Last Post, Final Comments

Before the program started, I really didn't know what to expect from the IARU GSP at Todai. I was a worried person not knowing whether I'd make friends or not, fit well with the group, or even understand the material that was presented. However, after being there for only a few days, I came to realize that it was silly of me to have been so nervous. Although everyone else also came from top universities around the world, they were all very kind and even a shy introvert like myself had no problems making friends. Already from day 1, I was adventuring Tokyo with my classmates and before I knew it, I was with them all the time. From getting lost together on the subway, to helping each other learn the material, we were a close knitted group of friends. Now that the program is over and I am the only one left in Japan, it is really sad but on the bright side, I can say that I have made friends from all around the globe and where ever I end up, there will always be some body there to help me. To finish off, I don' think I can ever have a better experience in such a short summer program and to anyone who is reading this post, please please please take the wonderful opportunity and join the IARU summer program. This will definitely be one of the best experiences you'll have during your uni years.

IARU GSP at University of Tokyo 

Day 15 Last Day, Goodbyes...

Day 15: Today we all checked out from the hotel and we were all going home to different parts of the world. Although I was going to stay for another two weeks, I decided to go to the airport to say my farewells and send them off safely to where ever they were heading. Once we got to Narita, we had a nice breakfast with some tea, shopped, then decided to head for the gates. As time drew nearer, we eventually had to say our goodbyes as I waved to them and TOK4 was no more and our adventures came to a close.

Day 13~14

Day 13: Today was the last day of classes and we went to Komaba campus which was an hour away from our hotel. Naosuke brought us there and we had our last lecture for the program. Afterwards, we got to enjoy a wonderful lab tour where we got to wear a full on clean suit and actually entered a clean room of class 1000! Although we all looked like Teletubbies, the lab tour was something I'd never get to do ever again and was one of the most interesting tours so far.

Day 14: Today we went to tour Terumo Corporation Pranex. There we got to see all the medical facilities and training rooms as well as try out their latest products. Some of the things we got to do was practice using catheters on dummies and using the x-ray to navigate through the blood vessels which was one of the most amazing things I've seen so far.

Later that day, we also got to tour Meiji Seika's factory. There we got to look at the production of pharmaceutical drugs beginning from the boxed ingredients all the way to the boxing and shipping. Mostly everything there was automated and it was nice getting to know how all the drugs are made. At the end, we also received a goody bag filled with Meiji candy and snacks which made the trip even more special.

Day 12 Disney!!!

In Japan the third Monday of July is celebrated as the Day of the Sea and we didn't have any classes because of this national holiday. So what better way to spend the day at the one and only Tokyo Disney Sea right!?

Group photo in front of the globe at Disney Sea. The globe symbolizes how
Disney brings people together from all over the world.
Just like us!! (Australia, USA, Singapore and Switzerland!)

I don't remember why we took this photo but it was too
funny to leave it out of the blog.

Legend of Mythica: The shows at Disney Sea were great! We ended up
finding seats 30 minutes prior so we were able to watch pretty
close up.

The night view of Disney Sea. 

Waiting for the final show, Fantasmic!

Beautiful water works and lighting as Mickey Mouse soared into air!

Amazing performance and pyrotechnics as Mickey defeated the dragon
and overall the shows at Disney Sea were truly amazing!

Although, Disney wasn't supposed to serve as a learning tool, we surprisingly learned a lot from just one day. While waiting in line for one of the rides, I unfortunately lost my fast-pass ticket and general admission ticket. Although this wasn't detrimental in terms of limiting my admission to any of the rides, it disallowed me from getting more fast-pass tickets which allowed us to virtually have no wait for the rides. Because we planned everything out with the fast-pass, I really felt guilty for having to make everyone wait with me from now on. However, I stilled tried my luck and asked the attendants at the ride if they had found a lost ticket. Although initially chances seemed really grim, after 10 minutes, they found my ticket from who knows where. Then onto the next ride, we went. After explaining to the attendant how I had lost my ticket and all. Again, to my surprise, he didn't care one bit and let me through with my friends without hesitation. The service was phenomenal. 

Then later on in the day, another incident occurred where my friend dropped his bag of popcorn. In a hurry he tried cleaning up after his mess but before we knew it, a janitor came by and cleaned up the mess. But, the service didn't end here. He continued on to ask what flavor popcorn we had. As soon as we answered, he told "Please wait in the shade because it'll be hot waiting in the sun" and went off to get us another bag of popcorn. Then 5 minutes later, he returned with a new bag of popcorn filled to the brim. 

With these two cases, we were truly amused at the services that the Japanese offered. Although I've been to Disneyland in Anaheim multiple times, this kind of treatment would never be provided and the this really showed the essence of Japanese hospitality as we experienced it first hand at the wonderful Disney Sea where dreams do come true.

Day 10 & 11 Time for Kyoto!!!!

So on our second weekend, we decided to go to Kyoto for a little trip. Though Tokyo is fun and all, we were all in agreement that we really wanted to see the original Japanese capital and see the real traditional Japanese style streets of Gion or see the endless torii gates of Inari Shrine. Although the shinkansen, hotel, food, and surprisingly the entrance fee for all the temples added up to be quite expensive, it was definitely worth every penny and without doubt, I would go there again. 

Shinkansen ticket for Kyoto! So excited!!

The torii gates at Inari Shrine. The path is in total 4km but we didn't know
that and we decided to walk the entire trail...

Amazingly, on our way to the top, I saw my friend from preschool, Jun.
He and his mom just happened to be visiting Kyoto as well
and that's how we bumped into each other.
What are the chances right? 

My friend Michael really happy that we were finally at the top
of the Fushimi Inari Shrine. What a long walk!

The Kyoto Group! Minus myself..

The famous Kiyomizu Temple. It sits on a nice hill looking over Kyoto.
It is also used in a Japanese expression saying "to jump off the stage at
Kiyomizu" which indicates the commitment one needs
to achieve their dreams.

More dogs!!

The beautiful Kinkakuji Temple. The temple is covered in real gold
as it shines brightly and beautifully. 

World Heritage Site:Ryoanji Temple. Although the stone garden seems
really plain, once we sat down, it was extremely relaxing and we ended
up resting here for quite a bit of time.

Some of us thought that this was the famous UNESCO
World Heritage Site... 

Day 6~9

Lectures/Class:
 Day 6: In today's lecture, we learned more about biology and the science behind epilepsies. The class was overall interesting and we saw our professor eating at the same cafeteria as us!

 Day 7: Today, our student exchange manager Naosuke took us to the Asano campus. It was a nice 20 minute walk and I enjoyed having a lecture in a different room for once. However, the topic today was about Biomedicine and things started to get a little difficult to follow along...

 Day 8: We went back to the Hongo campus and we had our first lecture on Part 3 which is Nanotechnology. I came into the class thinking that I'd be fine just because I took physics last semester but I couldn't be more wrong. The lecture on spintronics and quantum physics were extremely hard to understand.

Day 9: We were back at the Asano campus and we were on biotechnology once again. Lectures were interesting and today's lab tour was interesting as got to see customized equipment that the University made in partnership with Nikon and people in the labs were so dedicated that they literally slept there!

Lecture at the Asano campus. Some people were tired or the material was too
 hard so they decided to take a nap.

Lab tour at the Asano campus.

Grad students at University of Tokyo were so intense about their research
that some even had lofted beds so they could sleep there at night
and work there during the day. Quite amazing....

Student Exchange with the Calligraphy Club at University of Tokyo!

Day 8: Today we had an exchange program with the calligraphy club to learn about Shodo. Shodo is the Japanese calligraphy developed from Chinese calligraphy. Similarly, it uses the fude or brush to write on the paper using an ink called sumi. Although it was hard at first, we eventually realized that it was better to enjoy the moment rather than to stress over the difficulty and at the end, we had a blast!

Everyone working hard on Shodo.

Everyone with their end product. Everyone's calligraphy looked great and it was
really nice to experience Japanese art culture.

Day 5

Day 5: Today, we had our first lecture on nanoscience. However, the lesson covered mostly biology and most of us were bio majors so the lecture itself wasn't too new or anything. Afterwards, the lab tour was also short but this meant that we had more time go around Tokyo. Today we decided to go to Odaiba!!!

For some unknown reason, there was the Statue of Liberty at Odaiba.
I really don't know why but I felt of sense of national pride for America.
Go USA!!

The life size statue of Gundam. As an anime fan / otaku,
I think I got too excited seeing this...

At night, we walked to the Yasukuni Shrine for the Mitama Matsuri. There were so many people that it was almost asphyxiating and all you could do was get pushed through the crowd as we tried to walk through to the end.

The shrine is lined up with thousands of lanterns that glow at night to give
the festival a really nice atmosphere.

Yasukuni Shrine

Day 3/4 Weekend Adventures!

Day 3: So the first place we decided to go on our weekend was the Tsukiji fish market. This fish market is the biggest wholesale fish market in the world and we decided it would be fun to go check the place and also indulge ourselves in a little bit of fresh sushi as well!

After waking up at 2:30AM and waiting in line for 2 hours,
we finally got to go in and see the famous tuna auction!!

Chefs and suitable buyers were all observing the tuna by looking on
the inside of jabbing the meat with a pick to take notes
 before the bidding war began. 

Us trying to figure out what was going on. The auctioneers used
sign language and weird grunts so it was extremely difficult to follow.

An expensive sushi bowl breakfast after the fish market tour. Yum!

After Tsukiji Fish Market, we were all so exhausted from
waking up so early that we decided to take a nap at this
little hut in the park.

The beautiful Hamarikyu Park next to the fish market.

After Tsukiji, we decided to hit another spot in Tokyo called Asakusa with its big famous Kaminari-Mon or Thunder Gate. 

The view of the Skytree from Asakusa.

The famous KaminariMon.

The view of the Nakamise with all of its stores lined up on the
sides as it leads up to the Sensoji Temple.

Day 4: Although the Kamakura study visit was cancelled, we still decided to visit Kamakura on our own. After we got there, we were really pleased with what we got to see as it was filled with Japanese tradition and culture as we got to see many temples and shrines.

Group photo at the entrance of the Hasedera temple.

There was a huge statue of Buddha and Kamakura
and we were even able to go inside and take a look!

Cute Japanese Shiba-inu that we saw in Kamakura.
 I guess he didn't really enjoy being
 photographed...

Day 2

Day 2: Although today was originally planned for the Kamakura study visit, the tyophoon was scheduled to roll into Tokyo so plans changed and we went to the Edo-Tokyo Museum. It was really interesting to learn about the transformation from Edo into Tokyo as Japan increased its foreign influences and the Meji restoration modernized Japan.

The famous bridge in Tokyo called the Nihonbashi recreated in the museum.

A model of the typical streets of Edo (Pre-modern Tokyo).

The typical streets of Tokyo after the Meiji Restoration.

The first ever taxi in Japan. It looks so fancy!

Day 1

Day 1: In our first day at University of Tokyo, we had a short info session followed by a campus tour. Everything ended pretty early so we got to go venture off into Tokyo! We didn't want to start with anything too grand so we took a nice walk to Ueno Park which was only 15 minutes away from Hongo campus.

The view of Ueno Park.  It was nice seeing that Tokyo isn't just a city
 filled with skyscrapers but also has spots with natural beauty.

He was painting Ueno Park but to our surprise, he wasn't satisfied with his work.
However, I thought it was really nice and couldn't resist from taking a photo.

We decided to go on a quick 30 minute ride on the paddle boats.
Although they looked cute to begin with, we quickly regretted out choice
as the boats were made for the Japanese physique and the boats were too small...

Arriving in Japan!!

July 5: Summer school just ended a few days ago but I'm already on my way to Japan for a month to learn about Japanese culture, nano science, and most importantly to make friends some friends from all over the world!!

Adios America! Off to Japan!

Finally in Japan!! Couldn't be any more excited to be here!

Passed by Disneyland, while going to Yokohama on the bus.
Hopefully I'll come here during my stay in Japan.

View towards Yokohama from my grandparents house.