During the Summer 2021, I took up some opportunities offered by Clemson University both to satisfy my course credits, but more-so because I wanted to further what I could do with my Japanese language major. Due to COVID, my options were limited to online classes, but I certainly didn't feel underwhelmed by the wonderful opportunities presented for me. I undertook an online exchange program with students from several countries, studied under two professors in extracurricular classes, studied at Kansai University for my study abroad credits, and most importantly to me, I began working at the Yuki Experience Center as an intern. I spoke with my advisor as soon as possible to set up any translating jobs offered over to Clemson University, and I was very happy to hear back from just the ideal place. I was even told the job recruiter was surprised that a student had issued a request for internship so soon before the Summer semester.

          I got into contact with my advisor at the Yuki Experience Center soon afterward. They were a kind and very fun to talk to person named Yuuta, but his friends sometimes also called him "Paul," because of his love for the Fast and Furious film series. I was so nervous coming into the interview that I had created an emergency script (the document file aptly named "EMERGENCY SCRIPT boldly in Japanese) filled with every possible question and answer that I could predict may be needed in the interview. It turns out that I didn't need the script at all! Yuuta was very down to Earth with me, and half of our interview together was spent talking about our hobbies and life experiences. I was hired immediately, and the first job I asked to do for the Yuki Experience Center was to translate their Instagram social media page. Yuuta wanted to gauge my translation ability through this, and he seemed very well pleased with my work after I turned it in the very next morning. After that, I made it my daily goal to translate at least 5 of the center's Instagram posts every day until the end of my internship.

          A month had passed working for the Yuki Experience Center, and I had learned a lot just by interactng with their social media page. Local culture, businesses, cuisine, restaurants, topography and history of Yuki Town were a necessity to learn in order to fulfill my job to the satisfaction of myself and my employers. To some, it may feel like menial work to have to learn about things outside of one's area of expertise, but to me and many other translators, it's the most fun thing about the job! It was around this time that Yuuta contacted me about a big project that he wanted me to work on. There's a large information board that is the first thing that visitors will see upon arriving at the center. On top of this, the center also has its own pamphlets that it gives out to let people know about the businesses that work in Yuki Town. Yuuta wanted me to translate both of these to English. I happily accepted, and gave a rather short timeframe to myself in order to complete the work. Two weeks of worktime is quite a crunch for a less experienced translator, especially when their workload involves writing down the details for all of the notable businesses not only in Yuki Town, but in Hiroshima City as well. Directions to the Yuki Experience Center, event descriptions, contact information and so on became the hurdle standing before me for this two week long project, but I took it on happily. The challenges that I set before myself were not only simple to clear with my perseverance, skill, and research, it was also fun as well!

           Two years have passed, and since then Yuuta has shown me the polished fruit of my collective labor with the Yuki Experience Center, and knowing that my effort had taken form into something that me and everyone could see and make use of, I am very happy!