"My favorite memory at Harvard is the HRO (Harvard Radcliffe Orchestra) tour to Israel and Jordan at the end of freshman year. As an international student from Japan, I had a lot of challenges during my first year in the U.S., but I was always able to communicate, make friends, and have fun through music. Making music and spending time together with members for two weeks in such a different environment from school was a great opportunity to realize how lucky I was to be surrounded by such amazing and talented people. I will never forget the night when we all lay down on the ground in the middle of a desert in Jordan to look at the sky and saw the most beautiful stars on the earth – it was truly magical."