tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65879970836335376202024-03-06T01:08:45.148-08:00Five Years in Fukuoka- Attaining a PHD at Kyushu UniversityAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12086277695726971078noreply@blogger.comBlogger39125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6587997083633537620.post-25629154023853633472017-09-27T06:25:00.001-07:002017-09-27T06:25:59.387-07:00Leaving JapanAfter 5 years, I will be leaving Fukuoka with my P.H.D degree. There has been a lot of fun times, and good memories made here, but it's time to move on to the next part of my life!<br />
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I apologize to those who kept track of posts, but as I concentrated more on my studies, it was difficult to make time to travel and explore Japan. If anyone should ever have questions about how to write a thesis, I would be happy to answer them, but it does not make interesting post material.<br />
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For those of you who are interested in the idea of getting a high-education degree in Japan, I would highly recommend you try it! However, keep in mind along with the new sense of exploration, there will be a lot of cultural and mental hurdles to overcome that you would normally not have to face in your native homeland.<br />
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I was also particularly lucky that I had family and friends already waiting for me here when I arrived, and they also were present to see me off. However, not everyone is so fortunate.<br />
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To all my blog readers, thanks for a good five years! Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12086277695726971078noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6587997083633537620.post-20046242828956166092016-12-01T23:01:00.004-08:002016-12-01T23:01:44.701-08:00Summer 2016It's already autumn, nearly winter and I barely wrote anything this year. Sorry to anyone who reads this regularly, because to be quite honest not many interesting things have happened. Japan is an amazing place to visit, but if you live here, it's about the same as anywhere else. Good to work/school, come home, repeat. However, for the few things that did happen to me over the summer season, I will be happy to talk about.<br />
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Summer came and went as quickly as it normally does. It's a shame because its the season I enjoy the most, mostly due to the food being the most tasty during the months of June-August.<br />
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June is not the best month for doing travel or anything outdoor in general. It's the last month of rainy season in Japan, which is two months of non-stop cloudy days and muggy weather. Everyday there is sun, you appreciate it, otherwise, you need to religiously carry an umbrella with you at all times. So in June, I didn't do much of anything except laboratory work. Maybe this was for the better as in July I was quite busy with academic-related tasks.<br />
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July is the end of the school-year so there is a lot of preparation. Final exams, final presentations, scholarship deadlines, and end of the year conferences. I had all of those, so it was hectic. First off, I was thrilled to make it into the first selection of a scholarship...hooray!... but there was in interview, in Tokyo, and it was not specified whether it was in Japanese or English... yep, that was not fun. While it was nice the scholarship foundation paid for transportation costs, it was also extremely nerve-wracking to sit on a bullet train 4 hours trying to guess whether my interview would be in Japanese or English. I had to memorize scripts for both, just in case. To my surprise my interviewer (a representative of the company who provides the scholarship) was really laid-back, and bi-lingual. I could do the interview in English, which was a huge relief. Later, I found out every person who interviewed received the scholarship, so it was more or less just to confirm what kind of person you were. Scholarship achieved for at least six months!<br />
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The next week, I was in Kansai in Osaka for a scientific conference. This was my second time in Kansai, but first time in Osaka. I was told it's a unique city in Japan, as the people are more extroverted and outgoing than other places in Japan. However, I think I missed most of this aspect, as I was mostly at the conference center of a University with other conference goers. I did manage to do a little sight-seeing, but that was mostly due to the fact I got lost outside a main train station for about three hours. I will have to go back to Osaka another time and do more than just one day of sight-seeing.<br />
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The rest of July and most of August was done doing English Camps at Nokonoshima. I always have a lot of fun at these camps, but at the same time they are exhausting. More or less twelve hour days in the hot sun and high humidity with six energetic kids can be tiresome. If I were a child at these camps I know I would be having the time of my life, but as an instructor, you really have to try your best to keep perky and happy for your kids. Some of the other instructors are amazing at this, but I find myself losing my enthusiasm for playing hide and seek when the heat index is about 98 or 99F. Luckily, the staff at these camps are amazing at accommodating both students and instructors, and always schedule one or two indoor activities in the air-conditioning. Trust me, after being outside all day, 1 hour in an air-conditioned room makes a phenomenal difference in your mood and stamina. This coming summer will be my last time doing these camps. I will really miss these!<br />
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September arrived, and my 4-year anniversary in Japan was completed! I could hardly believe I had been here so long, and that I needed to complete so much in just one year. It's building quickly, and I can't seem to slow it down. With camps finished, and the school semester not started yet, I had a little free time to travel. I was able to go visit my family again in Kagoshima, and later I was able to travel with one of my graduated friends from Kyushu University.<br />
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Kagoshima is still one of my favorite places to go in Japan. While it not may be as bustling as Tokyo or Kyoto, it is in a unique location with a lot of great history to offer. How many cities do you know of that are next to an active volcano? Where you can visit the houses of samurai? Not many, but Kagoshima has all these things. My relatives were kind enough to take me around to some of the historical places in Kagoshima in the summer heat, including Tsurumaru Castle, and Shiroyama Observatory.<br />
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Afterwards, I went to a very famous spot in the Miyazaki prefecture called Takachiho, with my travel buddy. This was a day-trip, but we managed to see a few amazing sights that Takachiho had to offer. The Takachiho Gorge and Manai Falls, are the most popular spots to see. The town is also famous for shrines including Takachiho Shrine,
Kunimigaoka, and Amanoiwato Shrine. We went to visit all these places! I even found a shrine-cat or two.<br />
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After September school started once again, so there was no more time for fun stuff! I'll be happy to post later about autumn and winter, but not many interesting are planned for this coming year. I only have a few months left, so it's a rush to get as much done as I can with school. Not to mention I need to get all my items and my apartment squared-away before I move back to the USA! Five years sure does go by quickly. Hope to post again soon.<br /><br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12086277695726971078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6587997083633537620.post-9844088680208197182016-06-10T01:19:00.001-07:002016-06-10T01:19:24.320-07:00Ainoshima Cat IslandIn September, which is in a little less than three months, I will have only one year left in Japan.<br />
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Needless to say, things have gone by quickly. Starting in 2016, I am afraid not many interesting things have occurred. January was still winter holiday, but I spent the majority of my time preparing for a scientific conference that occurred in March. So for the first three months in 2016, I mostly did experimental work in order to get sufficient data to present at the conference.<br />
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In late March, I unfortunately had another sickness in which I had to be hospitalized overnight, and it took me a week to recover. Luckily, it was spring-break so I did not have any academic obligations at that point in time. However, financially I could not get work hours during this period, so it was difficult.<br />
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April brought about a bit of good luck! I received a six-month scholarship which would cover my monthly cost of rent. While this is nothing substantial, it's still much better than having no scholarship! It was also during this time that I found out that the city of Fukuoka offers day-tours at a very reasonable price.<br />
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After talking to some of my fellow lab members we decided to participate in one of the tours for Ainoshima. This island is known as 'Cat Heaven Island' and is home to over 100 cats living on a fishermen's village. <a href="http://zoomingjapan.com/travel/ainoshima-cat-island-japan/)">http://zoomingjapan.com/travel/ainoshima-cat-island-japan/</a><br />
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The tour was only available in May, and included a full day planned set, including lunch.<br />
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In the morning the tour first visited Munakata Shrine, which is one of the oldest shrines in Kyushu. It is often visited by people who are traveling or who are drivers, as the shrine is for a god of travel. We then enjoyed lunch and went to a glass-blower studio where everyone can paint their own summer glass-wind chime.<br />
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We were fortunate enough that the glass-blower's cat had recently had kittens, so it was indeed a day full of cats!</div>
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After a short ferry ride from the mainland to Ainoshima, we were immediately greeted by a variety of cats. Most of them are fairly use to people, but rarely came over to visit you. The only exception was an old tuxedo cat that seemed pretty eager to be petted by his adoring fans.<br />
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After a few hours on the island, it was time to head back to the mainland. However, we ended up facing a bit of a problem. The second to the last ferry from Ainoshima had reached capacity for people. Our tour group was unable to return, and the next ferry wasn't for another hour and a half. The tour-guide not wanting our bus driver waiting on the mainland to wait for us managed to track-down a water-taxi for us.<br />
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The boat was only large enough for four people to fit inside, so since our tour group was eight people, the tour-guide and my lab members and myself sat on the deck of the boat. While it was a fun experience to ride back on the water-taxi, I was completely soaked by the sea-spray on one-side by the time we reached the shoreline. <br />
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Overall, it was a good day! Even though I got wet, it was worth it to see a whole island of cats!<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12086277695726971078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6587997083633537620.post-424049268961780492016-01-04T23:38:00.000-08:002016-01-04T23:38:02.446-08:00The most exciting things I did in 2015!It's already 2016 and I hardly can believe it. In a little over a year, I will already be coming back to the United States. While it has probably seemed like a long time for my family and friends, it has gone quite quickly for me.<br />
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Anyways, I wanted to sum up the two most exciting events that happened to me in 2015. First was my trip to Kagoshima/Yakushima, and secondly was my annual Halloween Party.<br />
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In early September I took a short trip down to Kagoshima to see my Japanese family again. I had not seen them in quite some time, which is really a shame, because Kagoshima is only an hour away by shinkansen. Also, since this was the last opportunity for me to travel with one of my Chinese friends, we wanted to do a big trip. The first two days we spent in Kagoshima, with my relatives graciously hosting us. I really would like to thank my Japanese relatives for being so kind. I always have such an amazing time with them, and get to visit some amazing places.<br />
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After an amazing two days of sight-seeing, we next took a ferry to the southern island of Yakushima. Originally we wanted to go to Okinawa, but since the travel time was limited we decided for a closer location.<br />
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Yakushima by far was the most amazing place I have visited so far in my life. From the ecological, biological, geological, and sociological perspective, this unique island has something for everyone. We were also particularly lucky in that we were there when it did not rain. Yakushima usually has a 90% chance of rain, so we just managed to be there during the best time! One of the coolest things is that the island's fresh water is so pure that it can be drunk straight from the streams and rivers.<br />
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We managed to a great tour package with a tourist company called Yes Yakushima (http://www.yesyakushima.com/) and our tour guide Mr. Steve was such a great guide! He knew all about the history, culture, and natural beauty of Yakushima. We were able to go to a lot of spots not known to tourists, and with little to no people other than us. It was a really magical experience. We even managed to see some of the natural fauna of the island.<br />
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I hope I can go back another time! Overall, it was probably the best vacation I've had since coming to Japan, but I still have another year and a half to have an even better one.<br />
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A month later, the summer heat finally subsided and school had started once more. This time of the year I always prepare for my annual Halloween Party, which is one of the few events where I ask both the Japanese students and International students to come and have fun together. Thank you to my parents and family who sent me candy and decorations all the way from the USA to Japan just for this party. It really made a difference, and I know my friends really enjoyed it.<br />
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We had some usual games and some new ones to enjoy Halloween Night! While the turn out wasn't nearly as much as last year (thank goodness) we had a really good time. However, I am not sure if I will do it next year or not, as most of my friends will have already graduated! It's a shame, but we will have to see.<br />
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Here's hoping 2016 will be an even better year! Happy 2016 everyone!<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12086277695726971078noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6587997083633537620.post-45336836847941432002015-09-15T23:49:00.001-07:002015-09-15T23:49:41.273-07:00Summer 2015Sadly, it seems as I get further into my Doctor's course for my P.H.D. I have less and less time to do interesting things. Also, since my scholarship money ended in March of 2014, financially I have been unable to travel or go places as easily as I use to. So, I apologize to the few readers of my blog if you have been waiting anxiously for me to post something... but unless you would like to hear about the hours I spend doing experiments, or crocheting at home, there is just not much to report. So, in this post, I will summarize what I did most of the summer.<br />
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In June, the school semester is starting to end, as classes will be finishing so students can prepare for their final exams in July. The Engineering department always has undergraduate juniors (3rd year students) come tour the various departments during this time period. This is so when undergraduate students enter their senior year (4th year) of undergraduate school they can go ahead and enter the laboratory of their choosing. 'Laboratory' in this sense doesn't necessarily mean research or science experiments, but rather the group of students and Professors a student will be studying with when they enter Graduate school. I think this is a good system if a student intends to enter Graduate level at the same school, but it's often difficult for them to choose a good laboratory. So, to help these students the Engineering Department holds a 'nomikai' to have the students introduce their own labs. The combination of alcohol and showmanship can often have a comical result.<br />
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During this time period, I held an 'English Nomikai' at a local pub in order to promote Japanese students and International students to interact. There are very few events provided by the school to promote this kind of interaction, so I usually try to make one or two parties a year to help this. The owner of the restaurant where we held the event at is also an English teacher, so she was very supportive in allowing us to have this party at her business. While we didn't have the best turn-out, the few people who did come seemed to have a very good time. We played several easy word games and finished off with a classic game of Charades, or in Japan it is known as the 'Gesture Game'.<br />
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I hope I am able to get some more people for another one of these parties! I think it would be a good opportunity for domestic and international students to talk and just enjoy themselves.<br />
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In July, most of the students are in examination season, so the laboratory was nearly empty. I did most of my experimentation during this time period, so I wasn't expecting to do much during the month of July. However, one of Japanese friends had a request that was rather interesting: "Jane, do you want to be in a fashion show?" There was a yukata (summer kimono) fashion show happening in the second week of July. My friend was participating, but some of the girls who were also supposed to be part of this show dropped out suddenly, so he was short two members. He asked one other Taiwanese girl, and me to help him out in his yukata show 'skit'. I agreed, but I severely misjudged how complex this show was! I was thinking something rather informal, since the whole event is organized by college students. However, this was not the case! This was a very well-planned professional event, and lasted nearly 8-hours from start to finish. Also, my friend, was dressing as a <i>girl</i> in this show, and not as a boy! Sadly, I think he was probably the most cute out of the group... can you guess which one he is?<br />
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As for August, there is nothing to report. Again, since most people are gone from the laboratory during this time period, this is when I like to do experiments the most. I also did some part-time work at an English Summer camp, so most of my weekends were spent doing this.<br />
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Hopefully my next post about my vacation in Yakushima will be posted shortly! Thanks for waiting! <br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12086277695726971078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6587997083633537620.post-6223595579346835172015-07-07T23:41:00.002-07:002015-07-07T23:41:30.525-07:00Trip to KoreaIn early April, a group of older friends and myself took a three day trip to Korea. This had long been planned by some of the older ladies, but I just happen to be lucky enough to return to Busan a second time. I was also particularly fortunate that this particular group of friends is an enthusiastic group when it comes to food.<br />
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This trip really was three days of non-stop shopping, eating, shopping, eating, and eating while shopping. I most enjoyed going through the Korean markets, and eating the traditional Korean-style set meals. Korean traditional meals have so many dishes! Maybe for our one lunch, you are able to eat between 30-40 different types of food in one sitting.<br />
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After eating every meal, we would walk around and visit local historical landmarks, or walk around the local parks to watch the end of the cherry blossom season. We also made several stops to local shopping districts where you can see hundreds of small shops all lined up next to each other.<br />
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Since this was only a three-day trip, there is not much to post about. It was nevertheless, a fairly fun trip! I hope I am able to go back to Korea someday soon.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12086277695726971078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6587997083633537620.post-14375937511557806822015-05-12T20:38:00.002-07:002015-05-12T22:57:36.101-07:00Early SpringDuring the month of February, not much happened. I think it really is too cold to do much traveling, and usually the laboratory is particularly busy since graduation in Japan is usually in March. Many students have to prepare to graduate, and the students remaining have to prepare for the new incoming students in April.<br />
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March, however, is spring break and also my birthday! I had a much more eventful month during March. Unfortunately, since my birthday was in the middle of the week, I couldn't do much on the actual date, but my friends were so kind enough to take me on a day-trip around the Itoshima-Karatsu area.<br />
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First we had lunch at a historical restaurant, which is famous for its traditional Japanese cuisine, made from only natural ingredients. This is appealing to people who do not want to eat artificial preservatives, and whom enjoy eating only local produce.<br />
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After eating that much food, my friends drove me out to a great sight-seeing area, where we could walk off our heavy lunch. It is famous for its unique igneous rock formations. The unusual shapes are caused by lava suddenly cooling in the ocean, causing the resulting rock to form the geometric shapes.<br />
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We also went to another sight-seeing spot on the beach, which has a local land mark. The rocks were called 'The Standing God Rocks' but no one really knows why. They looked like a normal pile of rocks to me. However, there was a friendly beach cat, that came to say hello.<br />
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In late March I attended a conference in Tokyo where I presented a poster. This had been my first time to go to Tokyo without family, so it was a little nerve-wracking since the public transportation and cityscape is extremely complex. Luckily, the other students who attended the conference had a little more experience getting around than me so we were able to enjoy our time inside and outside the conference.<br />
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One of my lab members even received an award. However, perhaps the most entertaining part was meeting the graduated seniors of my laboratory, who were now living in the Tokyo area. Some of them I know, but some of them were new faces. It was a great time, as usual, except afterwards we had to get up early to attend the last day of the science conference!<br />
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Next, I will post about my early April trip to Korea! Until then~Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12086277695726971078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6587997083633537620.post-32218006032899002062015-04-07T05:55:00.000-07:002015-04-07T05:55:09.267-07:00X-mas and New YearsThe winter holidays weren't that great for me, at least in the beginning. This was the first, and probably only time, I returned to the USA during my time in Japan to spend the holidays at home. Unfortunately, on Christmas Eve, two days before my plane ride home, I was hospitalized my first time (and hopefully last time) in Japan.<br />
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Around 2 a.m. I started feeling sick to my stomach, and after 3 hours of being sick, I got so dehydrated I started passing out, and woke up on my bathroom floor with a bloody nose. Needless to say, this is really scary when you live by yourself and know you can't go to the hospital by yourself. I had to call my good friend at 5 a.m. to drive me to the nearest clinic, but since it was closed (hard to believe a medical place would close) she had to call me an ambulance to take me to the nearest municipal hospital. I am so lucky to have such good friends, who took care of me this whole time. If I didn't have them, I would have been much worse off.<br />
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I spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in the hospital, until they cleared me to go home. The following day I flew to the USA from Japan. It was an exhausting few days but I can't sleep in airplanes, so I didn't really sleep until I got home.<br />
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However, the time at home was great! I was so fortunate my two good friends joined me this time, and we had a great few days together in Tennessee before they returned to Japan. I stayed an additional week just to rest and buy the things I needed before I headed back to Japan. Of course, I want to thank my wonderful family, and friends who made this a great winter vacation for me. I wish I could have stayed longer, but it's just not possible with everything I needed to do when I got back.<br />
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Sorry for the short post, but not much happened during this time period! I'll post more soon.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12086277695726971078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6587997083633537620.post-834113093203811532015-01-23T00:23:00.000-08:002015-01-23T00:23:58.196-08:00Halloween and Thanksgiving... sort of.October and November passed by <i>so quickly.</i> My family always says, right after Halloween it's one holiday after another. Even in Japan, this is not an exception.<br />
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As usual, I held a Halloween Party in the Dormitory of the university. This year, I did not think I was going to be able to secure this room to throw the party, since all the lab members who use to live in the Dormitory had graduated or returned from their exchange program. Luckily, another international student was really kind and helped me quite a bit for setting up this party. For that reason, rather than it just being my lab members, we had other international students as well as domestic students. Even some undergraduate students offered to help me out, which was really appreciated when the party happened.<br />
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Thank goodness my family sent me Halloween decorations and candy, otherwise it would have been a little disappointing. The decorations I had bought the year before were thrown away when my lab members did the yearly "Osouji - Cleanup". Also as usual, a lot more people came than what is expected. I was estimating around 20-30 people and close to 40-50 came by the end of the night. I think it's because word of mouth travels much faster than e-mail. But, I think it is always a good case for international students and domestic students to get an opportunity to interact. If there were no such events, I honestly do not think they would ever try to talk to each other. Plus, the games were quite entertaining (though hard to organize) with many people:<br />
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The result was good, but next time I think I will have to get a megaphone in order for people to hear me. It's hard to organize large events when your voice does not carry.(If anyone wants me not to use their picture, let me know and I will take it down).<br />
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After this party, the following weekend, I attended a part time job held in Kita-Kyushu for an international conference. It was a good experience, but the first day I went the train was delayed! It was quite terrible being late for such an important conference, so I felt awful. Luckily, since it was beyond our control, the teachers were not too unhappy with me and the other student who also had to ride the same train.<br />
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I didn't take any photos at the conference itself, but I took some photos of some famous places in Kitakyushu. My favorite are the statues at the Kokura station of famous manga characters.<br />
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Sadly, there was no Thanksgiving dinner for me! Instead, during the week of Thanksgiving I attended a Hakata-ori exhibition with a friend. Hakata-ori, or Hakata weaving is a famous textile weaving in Fukuoka (http://www.kimono.or.jp/dictionary/eng/hakataori.html). They are most famous for making obi, or belts, for Kabuki actors. Since I did weaving during college, to be able to see such an exhibition was very exciting for me. Sadly, due to privacy policies, I was unable to take pictures of the weavings, other than the temple where the exhibition was being held.<br />
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My next post will be about Christmas and the New Years season! Quite a few good (and bad) things happened, so it may be an interesting post.<br /><br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12086277695726971078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6587997083633537620.post-51398801413415808412014-10-30T01:15:00.002-07:002014-10-30T01:22:08.418-07:00Kyoto and NokonoshimaI apologize for not posting sooner. Despite me having a dull prediction for September and October, a lot happened unexpectedly. This along with school restarting, delayed me from editing and posting photos of what has happened to me over the past two months. Plus, I took over 200 photos, and those took a looooong time to reformat and adjust to be small enough files to easily upload. On top of that, I recently graduated from Master's to Doctorate level! While I no longer have any regular classes, I am expected to publish papers before I graduate, as well present at several conferences... and that takes a considerable amount of prep time.<br />
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So, allow me to start off what happened during September. During the first few weeks, nothing much happened. I mostly was in the laboratory during the day, and if the weather was good, I would walk home and look at the rice fields. However, my friend was away on an internship, and as a result of this she managed to get free hotel anywhere for two nights. Since this was a rare opportunity, she asked me if there was any city I wanted to go, that way we could travel together. Both of us had been mostly in Kyushu during our stays in Japan, so we both ended up choosing to go to Kyoto. Kyoto is a fairly famous destination for tourists because of it's historical sites and beautiful landscape, and we went for more or less the same reasons. This was really a last minute trip, so I scrambled to get prepared and make reservations for everything. Luckily, with the help of my friend, we managed to get it all done in time. We were there for four days and three nights, and still only did a portion of what we wanted.<br />
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The first day in Kyoto, my friend was spending her day in Osaka, so I wandered by myself around Kyoto Station. I had traveled by Shinkansen, so it would be easier to manage my luggage, and I wouldn't have to worry about being late to an airport. However, I am prone to getting lost, and since my friend is the one with the smart phone and Google-maps , I stuck very close to Kyoto Station. The area actually has a lot to offer, including some famous shrines, temples, and gardens.<br />
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Sadly, most of the buildings were undergoing reconstruction, so I only posted the photos where the construction is not visible. Also, while the garden was indeed very nice, I probably went a the worse time of year to visit (other than winter). All the flowers were finished, and it was not cool enough for the leaves to change colors, so it was mostly just a lot of green plants. I am sure if I had gone recently, it would have been much more enjoyable with the changing of the autumn foliage.<br />
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The next two days were exploring some of the more famous and historical temples and shrines. While we went to the Heian Jingu first, sadly due to an event being held there most of the temple was covered with chairs and an outdoor stage, so we could not enjoy it thoroughly. There was, however, a giant robot there, so that was something unusual for sure. Afterwards we visited two more temples, one of which had tanukis inside the temple grounds. Tanuki look a lot like the North American raccoon, but are actually a different species altogether. The pictures I got of them are not good, but my camera is not made for long-distance shots. Finally, I was also able to see the Nishi-jin weaving center! That was a dream come true, as you could see the looms, and the various methods how the silk and eventually weavings were made. There was even a kimono show which displays some of the more modern-style kimonos.<br />
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The last day, we went to one of the most famous places in Kyoto, the Inari shrine. The shrine is for a fox-god who is associated with harvests and grains in general.There were no foxes sadly, but lots of stray cats who live in the shrine. It's a HUGE place, and is well known for its many gates. I thought the gates were of deep spiritual meaning, but when you get there, you can actually buy one for $10,000. A lot of companies had their names written on them, so this was surprising. I also found a restaurant that made really tasty ramen and kara-age! You know food is important to me.<br />
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That evening,after finishing our trip to the Inari shrine, we returned back to Fukuoka, exhausted, but with good memories.<br />
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In the beginning of October, I was quite busy getting my visa and other papers renewed since now it has been two years since I came to Japan. TWO YEARS! Time really does fly...yeesh. October also means fall classes start again, so I knew it would be only a short time before I was too busy to do anything else but lab/class work. For this reason, I wanted to go visit the island of Nokonoshima. I had been there several times before during the summer season, but it is most famous to visit during the fall due to its blooming cosmos flowers. My friend and I made a day trip of it, and visited the Nokonoshima Island Park. There we could see the cosmos, enjoy the cool fall weather, and have a picnic with a great ocean view.<br />
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Since this is the last week in October, I will try to post about my Halloween Party in next month's post. Usually, my lab members and I have a very good time, and this year some international students will also be joining us in celebrating Halloween!</div>
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I look forward to posting again soon.</div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12086277695726971078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6587997083633537620.post-66842783106223877552014-08-22T01:03:00.002-07:002014-08-22T01:03:56.518-07:00July and August 2014Hello! Sorry I have not posted in a while, but I just finished the Master's section of my study here in Kyushu University. So, for the past few weeks I have been working extremely hard on finished my Master's thesis, Master's presentation, as well as working two part-time jobs. It has not been easy, but it has been quite rewarding.<br />
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So, in this post, I would like to briefly summarize what fun, or interesting things I have been up to for the past eight weeks or so.<br />
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In the beginning of July I held a Independence Day BBQ with a few lab members and several international students. The 4th of July is my favorite holiday in the USA, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to share some American culture, as well as enjoy my favorite holiday here in Japan. However, it is really difficult setting up a barbecue in Japan, since they have very strict restrictions on where you can have an open fire. Most places do not have portable grills, or you have to go to a restaurant which specializes in barbecue. Neither is inexpensive and convenient when you have over 5 people, so I ended up having the party at the school's dormitory.<br />
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We had many people from all different places come attend, so it was quite a cosmopolitan event. Everyone seemed to have a good time, playing games, eating, and drinking together (excluding myself on the drinking part).<br />
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After dinner, we broke off into teams and played several games. Everyone really tried their best, and had a lot of fun. At the end of the party, everyone was nice enough to help clean up. It was a good holiday, though I still miss having a good old-fashioned grilled burger with potato salad (not to mention cherry pie).<br />
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The following week in July was also the end-of-the-year party for my laboratory. Not much is different from our other parties: people drink a lot, people do dumb things, and everyone over eats. However, these parties are never dull. Usually you are able to get to see the more playful side of the lab members and teachers, and of course we generally just have a good time. I am quite fortunate in that my lab is not particularly unfriendly, and that most of our parties are over by 9 p.m.<br />
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Next week, we had another lab event, the 'Yamahon Challenge'. I have mentioned this twice before on previous posts, but basically the Yamahon Challenge is where we have a sushi eating contest among the lab members. We break off into our respective project teams, then have 2 hours to eat as many plates of sushi as possible. Each plate consists of two pieces of nigiri sushi, and the total dishes for each team are summed up. The team with the most plates wins the challenge (though there is no prize). Some people ate dessert afterwards.... I do not know how Japanese stay so small.<br />
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I took a series of photos from start to finish, so you can slowly see how the stacks of plates begin to accumulate on each table. Not to mention, everyone goes from a happy expression to one of pain.<br />
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No fun things happened in August, other than I started a part-time job. I found an English Summer Camp program on Nokonoshima island, where native English speakers act as camp counselors to Japanese children. For 3-4 days you do various activities with an assigned group of children, usually only speaking English (the kids usually do not understand you, but the point of the camp is for them to learn more English skills). This was a really fun part-time job! However, it is also extremely exhausting, especially in the summer humidity and heat. Luckily, the kids are also tired after the second day, but I have a new profound respect for parents. Keeping up with children is tough! Sadly, I have no pictures of any of kids (you need permission from the parents to take a photo together), but I hope to be able to attend next summer! It really depends on how busy I am in the lab, but it's a fun part-time job.<br />
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Speaking of lab-work, I was able to complete my Master Course!! Hooray! That means I am able to move onto the Doctorate level course and continue my own personal research. It's really hard to believe that I have been in Japan nearly two years, already! Next thing you know, my five years may be up!<br />
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I'm not expecting anything exciting in September, but if it does happen, I shall post again.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12086277695726971078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6587997083633537620.post-15241623534555976322014-06-26T01:13:00.001-07:002014-06-26T01:13:02.712-07:00Too hot to be spring, too cool to be summerSorry for not posting again sooner, but I've had multiple people ask me to take down photos of them from my blog, which is fine, but this means I can't really post anything about the second half of my Tokyo trip. I was primarily meeting family members, but to respect their privacy, I won't post much more than that.<br />
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However, I can say some interesting things have happened to me after the week of Golden Week. While none of it is particularly as exciting as going to Tokyo, I think it is still worth mentioning.<br />
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A local event I attended was featured in the school newspaper: http://lovito.web.fc2.com/<br />
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Every Friday during the school year, a few local women and students gather to enjoy conversation (in Japanese) and eat snacks. They also sponsor various small events, and this past month I just happened to get featured while there. Apparently, people REALLY love USA-style cookies. I do not know why, but they think they are the most amazing things ever... which is strange since you can make your own fairly cheap or buy them at the grocery store.<br />
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Sadly I have no pictures from that day, but I do have the following week's photos when we made chocolate covered pretzels. They also thought that was pretty amazing:<br />
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I hope that article inspires new people to attend, as I surprised not many students seem to show an interest in talking with foreign students or to the local inhabitants of Itoshima. It seems like a real shame since the people there are so kind, and fun to be around. I do not think I have ever regretted attending this event, and I try to encourage other Kyushu University Students to go!<br />
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The second interesting thing that happened is that I was invited to my Professor's home with the other students in my class for a party. He had also invited some other students from another class he holds, so I was excited to meet some new people.<br />
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I think it is a rare opportunity to be able to talk to your Professors outside of the academic life, but when you are able to, usually teachers have pretty incredible lives.<br />
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Finally, before the weather started into rainy season, I went with to a few parks to look at the flowers. Especially hydrangea and dahlias are nice this time of year, but unfortunately I was a little too early to see the hydrangeas at their best.<br />
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However, the rose garden was very much at it's peak! I took a lot of pictures of these areas, and I probably smelled 3/4 of the roses there. However, the walk was really loooong to cover the whole park, so I was quite tired by the end of the day.<br />
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I hope to be able to make another post soon! However, I do not have a lot of photo-worthy moments this time around. Everyone take care this summer~<br /><br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12086277695726971078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6587997083633537620.post-68168370345557867732014-05-11T03:04:00.002-07:002014-05-13T00:45:56.091-07:00Tokyo Day 1 and 2I had a good 'Golden Week' holiday from May 1 to May 5 in the Tokyo area of Japan! The experience was really great, but it left me exhausted even since I did <b><i>a lot</i></b> of different things in a very short amount of time. Because of this reason, I have almost 200 photos I need to go through and edit, so sorry if it will take me a while to post everything. I will try to break it down into two or three posts, in order to completely cover my trip. So anyways, on to my first day.<br />
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May 1st was not much to talk about (or take photos of), since I had a night-time flight from Fukuoka to Narita airport. My relatives in the area were unable to meet me that first day, but one of their assistants in the driving school business was so kind as to take me from the airport to my hotel.<br />
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I felt quite guilty since my flight was late, and the assistant had brought his wife along as well, so they had probably been waiting at the airport for an hour or two. They were a very nice couple, and surprisingly the assistant is from the same part of Satsuma Sendai, most of my other relatives are from. His wife was from the Kyoto area, so along the long drive from Narita airport to Kashiwa City, she told me about the famous landmarks from her hometown and about Kyoto in general.<br />
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On the outskirts of Kashiwa City, I was able to see the driving school owned by my relatives. Sadly, it was night time so I wasn't able to see much, but considering how big the school was, it seemed quite impressive. After a nice dinner with the assistant and his wife at a local izakaya, I went to check into my hotel and prepare for the busy day I had the following day.<br />
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May 2nd was the most busy day I had, starting at 7 a.m., the nice assistant from the day before came to my hotel to take me to the central part of Tokyo via train. The surrounding train system for the Tokyo area is REALLY complicated, so if it had not been for him I would most likely have been lost the whole day. Anyways, he took me to Hamamatsucho station, where I was booked for an all-day bus tour along with my cousin on the Hato Bus Line (http://www.hatobus.com/en/course/fullday.html).<br />
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After meeting up with my cousin our bus tour started at 9 a.m. and ended at 5 p.m. with the following stops:<br />
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<u><i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Tokyo Tower-</span></span></i></u><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> My cousin actually lives really close to the tower, so maybe it was not so interesting for her, but it was fun for me. It's sort of an iconic place to go to in Tokyo, and before the construction of 'Sky Tree' it was the tallest structure in the Tokyo area.</span></span></h3>
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<u><i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Happo-en (experiencing Japanese tea ceremony)-</span></span></i></u><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> This was not my first time trying the traditional japanese 'sado' or tea ceremony, but the garden surrounding the tea house was quite beautiful. It's one of the most popular places for weddings in Tokyo, and it has some REALLY old bonsai trees. Some of the trees were over 500 years old (hard to imagine someone took care of them the whole time). I also happened to see a very small turtle (which I almost stepped on) which was a pleasant surprise. The garden itself is actually not all that big, but the landscaping was nearly perfect. I just wish I could go there when all the azalea bushes were blooming.</span></span></h3>
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<u><i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Chinzan-so (lunch)-</span></span></i></u><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> This place was also located inside a garden, however it wasn't as traditional as the previous location. This was a hotel garden, which was also popular for weddings among couples in Tokyo (I saw a lot of weddings that weekend, I guess it must be a popular weekend to get married). Here we ate Japanese style barbeque cooked on igneous rock from Mt. Fuji. You got three courses of food, served with green tea or barley tea. It was not the most exciting lunch, but my cousin and I were so hungry by that time, that we didn't mind having any type of lunch. While at the lunch table though, we were able to talk to some of the other people on the tour. There were people from India, Australia, Thailand, and even another American... though he was from Boston.</span></span></h3>
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<u><i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Imperial Palace Nijubashi Bridge-</span></span></i></u><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> Sadly, I did not see the Emperor or even the palace... the only thing you can see without an invitation was the outskirts of the imperial grounds. The statue of the samurai on horseback is of a famous guard to one of the old emperors who died on duty. His statue faces the palace, so that he can continue to show his loyalty to the royal family. While the tour happened to be there at the changing of the guards, it was not too exciting. There were only two guards, and it only took them a few seconds to switch out. However, my cousin did tell me an amusing story, where apparently the Emperor went off the royal grounds unescorted and said good morning to some local joggers. Apparently the joggers didn't realize who he was right away, though they were really shocked when someone recognized who he was. I can only imagine what that must be like. </span></span></h3>
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<u><i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Sumida River Sightseeing Tour-</span></span></i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"></span></span></u><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> This was really nice after all the walking! The cool breeze from the ocean made a big difference in the afternoon heat, and we could see some of the more famous parts of the business district of Tokyo. Here you could see the famous fish market (http://www.tsukiji.or.jp/) where they load the fish into the market place, and some of the more iconic buildings and bridges. My seat wasn't the best to see some of the places, but I managed to get photos of more interesting buildings as we passed by.</span></span></h3>
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<u><i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Asakusa and Nakamise Street-</span></span></i></u><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> This was my favorite place I think. It's a historical district with a lot of shopping, next to the Thunder and Lightning God's temple. In fact, I came here twice to buy souvenirs, along with look at the really great cooking tool stores. Some of the best knives in Japan are made in this area! There is also gardens, old gingko trees, and many interesting shops. You can also buy some very tasty traditional sweets called ningyoyaki (http://www.seriouseats.com/2008/02/ningyo-yaki-molded-japanese-cakes.html). A lot of young people like to come here on dates for the sake of nostalgia, which was kind of interesting, as 300 years prior the same area was considered very 'trendy' and 'modern' for young people to visit. It's kind of funny how that works out.</span></span></h3>
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<span class="red"><u><i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Ginza-</span></span></i></u><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"> The upscale shopping district of Tokyo, this was the final stop of the tour. We had previously driven there earlier, but other than a review from our tour guide the tour does not formerly stop there. However, members of the tour could chose to be dropped off at the Ginza area or Tokyo Station at the end time, so my cousin and I chose to get off at Ginza. This place has LOTS of luxury item stores like Seiko, Gucci, etc. so for those who like high-end retail, this is a good area to go to.</span></span></span></h3>
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After a little bit of shopping we met my relative Yoichi-san at a Korean BBQ restaurant where we enjoyed some bolgolgi and udon noodles for dinner. I was quite tired after running around that day, so I was really quite happy to get some sleep after everything. Besides, I had two more days to enjoy myself in Tokyo before heading back to Fukuoka!<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12086277695726971078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6587997083633537620.post-49962131900822521952014-04-17T00:27:00.000-07:002014-04-26T06:21:53.242-07:00 Spring Vacation at WorkMarch in Japan is usually a four week holiday for students in Japan, but it was just the opposite for me... in fact I wasn't even aware there was a spring break until an undergraduate student asked me what I had done over the holiday. From the beginning of the month, when classes ended, I started doing experiments 8-9 hours a day.<br />
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In relation to my personal project, I got approved by my lab PI to start a new experiment. If you are not familiar on how a lab works, in order to introduce anything to the PI, you need to have a considerable amount of papers and former research to back up your hypothesis. Then, after your proposal, if it is approved, you need to get some initial data showing that your project is possible. So for the entire month of March, this is was I did.<br />
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Boring stuff aside, there were a few major events in March that were interlaced with my monotonous research schedule. First off, my birthday!<br />
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I can't say my birthdays are very exciting, but I am fortunate to have good enough friends that they are always willing to throw a small party for me. Besides, I really do not want anything other than a small party and cake.<br />
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Other than that, March was really kind of a bittersweet time. A lot of my first friends I made in my laboratory graduated this month. They were very excited to go out and start their jobs, but I know it was really hard for the other students to see them leave.<br />
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However, just because it was a slightly sad time, doesn't mean they didn't party hardy. The graduation ceremony/party was just as rowdy as usual. Between American style and Japanese style graduations, I like the Japanese way of thinking much better. They break down students into sections, so only people within our major went up to grab their certificates, which means there were less speeches, and more eating. Also, there was a superfluous amount of goofy photo taking, and drinking, like at any party I have been too.<br />
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To my friends who graduated, I will miss you!<br />
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During this time, I was also able to make some new friends in Japan.<br />
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I was really fortunate that in my last Japanese class, I was able to meet another girl who had similar hobbies and interests as me like drawing, sewing, and cooking. She invited me to her home for dinner one night, and after that we became quite good friends. Occasionally, we will go grocery shopping together, and she teaches me how to cook Chinese dishes, while I teach her how to bake American-style sweets.<br />
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It was during one of our shopping trips, that we got really, really lost, but ended up at a garden show in the downtown area of Fukuoka city. They had many beautiful flowers up on display, so I managed to take some photos.<br />
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This was the best day for flower viewing it seemed. Sadly the cherry blossoms this year were not very good. On both peak days to see blossoms, there were rainstorms, so most of the cherry blossoms were knocked off the trees before anyone could enjoy them. I did however, see a white dandelion!<br />
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Maybe it's not the most interesting post I have had so far, but I hope to have a more interesting post soon. I am scheduled to go to Tokyo in a few weeks to go visit relatives! I am really looking forward to that trip.<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12086277695726971078noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6587997083633537620.post-3557936646245945202014-02-18T23:26:00.001-08:002014-02-18T23:26:31.915-08:00Valentines in KoreaI need to apologize for the lack of posts this past six weeks or so. Since I am approaching the end of my Master's program, January and February included my Master 1 Presentation, and the end of my fall semester of classes. So, needless to say, I have been very busy studying and making presentations. Probably by May I will start writing my Master's Thesis, so right now I have a little break from work and school.<br />
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Normally, most students have spring break during this time period, but none of my lab members, including myself, have missed a day of coming to school. We are a biological lab, after all, and need to maintain living things... so if we were to be absent more than two days in a row some poor creature (or cells) would most likely die.<br />
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However, I got extremely lucky due to the kindness of a friend to be able to travel for at least one weekend. My friend is a native Korean who also is at Kyushu University in a neighboring lab. She told me she originally wanted to go home to celebrate the Lunar New Years (celebrated in Korea, China, Vietnam, etc.) but do to the hectic timing of the school's schedule (as I mentioned above many people are doing presentations/taking final exams) she was unable to do so at the end of January. Instead, she decided to go in early February, and asked me if I was interested in joining her. This was an opportunity I could not refuse, since I have not been to Korea in 21 years... for those of you who don't know this, I lived in Korea when I was a baby. Since I was too young to have any memories of living there, I jumped on the chance to go to Korea again.<br />
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So sure enough, the day before Valentine's day I went on a 30 minute flight from Fukuoka to Korea. Busan is closer to Fukuoka, than Tokyo but the atmosphere and culture are so totally different. It really is amazing how different the Japanese and Koreans are. I could tell as soon as I got off the plane it was indeed, a different world.<br />
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The very first thing we did when arriving in Korea was to go eat. We went to go eat my most favorite type of Korean food, gamjatang. It is a pork-bone soup with various vegetables and served super hot. Even though I almost choked to death on some radish-greens, the soup was delicious. The owner was so nice to even give us extra sides, even though we did not order any.Afterwards it was already quite late, so we went to my friends home to rest.<br />
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The next day we went shopping in the downtown area of Busan. Since it was Valentine's Day the streets were pretty crowded with couples shopping, but it was a long and tiring day. If you are a person who likes to go shopping, Korea is the place for you. They have many shops packed together, and you can buy just about anything you can think of. I went to one of my favorites stores of all... Dunkin Donuts! You may think I am crazy, but Japan only has Mister Donuts, not Dunkin Donuts, so I was quite happy to be able to eat and drink at Dunkin Donuts for a change.<br />
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We also ate some great food in the shopping area; homemade noodles and kimbap. My friend said her Dad once ate four bowls from this shop, and that it is very famous and old established noodle shop in Busan. At night we met her friend who she has not seen in nearly four years. It was a fun reunion for them, and we were able to enjoy dinner and coffee together late into the night.<br />
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The following day, we were pretty tired from staying out the night before, so we decided just to have a relaxing day of sight seeing. Going to one of the more well-known beaches in Busan, we had lunch in a scenic restaurant, went to the Busan aquarium, and then toured an island famous for it's view and camellia trees. It was fairly crowded that day, and sadly the camellia tress were mostly finished blooming, but the view was spectacular.<br />
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Korea was a really wonderful place, but after two days of non-stop walking and shopping we were ready to come back to Japan. Koreans certainly live a high-pace life, and I am not sure how some people are able to live like that everyday. I can say though, that now I definitely have some good memories of Korea and the bright and fascinating culture it owns.<br />
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I also need to thank my friend and her parents who were so kind to host me during that time. I am not sure if I would have been able to get around Korea so easily, without having a native Busan person with me. Thank you so much!<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12086277695726971078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6587997083633537620.post-85201813140649465442014-01-12T03:47:00.000-08:002014-01-12T03:47:02.726-08:00Christmas and New YearsThis year, I did not travel anywhere during the holidays, so I can tell you my post for Winter Vacation will not be nearly as exciting as last year. However, I can say that I was not bored thanks to my good friends always willing to have great parties!<br />
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As you know, most Japanese people do not celebrate Christmas, so Christmas day is not a national holiday... most people go to work and school as they normally would. However, since the Emperor's birthday is very close to Christmas (the 23rd) the week for Christmas did happen to have Monday off. Because of this reason, my friends and I planned to have our Christmas Party that three-day weekend.<br />
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So when it comes to parties, it's all about the food! Despite there being seven people, we prepared far too much food! One of my friends even prepared a whole chicken, which is pretty rare in Japan.<br />
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This was also a party-party, so along side building a gingerbread house, we also played some non-traditional games like Jenga and bowling! It seemed a little unconventional, but it was a great party. Also, this was the first time to make a gingerbread house for the people here... luckily since there were so many engineering majors available, I think we did okay!<br />
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Besides a Christmas party there was also a New Years party for my laboratory and the Yamahon Challenge. Thanks to my brilliant lab members (and their weak toleration to alcohol) these are always a lot of fun to attend. Most people really are able to relax during these, and I almost always learn something new about the people I work with.<br />
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First off, the most infamous and properly named Yamahon Challenge. This is usually a celebration for seniors who are graduating, so normally we will wait until the senior has submitted their thesis before we have this party. So, in case you do not remember from my post last year, the Yamahon challenge is where each project team in my lab try to see how many plates of sushi they can eat. The winning team wins the title of having beat the 'Yamahon Challenge'. This challenge was named after a senior who graduated, who at one time, could eat close to 30 plates of kaiten sushi or Conveyor belt sushi. That's roughly 60 pieces in one sitting.... yes the Japanese can eat that much!<br />
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Just to show you what I mean, here is this year's Yamahon Challenge photos at the beginning:<br />
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And at the very end... notice a change of expression on everyone's face? I think it was a little painful for some people:<br />
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As usual, the winner were the muscle-cell project team. It only seemed fitting since this year one of the members of that group is graduating. However, you would think that after such a wild party that my lab members would be tired... you would be wrong. Just the very next week we had our 'bonenkai' or forget the year party.<br />
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While I am not sure whether some of the lab members truly forgot the year, I am pretty sure some of them forgot what they did that night. I am grateful there are no angry drunks in my laboratory, but there are a few who tell everyone else that they love them.<br />
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This was such a wonderful time! I have been really fortunate to join a laboratory that not only works hard, but plays hard as well. 2013 was a great year for me, and I hope 2014 will be just as great if not better!<br />
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Afterwards I am afraid not much happened to me. I have been working on experiments, and doing preparation for a scholarship. Just like in the United States, everyone always is busy again right after the holidays are over, so I am no exception. Perhaps once it is spring, I will have some more interesting photos and anecdotes to post.<br />
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Happy New Years, everyone!<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12086277695726971078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6587997083633537620.post-26687000213577831912013-12-03T23:48:00.003-08:002013-12-03T23:48:47.707-08:00Kyudaisai 2013 and Christmas LightsThis year, the student festival weekend 'Kyudaisai' was particularly lucky to have good autumn weather. The previous year it had been much colder and raining, so this year I was able to enjoy it much more than before. However, I think because of this fortunate good weather, the turn-out was particularly overwhelming! It is because of this reason I have so little photos of the events, because I had almost no time to stop and take photos because there was also a line of people behind me or in front of me.<br />
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Kyudaisai is mostly student-run tents selling food, goods, or games to help raise money for their various clubs or activities, or just to raise awareness of their organization. Needless to say, all I mostly did both Saturday and Sunday was eat festival food. This year I also went to the student run maid-cafe which was interesting to say the least. I honestly think it was meant more for men to go to, but the cake and coffee there was quite tasty, so I cannot complain.<br />
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There was also a various number of performances including singers, dancers, acrobats, and even comedians. I think the comedy was lost on me (I cannot understand that kind of Japanese), but each culture has a unique flavor to their comedians and what they find funny. Many of my friends who are not Japanese say that even though they understand what is being said, in their cultural context, it's not considered funny. I wonder if the same is true for Japanese people watching American comedy movies.<br />
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This weekend I also had experiments, unfortunately, so I didn't get to do as much as I wanted. Maybe next year I will be able to enjoy it more... however, experience tells me I will probably be busy next year too. But, in the end, I had fun.<br />
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The following weekend after Kyudaisai, I was invited to attend a Christmas music concert in Tenjin with one of my good friends. Her husband is a skilled piano player, so he was taking part in the concert this year. The concert was only an hour or so long, so afterwards we walked around the downtown Tenjin area to look at the illuminations. Unlike in the USA where people wait until after Thanksgiving to put up Christmas lights, Japan's Christmas-season extends from right after Halloween up until the end of December. Therefore, all the big stores in Tenjin already had all their fancy decorations up.<br />
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They were very beautiful, and we managed to get many photos this year since it was not raining, hooray! Maybe the most famous out of the Christmas light areas, or 'illumination' areas is known as Tenjin Hikari Square... literally Tenjin 'Light' Square. They always come up with new decorations every year. This year they had a whole lot of disco balls.... I have no idea what that has to do with Christmas, but they were very beautiful at night.<br />
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After seeing the Illuminations, we returned home quite tired from walking around so much. Maybe in the following weeks, I have many parties to look forward to. I hope to post more soon!<br />
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<i>P.S. I finally finished a blanket I started when I first came to Japan. 1-year in the making.</i><br /><br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12086277695726971078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6587997083633537620.post-84111680003071570762013-11-15T05:58:00.000-08:002014-05-10T08:15:00.209-07:00Summer Vacation II and HalloweenHello everyone! Sorry for the delay, but I finally have a new laptop (the old had to be mailed back to the USA) and have figured out how to function (somewhat) with Windows 8. This new version really is not the most user friendly, but at least now I know how to get to my files, and so forth. To catch up with all the events that have happened so far, I will make this post really long and full of photos. I'll first start off with finishing what I did during my summer vacation, then continue on with some fall parties I attended.<br />
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During the last few weeks of September, my mother and brother came to visit me here in Fukuoka. However, we were only in Fukuoka a few days. Much of the time they spent here was meeting our relatives in Kagoshima and Kumamoto. This just happened to be a great time for my mother to visit especially, because some of our relatives just happened to have a new baby. During our stay in Kagoshima, we were not only able to see a traditional naming ceremony for the new baby, but also was able to see a traditional Japanese festival.<br />
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The tying of the rope was just the first part of the festival. The second part was a giant tug of war, where more than 3000 people participate to win! Of course, besides seeing the festival, we also went to many other places, including a famous seaside location, an traditional Japanese armory, and finally to a family dinner finishing off with the tug-of-war festival.<br />
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After all this activity my mother took a break, but my brother and I went with one of our relatives to visit Kagoshima city. There we had delicious Kagoshima ramen and a shiro-kuma (white bear). Both were so tasty! We also went to a museum which taught about the Meiji Restoration era, which was also interesting to see. However, for the first time I was able to see Mt. Sakurajima up close (during the winter it was too cloudy to see clearly) and it was actually quite frightening. I have a hard time believing that the Japanese living in Kagoshima are so calm, going about their daily routines, when there was an active volcano a few miles away erupting ash into the air! I was told it blows ash into the city almost everyday. Sometimes people have car accidents, because the volcanic ash prevents them from being able to see when driving. <br />
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After Kagoshima we went to see our relatives in Kumamoto, though our time was much shorter there. So, since we only had one night and one day to spend together, we just had a nice family dinner and a visit to Kumamoto castle. My brother was really happy to see the performing samurai at the castle, but my mother was more happy about being able to see her relatives. I think it was really a great trip to be able to reconnect with parts of our family, who we otherwise would have not been able to meet, if I had not come to Japan.<br />
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But sadly after a little under two weeks, my family had to return back to Tennessee, USA. I really miss them, especially during the holidays, but I know I can always talk to them online when I need to. Plus, I have plenty of family here in Japan to keep me company if I need it!<br />
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So, of course, once summer is over school started back up again. The start of the fall semester also means the laboratories receive new foreign students. This year we received two new students from China (both girls) which brings the total number of foreign students in my laboratory to four! As a sort of welcome party to our newcomers, a few students and myself planned a big Halloween part for all our members. It was a lot of preparation, but when we finally had our party, it was a ton of fun!<br />
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I am glad we had some fun, because shortly after everyone became very busy. The next big event happening at the school is the student festival: <b>Kyudaisai</b>. I hope to be able to take some interesting photos of this event to show you all. Last year my Japanese was so poor, so it was difficult to communicate with people at the festival, but this year I am much more comfortable talking with Japanese students.<br />
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To all my friends and family in the USA, please have a Happy Thanksgiving! Please know I miss you all, and I miss the food! <br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12086277695726971078noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6587997083633537620.post-24185928665201395192013-10-20T21:06:00.001-07:002013-10-20T21:06:41.653-07:00Sorry, technical issues...I thought I should post something to inform you all of why I haven't posted the second section of my September vacation. I am afraid after a year, my recently purchased laptop decided to die. It looks like it's the hard-drive and unfortunately since there is neither DELL nor an English-reading IT service I can contact, I lost all my photos and information on that laptop.<br />
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My family is currently helping me to try to fix that laptop before I have to resort to mailing it back to the USA, but there is no guarantee whether the solutions we came up with will definitely fix it or not. Luckily, I still have my work computer, so I am not completely unable to work, but the drivers on this machine only occasionally function so it's not able to upload any photos or files larger than a few Mb's at a time.<br />
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So, hopefully I will be able to post some more interesting entries soon. Again, sorry for the delay!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12086277695726971078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6587997083633537620.post-45138864430548224262013-10-10T14:36:00.003-07:002013-10-10T14:36:55.057-07:00September ~ The last of summer 2013 Part IEven though my summer has been relatively boring, the last month seemed to have all the most exciting events. I had both a trip with all of my laboratory members to an island off of Fukuoka, and my family came to visit me for a week or so! Both were a lot of fun, and I hope to show you a little of what I did.<br />
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The first that occurred was the annual laboratory trip. Usually, each laboratory in the department (I believe there are 13 total right now, each of them with between 8-30 people depending on the specialty) has one trip where all the laboratory members do activities and have fun together. Last year, due to budget cuts, my laboratory was unable to do anything, but this year, we were able to go to a local tourism spot called Nokonoshima (http://yokanavi.com/eg/theme/detail/460). The island is famous for its beautiful flowers and tasty seafood. Of course, since it is an island, you must ride a ferry to get to the island.<br />
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After arriving to the island, the lab members were taking to the Nokonoshima park. There, we played a game called Noko-noko golf. Unlike normal golf, you use a mallet and giant ball (I thought we were playing croquet at first). Everyone had different teams, selected at random... and I have to say I was REALLY bad at it. Golf was never easy to begin with, but trying to use those mallets was terrible since they were quit heavy to carry around. However, the rest of my team members were actually doing quite well.<br />
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Though after playing all thirteen holes, everyone was so exhausted (and hot). Afterwards, we had a small ceremony where the winners were awarded for their excellent scores. The Professors were some of the best, but it was a student who had the best score!<br />
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Before heading to lunch, a few of us went around the park to admire the flowers. I was a little sad though, since it was not cosmos time yet. Nokonoshima is very famous for its cosmos flowers blooming, but the best season was not until October... so we just missed it by a few weeks. However, the flowers that were available to see were still very beautiful.<br />
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Finally, our last destination was a small beach-side resort where you can barbeque and go swimming. While none of the girls went swimming (no one had a bathing suit) that did not stop the male lab members from enjoying themselves. Generally being goofy people, they had a good time in the ocean throwing each other into the water, and using the nearby swing to jump into the water.<br />
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After a very long, hot day everyone was pretty exhausted, so we rode the ferry back to the mainland just in time to see the sun start setting.<br />
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I will post the second half about when my family came to visit, after I finish receiving photos. My brother had over 300 pictures, and I only had about 50 or so, so I am sure he has some better shots. Sorry for the late post! Will update as soon as possible.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12086277695726971078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6587997083633537620.post-83781240017069893792013-08-23T00:40:00.001-07:002013-08-23T00:40:08.488-07:00Summer Vacation TimeAugust is summer vacation for students here in Japan, just in time for the hottest parts of the summer. Most days it's easily been over 100 degrees Fahrenheit with the humidity index. While I would like to think this is almost the same as the summer weather back in southern region of the United States, the huge difference is that here in Japan, they <i>really</i> do not like to use air conditioning.<br />
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This seems like something a little bit strange, since Japan is well know for being on the cutting-edge of technology, but most of the rooms and buildings I have entered only have air conditioners in select rooms. While partly, I am sure this is due to the energy crisis here (lots of people, and very little land which can provide the resources to produce electricity) I have also heard many Japanese students say they do not like the air conditioner because it makes them sick... I am sorry, but these people are a little crazy to me. The laboratories are usually kept slightly cooler, to keep equipment cool, but when it's nearly 100 outside and the inside thermostat is set at 80 degrees... I am not feeling too much cooler. But anywhere outside the labs usually has no air conditioner and just has open windows. I prefer being hot to cold, but I know for some people this must be miserable. However, luckily since it's summer vacation time, I can spend more time at home in my nice cool apartment set at 73 degrees.<br />
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Sadly, even though I have done some fun things this month, I am afraid I do not have very photos. The most I got was the few I managed to have taken at our end of the year lab party. As usual, there was too much drinking and too much eating done by the lab members. People who on a normal occasion barely speak at all, told me their entire life story at this party. While I think it's always nice to get to know people and have a good time, but 9 p.m. that night most people had almost passed-out and the party started only at 6 p.m. How they got drunk so quickly off of mostly just beer, I will never know. But it does seem like most of them had a good time:<br />
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This month I was also hoping to meet a few former Berea exchanged students (Momoyo and Sachi) but with my luck I ended up catching a cold the weekend I was going to go meet them. It was the first time I had a cold in Japan, so I guess I should be grateful it was when there was no classes, but still I felt bad that I didn't get to spend any time with them when they had time off.<br />
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The following week, I was feeling better, so my friends and I went to Cost Co. That doesn't seem like much, but it's a day-trip in itself, since it's about an hour away, and always crowded during the weekends. Most of the time I do not need to buy anything in bulk, but it's the only place to get some American-type goods at a cheap price (it's one of the few places you can buy bagels and cheese). I bought mostly food items, but my friends bought lots of different things like cleaning goods, gifts, baked goods, and so on. It was also the first time for my friends husband to eat a hotdog too! That seems strange, from an American perspective, but Cost Co. is one of the few places you can buy hotdogs on a bun with mustard, etc. It's hard to believe something that is considered so cheap and common, could be considered such a treat here in Japan. It's like spam in Korea. I just don't understand why it would be so appealing... but to each their own.<br />
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Sadly, the rest of the month doesn't look like there will be much more activity. I am coming to the laboratory daily, and getting ready to do a series of experiments which take between 6-8 hours to complete, so I do not think I will have much time for anything else. However, September looks forward to be a much more promising month, so I will hopefully have a much more interesting post soon!<br />
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Everyone take care until then~Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12086277695726971078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6587997083633537620.post-49748946316676920532013-07-25T01:47:00.003-07:002013-07-25T01:47:42.946-07:00Hot, hot, hot JulyJuly was a much more interesting month for me in comparison to June. In June there is a lot of work to be done(not that July will be easy) but since summer vacation starts at the end of the month, there are more fun activities going on.<br />
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To break it down, at the beginning of the month, I had my first scientific conference here in Japan. It was just a double poster-session, so besides creating a poster, it was not difficult. The conference was held in the city of Kitakyushu, which is famous for several things like the manga artist Leiji Matsumoto, Kokura Castle, and more infamously having a large yakuza population. I was unable to experience the latter two, but that may or may not be a good thing.<br />
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From my lab only two members and two teachers attended, so it was a rather short day-trip. My only complaint is that we had to leave really early in the morning, and we arrived too early for the conference (maybe this is not bad as as I make it out to be, but the fire alarm in my building went off the night before at 2 a.m. and I couldn't sleep after that so I was TIRED). However, I appreciate being prompt, especially when you take the shinkansen (bullet train) from Fukuoka to Kitakyushu, it only takes about 30 minutes! That may be hard for you to tell how quick it is, but it is normally a 2-hour drive to get to Kitakyushu if there is no traffic problems.<br />
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The poster session was 2 hours long, where other students and teachers come to ask you about your research, but as a foreign student, I had to attend two of these sessions. They were also spaced 4-hours apart, so me and the other attending student had some spare time to look around the city. However, the weather was terrible, so we could only attend the nearby indoor places.<br />
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We went to a small manga museum during the few hour break and had lunch with our lab PI, so it was actually quite a nice time. However, the main part of the trip was the poster part. I really wish I could have met some other students, but since my poster was in English, too many students were too shy to approach and ask me questions. Maybe next year I will be able to communicate better about scientific terms in Japanese.<br />
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Also, during the summertime in Japan there are many festivals in which to attend. Sometimes depending on what the festival is for, you can do quite a lot of different things like games, dancing, enjoying food, watching fireworks, etc. I was lucky enough to meet up with one of my Berea friends, Sachi, and go with her to one of these festivals. Sachi is really a wonderful and generous person, so I was quite surprised that when I finally met with her, we did much more than just attend a festival.<br />
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After meeting, we had plenty of time before the festival started so we did some sight-seeing at a very old shrine near the main campus (Hakozaki) of Kyushu University. The Kashii shrine was built in honor of a emperor which died in that area almost 1000 years ago.<br />
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The shrine was very beautiful and had many nice gardens, but unfortunately also had many mosquitoes. My legs and arms were almost completely devoured, but Sachi remained untouched. After visiting the shrine, we stopped and had a light dinner before finally driving to Gion, the area in which the festival was held.<br />
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I only managed to get a few photos (most of them blurry) because there were <i>so many</i> people in one <b>narrow</b> street! Especially after it became dark, there were so many people coming and going, it was almost impossible to stop and take photos. I was lucky I didn't lose Sachi in the crowd, but fortunately for me I am not hard to spot in crowd of Japanese people, especially with my giant red tote-bag. Sachi also sent me some of her photos to share of her and her students (she teaches English) so will upload these next chance I get.<br />
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I ate lots of food at this festival. Some of them exotic (like grilled squid), some of them not so much (candy apples, shaved ice) either way, I ate way too much for my own good. Nevertheless, it was a pleasant time, and most importantly, I got to watch fireworks. I really enjoy fireworks, so I was most disappointed when I missed my favorite holiday, Independence Day, in the United States. However, I have been told by several people fireworks in Japan are considerably cheaper than in the USA, so when you go to see fireworks, an hour-long show is quite normal. It was also very nice to be able to sit in a complete crowd of strangers, and be able to admire at the same level as them. I don't know if you understand what I mean by this statement, but often perspectives on daily life matters in a foreign country are so completely different, it's hard to see the world the same. But with a few things, it seems like no matter the culture, the view or opinion is the same. Here, fireworks seemed to be one of those things, that everyone admires (or is afraid of). While I was unable to film the whole thing I did manage to get a small video of part of the fireworks display:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwEY7pnHmE1QDVNbJTDre5lzQ8I9Jc5Z9cGT9dFTdY8fQHnUrPpvyEemkptVjTJr8H5esSGZHvYCeDhzuUXMg' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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So I had a really wonderful time at my first Japanese festival, so I must thank my good friend Sachi for taking me! As any summer festival, it was hot and crowded, but sometimes experiencing that is a good thing. Next time, I would like to go to a larger one, but we will see if I will be able to or not soon.<br />
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Hope to post more exciting news for the upcoming summer months!<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12086277695726971078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6587997083633537620.post-47739529182643362532013-06-04T00:10:00.003-07:002013-06-07T20:02:31.881-07:00May Flowers... May TsuyuSorry, for not posting about May during May, but it was not the most exciting month. I spent most of the month doing experiments and applying scholarship applications, so I can't say too much out of the ordinary happened. One would think being in Japan would somehow make school life more exotic and exciting, but in all honesty, lab work is lab work, and paperwork is paperwork (and Japan sure likes lots of paperwork).<br />
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However here are a few nice things that happened to me during this May:<br />
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Itoshima coffee hour started again for this semester! It's a nice community gathering held every Friday where students and a few older women from the community get together and talk. Every so often we have a potluck, so there is always a lot of tasty homemade food to eat. I really enjoy going to this meeting, but unfortunately during this month, my part-time job falls onto the time of the Coffee Hour, so I am unable to go. They are all very nice people, and it surprises me more students don't come to these kinds of events. </div>
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Also, my good friend Haejoo's husband is a very good piano player. He has played almost his entire life, and after graduating school was unable to play (most Japanese apartment buildings won't let you have keyboards even due to the worry about noise complaints... and yet brass instruments are okay). Because of this, he has been taking lessons in a studio in which a piano is available for practicing. He had his first mini-concert this month, so I was invited along to Tenjin to see his performance. Of course, before going to Tenjin, my friends and I went to a really cool restaurant for lunch. It has a fixed menu, but you have HUGE amounts of food to choose from, and the fish are kept in tanks right next to the tables. Talk about fresh fish! :<br />
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While the concert was being prepared, my friend and I looked around Tenjin in the various stores. The places all seem very hip and trendy, and I can understand why it is so popular among young people to go visit these kind of places. However, unless you have a lot of disposable cash, it seems like there is only shopping. The only pictures I have of the stores, was of one of the displays inside the mall, where people had designed wooden bridges.<br />
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Not much happened after that, except the Chemical Engineering Department party. While I am not technically in that major, my laboratory is considered part of that Department, so all the lab members should go. To be honest, at first I thought this would be a very formal event, but I was mistaken. If there is anything to expect from the Japanese in such party situations, it is that A LOT of people will get drunk...</div>
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This became quite clear when it was time for the different laboratories to introduce themselves to the department. It is traditional that the newest members of each lab go up and explain a little about what their laboratory does, but I certainly not expecting what happened. A few labs had skits, jokes, and even costumes for their lab intros:<br />
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And if you will notice... these are all men being goofy on stage. I am happy to say none of the scientific women in this department took part in the madness (unless you count the one guy in the dress).<br />
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So after this party, I am afraid not much else happened for the month of May. I think people are already starting to get a little tired from classes and experiments, and now the weather is making that atmosphere worse. Japan, like many countries in South-East Asia has a rainy season. Here they call that season 'tsuyu'. So, for roughly six weeks or so, it is expected to be nothing but cloudy, warm, humid, and rainy... luckily since I lived in Florida at one point in my life, humidity is not a problem, but I am guessing for a lot of foreigners the humidity in Japan is quite overwhelming. <br />
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Now it's already June! I have two scientific conferences coming up, so I will be very busy the next couple of weeks. However, if I manage to do anything interesting, I will make sure to keep note of it.<br />
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To all my friends and family, please know I love and miss you!<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12086277695726971078noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6587997083633537620.post-84336600087486467822013-04-29T23:03:00.001-07:002013-05-06T23:48:57.323-07:00Start of the New School SemesterHere in Japan the real first month of school is in April. The fiscal year, classes, new jobs, etc. all start in April. Needless to say, this made this month a little bit busy for me. Of course, none of it was particularly interesting, there were some good experiences to come from this month.<br />
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First, a new school semester means new students! The laboratory received seven new students, including another foreign student, so I am no long the only exchange student, or only one of two gir<span id="goog_486268208"></span><span id="goog_486268209"></span>ls. Of course, the first week or so was just orientation for them, so I didn't really get to see them much, however the laboratories always have a party to introduce the new senior to the graduate level students. This year, we had it at a motsunabe restaurant. If you don't know what motsu is, it's basically pork organ fat... and while that sounds a little disgusting, it's delicious when in a stew with vegetables. Anyways, all our new students introduced themselves, and the lab (as usual) drank an incredible amount of alcohol...<br />
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After that party, I have to say not much exciting happened. I had a lovely birthday party for one of my friends, but since it was a Sunday, it was rather informal. April is a busy time for most people, especially students who are getting adjusted to new classes and teachers, so few exciting events come during this time.<br />
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As far as experiments, we had our first official meeting of the year to display our data in front of the Professors. I still can't say difficult scientific terminology in science Japanese, so my presentation was in English... so only the professors understood. The worse part was that, even though English was okay, I only told them that my cells died twice. It's been extremely frustrating dealing with the cell-line I had been assigned. We had an infection of mycoplasm (microorganisms) in most of the cell-lines used in the lab. To remove the mycoplasma, you must treat them with special antibiotics for 3 weeks. The first time, I did this I noticed the cells were becoming fewer and fewer in number, and I expressed this problem to my lab mates. Two days before the antibiotic treatment was over, another microorganism (some sort of yeast) had taken over the culture and killed the cells. The second time we attempted this same treatment, almost the exact thing happened! My lab members are taking over the culturing for now, just in case I was doing something incorrect, but I find it odd both culture attempts, at the same time during treatment, died of the exact same thing. If it happens a third time, at least they know it wasn't me being a novice cell-mother.<br />
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Other than that, April has been a relatively uneventful, though beautiful month. Our weather has been unseasonably cool, but so far this has made the flowers much happier. After the cherry trees were gone, all these wild poppies and azalea bushes started blooming. While I have lived in places where there are plenty of azaleas, I haven't seen them quite as flourishing as I have here in Japan. I took a walk around my neighborhood, just to see them shrubs in bloom. There are so many of them on top of each other, you can actually smell them as you walk down the street.<br />
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It's sort of neat to see the old-style houses mixed in the new ones. In the US it's rare to see a really old-style house outside of maybe a historical district, but in Japan, many people build brand new houses in this very traditional style.<br />
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Until something else interesting happens, I hope these nice photos hold you over. Maybe something exciting will happen in May!<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12086277695726971078noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6587997083633537620.post-89707273544462269022013-04-08T23:06:00.001-07:002014-10-13T08:09:08.775-07:00My ApartmentI don't know why, but several of my friends wanted to see my apartment. I know it's exciting to move into a new place, but really.... it's just a place filled with my junk. I have to apologize for the lack of style or grandeur, but Japan is not known for their spacious apartment buildings.<br />
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I can't complain though, my new room is very nice, and the apartment building is new and clean. The actual company is also next door, so if I have any problems, I can just walk over to ask for help (this came in handy when my screen door popped out of place).<br />
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So here is the walk through of my apartment:<br />
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Doorway/Shoe closet</div>
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Main Hallway with kitchen (on the left)</div>
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My fancy Japanese toilet</div>
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My laundry room and sink... full of junk</div>
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The shower room/ bathtub. It's really too big for the apartment, but for some reason having a full size bathtub is important for the Japanese.</div>
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More junk!</div>
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Where I hide all my food.<br />
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The kitchen, complete with drying dishes.</div>
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Again, why is the bathroom so big?</div>
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The main room/bedroom</div>
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My tea set, which was hard to find!</div>
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More kitchen... I love having that oven.</div>
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Closet/Bookshelf</div>
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My bed, and of course, a cat calendar.</div>
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My desk, where I spend 90% of my time... please ignore the bag of donuts. I swear those aren't there all the time.</div>
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That's all there is to it. I wish there was more to show you, but I honestly don't think anything else would be that interesting. The area is mostly other apartment buildings and a gas station, so not much flora or fauna nearby. I hope to get some more furniture for the room, so maybe it will change soon.<br />
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I hope to post more soon! School starts up again next week (new students arriving too) so maybe my life will become slightly more exciting.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12086277695726971078noreply@blogger.com2