk something and after finish talking they said, ‘So what?’ They want the funny end. It’s called ochi, they want ochi when they speak something, but Hokkaido people doesn't have that kind of culture. How can we make ochi in our talking?...There are some little differences, how to speak as well. Kansai people talk to other people a little bit strongly. Hokkaido people doesn't say, ‘Aho ya ro!’ We speak

179 softly. Chotto15 _{different. (Kayo 6)}

During their initial time at GFC many participants appeared to be negotiating through an accessible pool of potential friends to figure out what groups they would best fit and this is where they had to make adjustments. Participants noted that Japanese students from different regions had unfamiliar customs and even had different tastes when it came to food, showing that Japan is not as uniform as nihonjinron philosophies would have us believe.