Voice From Alumni

My name is Savyasachee Jha, and I’m a Chemical Engineering major from BITS, Pilani studying chemistry at Kyoto University. My hometown is Chandigarh, India. I have always been interested in science, football, and music, not always in that order.

Kyoto is a beautiful city with just the right amount of urbanness for it to feel like a city, but not enough for it to feel overcrowded. Everything in Kyoto is built around that aesthetic; be it the thousands of temples the city is known for, or the central Shijo Kawaramachi area. This aspect of Kyoto makes it a popular destination for many people from around the world, making it a melting pot of culture, tradition and modernity. It is a charming place to meet Japanese people and understand them, because they are so used to tourists.

My impression of Japanese people has changed a lot after coming here. Having spent almost three years with them, I have come to understand their idiosyncrasies, their small habits, their mannerisms, and I have come to love them for it. While I want to travel the world during my studies, I can see myself living in Japan not just because of its serene beauty, but also because of the amazing people you meet everywhere.

Kyoto University was a natural choice because of its towering academic reputation in the sciences and engineering. With 8 Nobel prize winners, the university is a serious contender for the greatest minds in Asia. In addition, the promise of lectures being taught in English by world-class professors was too good to give up.

I started eating Japanese food, and I loved it. I also started going to all the parties and trying to understand Japanese culture better. I interacted with people from all parts of society, from actors, to scientists, to MBA graduates. I went fishing with my friends, I went for karaoke, and I did everything a Japanese person would do when in Japan. It really helped to be part and parcel of the culture.