Even 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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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