Profile of Janina Anni-Maria Lehtinen

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Janina Anni-Maria Lehtinen
by Ayaka Okamoto(The Fountain staff)
When Janina Anni-Maria Lehtinen went to 
Youme Town to get an iron.”I asked where 
is airon but they couldn’t understand. I said 
Tetsu and they understood and showed me 
where they had it.” (Airon means iron for 
clothes and tetsu means iron) They showed 
so many different irons but she didn’t know 
which one would’ve been the best.  “They 
couldn’t really help me because they didn’t 
speak English and I cannot speak Japanese,”
she said.

 Lehtinen from Finland came to APU in Sep. 2016. 
She lived in AP house for a year and she moved 
out of the dorm. When she moved out in June, her 
new life in downtown began.Now she lives in Kamegawa. 
“My house is little old and cold but it’s not bad for 
me”she said. In AP house many students are living 
together but now she lives alone. She said,
“Living alone is carefree but lonely because most of my 
friends live in Mochigahama.”  

 One complain is that she has to wake up earlier than 
when she lived in AP house, and the good point  
is convenience because there are many markets 
in downtown,”she said “ I usually buy some food at 
Marusyoku( It is in Kitashinden) on the way of my 
house from the university.” she said, “It’s very 
convenient.”

 Although two years have passed since she came to 
Japan, she still has some problems to live in Japan. 
The biggest one is the language problem.She said, 
“When I go shopping for food and want to know the 
ingredients of some products it’s very difficult 
because I can’t read Japanese so well.”

 For her living in Beppu, Japan is very similar with 
Finland’s. She said “  For example, I find Japanese 
and Finnish people sharing many similar characteristics 
like shyness, and also both societies are very graduated 
so there are always many steps when taking care of 
thing at the bank or city hall for instance.”

 She said with smile “Even though I have language
problem, I like living in Beppu and I wanna enjoy my 
Beppu life.”

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