いつかまたもどってきてすみたいとおもっています。- I am still hoping to return and live

there again one day.

I went back through my photos from 2015 and my Montana visit and decided to talk about my alma mater here.

I went to the University of Montana in Missoula, Montana to obtain my undergraduate degree. It was no doubt the best time of life, during the almost four years I got to spend there. I cannot say enough about the university, Missoula and the area.

The university is a Liberal Arts school with strong programs in Business, Journalism, Pharmacy and Forestry, among others. It has had recent struggles with enrollment, but during my time now a quarter century ago, there were over 10,000 students including about 450 foreign students.

The university had an exchange program with Toyo University and Kumamoto University and has since added partnerships with four more schools in Japan. Meeting other foreign students from all corners of the world was definitely one of the highlights of being a student.

The university campus is beautiful, with mature trees and open green spaces. It sits right at the edge of the city of Missoula, which is more of a town, really, with a population of 73,000. You can reach the downtown area in about 25 minutes on foot. It really is an advantage to study in a smaller city in my opinion, it keeps the campus function better as a community and it offers less distractions.

Missoula rose to international fame with the 1992 movie "A River Runs Through It". The Clark Fork river does indeed wind its way through the city as you can see on the photos (#8).

The city sits in a valley surrounded by mountains. It gets quite hot in the summer and winters can get pretty harsh when the arctic cold sets in. 

I'd like to talk more about Missoula and Homecoming, which I experienced that weekend. Please look for that in a future post...