On Saturday, May 31, 2025, a field trip was held with 38 international students participating.

In the morning, the group left the Aoyama Campus by bus to the Glico confectionery factory in Kitamoto, Saitama. On the way, the students enjoyed playing bingo and tasted Pocky as a “preview” of the factory.

At the Glico factory, they provided a tour including a short video and quiz games about Glico, tasting limited-edition Pocky and Pretz, and observed the factory line where Pocky and Pretz were made. There were many ways to enjoy and learn through all five senses, and the students were able to ask questions to the tour guide and take pictures at photo spots.

After lunch, the bus headed to Miyano En in Sayama City. We originally scheduled to have Tea-leave picking experience, but due to rainy weather, an indoor matcha experience was arranged instead.

The participants learned how to grind specific tea leaves to make matcha, how to prepare tea, and how to drink it. Many of the participants were preparing tea in Japanese style for the first time, so each group checked the steps together, made their own tea, and tasted it. The reaction from them were various; some students finding it tasty and others finding it a bit bitter. After making tea, they also experienced “matcha art”, drawing pictures on the foam.

In addition to the matcha experience, some students tried on the tea-picking costumes. The students seemed excited to see a different style of costume from the regular kimono, and happily exchanged comments such as “The obi is cute!”;“It’ a bit tight.”; "The tasuki is cool.”; and so on.

Although it was rainy during the trip, the participants seemed to have a lot of fun.