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.
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.
So, hopefully I will be able to post some more interesting entries soon. Again, sorry for the delay!
Sunday, October 20, 2013
Thursday, October 10, 2013
September ~ The last of summer 2013 Part I
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.
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 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.
Friday, August 23, 2013
Summer Vacation Time
August 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 really do not like to use air conditioning.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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!
Everyone take care until then~
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.
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:
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.
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.
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!
Everyone take care until then~
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Hot, hot, hot July
July 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I only managed to get a few photos (most of them blurry) because there were so many people in one narrow 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.
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:
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.
Hope to post more exciting news for the upcoming summer months!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I only managed to get a few photos (most of them blurry) because there were so many people in one narrow 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.
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:
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.
Hope to post more exciting news for the upcoming summer months!
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