So a lot has happened sense I last updated my blog, but not a lot of noteworthy stuff. Life settled down, I applied to grad schools, applied to and rejected jobs, met random people (more on that later). But for the most part its just been life. I haven't really had any interesting stories to tell, until now.
My friend Soyoung came from America on Friday and forced me into tourist mode. I took her all around Tokyo, and we saw some pretty cool things. Ninjas, Hats with pockets, the Mori tower at night. Lots of things that are cool for me, amazing for a tourist, but boring to write about.
Whats not boring is how I met her. Soyoung sent me her itenaray about two weeks in advance. She planned to arrive at Hachiko at 10pm on Friday and we would go back to my dorm from there. That was the plan at least.
On Friday, I went to Hachiko to meet her, and while I'm waiting grab some drinks with my friend. We are waiting for quite a while, past the time that she should have landed and I expected to get an email from her. Thats when I look at the intenary and realize that everything just went to hell. It turns out her plane gets into Narita airport at 10:00, not 7 as I initially planned for. From Narita to my house is about a 3 hour trip, and the trains stop running at 12:30. She was going to be stranded in the middle of Tokyo with no hotel and no command of the Japanese language what so ever.
I decided to go pick her up near Ueno station. I got there at 12, and by then she was jetlagged beyond belief.
We set about looking for a hotel to stay at, but couldn't find one in our general location. I did find a capsule hotel in Akihabara* that allowed women to spend the night though, so we hopped on a train and went to there.
We found the capsule hotel no problem, unfortunately it had closed in 2009. We started back tracking to the station when I saw a manga kissa, a kind of internet cafe, with a plainly labelled sign that said "Miss your last train, no problem!"
So we go inside, and while buying our rooms (Most manga kissas are for individuals, sometimes two people can use the same room, this one didn't have that option) the shop keeper kind of looks at us funny and says "Are you sure you want to spend the night here, girls don't normally sleep here?"
I look back at him, ask him if they can. He says yes, and buy our room tickets. Everything is working out. We pick out what rooms we want to stay in. Then the guy behind the desk gives us our baskets to take up to the room. Normally these can be filled with DVD's and games. However, he gives me a present. Its a super cheep vagina in a can. I think its a bit odd, but at this point I just want to sleep, and don't really care.
We go upstairs to our room, and we finally realize why the guy said girls don't normally spend the night here. I learned before that there are two types of manga kissas. One is normal, you rent videos, and have a private space, something which is lacking in Japan. The other is a hentai manga kissa. Where you rent porn and have private space, something which is lacking in Japan. Guess what one we went to?
As we are walking to our rooms there is porn everywhere on the walls. Thankfully no porn in the rooms. Just two boxes of tissue. Sleeping was made difficult due to drunk Japanese men snoring next to me. Soyoung had trouble sleeping due to other noises she heard.
To make matters worse, we had bough sleeper rooms, but our rooms didn't have any beds in them. We had to make due with sticky leather chairs. Around 4:30, an hour before we had planned to get up both Soyoung and I realized that the beds in our respective rooms were right next to us. It was just so dark in the rooms that we didn't see them.
That was Soyoung's first night in Japan. The rest of the day, was equally crazy, but those are standard tourist stories, and for her to tell, not me.
*For those who don't know Akihabara is also known as electric town. Famous for all things nerdy, Anime, video games, and sex shops.
Monday, December 20, 2010
Monday, October 25, 2010
Health and Safety Center Factory Study Tour
I'm putting my Health and Safety Center Factory study tour essay on line because I think it might be interesting for people back home to read. At least read the parts that aren't me BSing.
Here it is:
For our first factory study tour we went to the Health and Safety Center. Located in the middle of Tokyo, near the skytree. I think that means we were near Shinamachi. The Health and safety centers purpose is to educate the Japanese public on what to do during natural disasters. As such, we went through 5 disaster simulations as well as watched an orientation video.
We began the visit by waiting in a waiting room for a half an hour and then being ushered into a movie theater to watch a movie about what to do during a disaster. The movie followed the life of a middle school boy before and after Tokyo was hit by a magnitude 7.3 earthquake. From a production standpoint the movie was amazingly cheesy. It started with the line “Its hard to believe, but my city has been completely destroyed” while showing a burning Tokyo in the background. It had various points about what to do during natural disasters, and how to help neighbors. What really stuck out to me though was the fact that the city had dedicated an entire building, a movie theater and a fairly high production value movie to preparing people for natural disasters. In Seattle we have earthquakes, but is amazing, and sobering to realize how serious the threat of natural disasters are to Japanese. Its not surprising though. Just look at Kobe to see why the Japanese feel the need to prepare for disasters.
After the movie we went to 5 disaster simulations. The first was a typhoon simulation. I was a bit worried that they wouldn't have shoes big enough for me. It turns out they did though, they put us in a room that was a bit windy and very rainy. It reminded me of home.
Then they took us to a fire simulator. Our job was to crouch walk though a smoke filled room and get out. If we stood up while we were doing this we would “die”. Sadly because the room was built for Japanese people and not people my size I died like five times.
We then went to probably the coolest simulation, an earthquake room. It simulated a magnitude 7.3 earthquake. I've been in an earthquake before, and I can say, that room did not simulate an earthquake properly. Something about the shaking felt off. The shaking is much worse in a real quake.
For the final simulator we pretended to put out fires, nothing special here. Fire extinguisher, fake fire. We drenched our fake house in water about ten times over until we were safe.
All in all the trip was a lot of fun, and now I feel much more prepared to handle disasters in Japan. Also, and more importantly, I understand how the Japanese feel about and prepare for natural disasters, that often effect the country. One thing I think they forgot though. Godzilla attack simulator.
Here it is:
For our first factory study tour we went to the Health and Safety Center. Located in the middle of Tokyo, near the skytree. I think that means we were near Shinamachi. The Health and safety centers purpose is to educate the Japanese public on what to do during natural disasters. As such, we went through 5 disaster simulations as well as watched an orientation video.
We began the visit by waiting in a waiting room for a half an hour and then being ushered into a movie theater to watch a movie about what to do during a disaster. The movie followed the life of a middle school boy before and after Tokyo was hit by a magnitude 7.3 earthquake. From a production standpoint the movie was amazingly cheesy. It started with the line “Its hard to believe, but my city has been completely destroyed” while showing a burning Tokyo in the background. It had various points about what to do during natural disasters, and how to help neighbors. What really stuck out to me though was the fact that the city had dedicated an entire building, a movie theater and a fairly high production value movie to preparing people for natural disasters. In Seattle we have earthquakes, but is amazing, and sobering to realize how serious the threat of natural disasters are to Japanese. Its not surprising though. Just look at Kobe to see why the Japanese feel the need to prepare for disasters.
After the movie we went to 5 disaster simulations. The first was a typhoon simulation. I was a bit worried that they wouldn't have shoes big enough for me. It turns out they did though, they put us in a room that was a bit windy and very rainy. It reminded me of home.
Then they took us to a fire simulator. Our job was to crouch walk though a smoke filled room and get out. If we stood up while we were doing this we would “die”. Sadly because the room was built for Japanese people and not people my size I died like five times.
We then went to probably the coolest simulation, an earthquake room. It simulated a magnitude 7.3 earthquake. I've been in an earthquake before, and I can say, that room did not simulate an earthquake properly. Something about the shaking felt off. The shaking is much worse in a real quake.
For the final simulator we pretended to put out fires, nothing special here. Fire extinguisher, fake fire. We drenched our fake house in water about ten times over until we were safe.
All in all the trip was a lot of fun, and now I feel much more prepared to handle disasters in Japan. Also, and more importantly, I understand how the Japanese feel about and prepare for natural disasters, that often effect the country. One thing I think they forgot though. Godzilla attack simulator.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Jyuuguo (Class)
It an attempt not to study for the GRE I'm going to launch into another rant.
Before I do I want to clarify two things.
1) I even though I complain a lot, I'm actually having a good time here. I think complaints and observations are a lot more interesting that reading blog post after blog post of "OMG THIS AND THIS WAS JUST FANTASTIC"
2) In terms of research I'm getting exactly what I want out of the program.
A note to future YSEP students. Don't do this program for the classes. If you come here for the course work you will not be happy.
That said I'd like to talk about classes Japan for a few minutes. Or actually I'd like to talk about the joke that passes for classes here.
Classes here are 1 1/2 hours long each week for a Semester. The standard undergrad student takes maybe 8-10 classes. So the amount of time spent in classes is about the same as in the states. Although with 8-10 classes one day a week the Japanese school system obviously is going for breadth, not depth.
For grads the standards are even lower, given that they are expected to conduct 10-12 hours of research every day. They only take 2-3 classes.
I'm going to take 4, maybe 3. To give you a feel for how easy these classes can be I'll describe the two classes that I choose to sign up for. My two mandatory classes are so easy I'm not even going to bother describing them.
One class "Advanced Developmental Biology" has 10 classes. In order to pass I need to attend 6 of those classes. Grades are purely attendance based.
The other course "Distributed Algorithms" sounds so cool you can't possibly fuck it up, right? Wrong. Were spending the next 3 lectures, out of 10 proving concurrency algorithms from the 70s. Problem sets are optional. I think I'll sit in but not take the class. Low standards in classes for me breads laziness.
Now at this point in the conversation a lot of people have asked me, "But Gabe, Japanese people are the most technically advanced people and hardest working people in the world, look at all their crazy phones, look at their GDP, look at all the crazy shit we see coming out of the country every day"
Well those people that ask me that are kind of right. Its just that the Japanese education system is screwed up. To fully explain the root of this problem, we have to go to where most of our problems originated: High school.
High School in Japan in hell. Students attend school Monday-Saturday 8-10 hours a day. Then they go home to do homework. They do this in the name of being able to pass college entrance exams to get into the best colleges.
Wait... what? I go to one of the best colleges, and I just got done saying how east it is.
Well it turns out that it doesn't really matter what college you go to. All that matters is where you went. After World War II Japan started using a lifetime employment system. You get a job at a company after college and you stay there your entire life, or else you suffer huge, and often times irrecoverable financial setbacks from switching jobs. It also turns out that if you didn't come from one of the best colleges a company won't even bother looking at your resume. A good college here, even more so than the states is the ticket to a good job.
A job, that the company will train you how to do for the next 3-4 years, they can afford to spend that much timing training you because you'll be working there for the next 40 years. Also job where you'll be expected to work 10-12 hour days regularly.
So as it turns out Japanese colleges are a 4 year break between having the ability to get a good job, and actually having to work in that job. The only Japanese people who work hard in college are the ones who want to study abroad, generally in America, and the ones who want to go to graduate school.
Speaking of which, time to get back to studying for graduate school...
Before I do I want to clarify two things.
1) I even though I complain a lot, I'm actually having a good time here. I think complaints and observations are a lot more interesting that reading blog post after blog post of "OMG THIS AND THIS WAS JUST FANTASTIC"
2) In terms of research I'm getting exactly what I want out of the program.
A note to future YSEP students. Don't do this program for the classes. If you come here for the course work you will not be happy.
That said I'd like to talk about classes Japan for a few minutes. Or actually I'd like to talk about the joke that passes for classes here.
Classes here are 1 1/2 hours long each week for a Semester. The standard undergrad student takes maybe 8-10 classes. So the amount of time spent in classes is about the same as in the states. Although with 8-10 classes one day a week the Japanese school system obviously is going for breadth, not depth.
For grads the standards are even lower, given that they are expected to conduct 10-12 hours of research every day. They only take 2-3 classes.
I'm going to take 4, maybe 3. To give you a feel for how easy these classes can be I'll describe the two classes that I choose to sign up for. My two mandatory classes are so easy I'm not even going to bother describing them.
One class "Advanced Developmental Biology" has 10 classes. In order to pass I need to attend 6 of those classes. Grades are purely attendance based.
The other course "Distributed Algorithms" sounds so cool you can't possibly fuck it up, right? Wrong. Were spending the next 3 lectures, out of 10 proving concurrency algorithms from the 70s. Problem sets are optional. I think I'll sit in but not take the class. Low standards in classes for me breads laziness.
Now at this point in the conversation a lot of people have asked me, "But Gabe, Japanese people are the most technically advanced people and hardest working people in the world, look at all their crazy phones, look at their GDP, look at all the crazy shit we see coming out of the country every day"
Well those people that ask me that are kind of right. Its just that the Japanese education system is screwed up. To fully explain the root of this problem, we have to go to where most of our problems originated: High school.
High School in Japan in hell. Students attend school Monday-Saturday 8-10 hours a day. Then they go home to do homework. They do this in the name of being able to pass college entrance exams to get into the best colleges.
Wait... what? I go to one of the best colleges, and I just got done saying how east it is.
Well it turns out that it doesn't really matter what college you go to. All that matters is where you went. After World War II Japan started using a lifetime employment system. You get a job at a company after college and you stay there your entire life, or else you suffer huge, and often times irrecoverable financial setbacks from switching jobs. It also turns out that if you didn't come from one of the best colleges a company won't even bother looking at your resume. A good college here, even more so than the states is the ticket to a good job.
A job, that the company will train you how to do for the next 3-4 years, they can afford to spend that much timing training you because you'll be working there for the next 40 years. Also job where you'll be expected to work 10-12 hour days regularly.
So as it turns out Japanese colleges are a 4 year break between having the ability to get a good job, and actually having to work in that job. The only Japanese people who work hard in college are the ones who want to study abroad, generally in America, and the ones who want to go to graduate school.
Speaking of which, time to get back to studying for graduate school...
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Houyou (Hugs)
So I did a homestay this weekend. Long story short it was awesome. More about that later, first a rant about Toyko people and new friends in general.
When you have friends and family around for a long time hugging is kind of second nature. It felt like every time I walked into 002 (my CS lab) I would be greeted by like 4 or 5 hugs. 002 People you know who you are. I miss all of you a lot!
Turns out hugging isn't as common in other parts of the world. Americans or Seattllites are just a bit more expressive in that sense I guess. In any event hugs don't happen here. I didn't notice it for the first month, but now its starting to catch up with me. In Tokyo there is very little intentional physical contact in public. Yes, bump into people on the trains, but I've not once seen a group of friend give goodbye hugs.
This carries on to my program as well. Part of the problem is that there are only 4 girls, none of them are American so no hugs there. Also hugging another guy, for the most part is just gay (joke, but in all honesty guys don't randomly hug each other as much). Anyhow thats one of the little things I'm starting to miss.
Its also why the homestay was so cool. The family I was paired with was fantastic. I've got a picture of them up on facebook if you want to see what they look like. Long story short two kids ages 4 and 7 who were cute beyond belief. The mom and dad were both in their late 40's and super nice. The first day I hung out with them. We went to like 2 different houses for various types of eating parties.
The first was a family friend she was super nice and had studied abroad in Mt. Vernen of all places. Also her two kids were beyond cute.
Next I went to a dinner family at my homestay grandmas house. This family defies all standard notions about Japanese racism. They ALWAYS used the word gaikokujin when referring to foreigners in general and generally referred to them by their nationality. Everyone spoke great English, even the grandma and grandpa. It turns out that the oldest brother married an Indonesian girl so it makes some sense. Dinner was fantastic, and then we lit off some fireworks. Baller.
The next day we went to Ueno Zoo one of the more famous zoos in Japan. I photoblogged a lot of that on my facebook, so I'm not going to talk to much about it. It was a lot of fun and I still felt the same respect that I felt last night. Also the two kids stopped being show shy and started climbing all over me. I gave them both rides of my shoulders (In Japanese kataguruma, or shoulder car). It was nice to actually have contact with someone again.
The family and I are totally going to remain friends, they want to go swimming with me next time. I'm really looking forward to it.
A lot more happened this week, but I hate reading blogs that are a daily account daily life, I think they are kind of boring. I'm going to keep this blog limited to everything that doesn't happen in my daily life. If you want to talk to me about that stuff ask me directly. However I will still post teasers about what happened. In short, Earthquakes, Gokon, Racism, Nerdyness and Nomihoadais. Ask me if you've got questions!
When you have friends and family around for a long time hugging is kind of second nature. It felt like every time I walked into 002 (my CS lab) I would be greeted by like 4 or 5 hugs. 002 People you know who you are. I miss all of you a lot!
Turns out hugging isn't as common in other parts of the world. Americans or Seattllites are just a bit more expressive in that sense I guess. In any event hugs don't happen here. I didn't notice it for the first month, but now its starting to catch up with me. In Tokyo there is very little intentional physical contact in public. Yes, bump into people on the trains, but I've not once seen a group of friend give goodbye hugs.
This carries on to my program as well. Part of the problem is that there are only 4 girls, none of them are American so no hugs there. Also hugging another guy, for the most part is just gay (joke, but in all honesty guys don't randomly hug each other as much). Anyhow thats one of the little things I'm starting to miss.
Its also why the homestay was so cool. The family I was paired with was fantastic. I've got a picture of them up on facebook if you want to see what they look like. Long story short two kids ages 4 and 7 who were cute beyond belief. The mom and dad were both in their late 40's and super nice. The first day I hung out with them. We went to like 2 different houses for various types of eating parties.
The first was a family friend she was super nice and had studied abroad in Mt. Vernen of all places. Also her two kids were beyond cute.
Next I went to a dinner family at my homestay grandmas house. This family defies all standard notions about Japanese racism. They ALWAYS used the word gaikokujin when referring to foreigners in general and generally referred to them by their nationality. Everyone spoke great English, even the grandma and grandpa. It turns out that the oldest brother married an Indonesian girl so it makes some sense. Dinner was fantastic, and then we lit off some fireworks. Baller.
The next day we went to Ueno Zoo one of the more famous zoos in Japan. I photoblogged a lot of that on my facebook, so I'm not going to talk to much about it. It was a lot of fun and I still felt the same respect that I felt last night. Also the two kids stopped being show shy and started climbing all over me. I gave them both rides of my shoulders (In Japanese kataguruma, or shoulder car). It was nice to actually have contact with someone again.
The family and I are totally going to remain friends, they want to go swimming with me next time. I'm really looking forward to it.
A lot more happened this week, but I hate reading blogs that are a daily account daily life, I think they are kind of boring. I'm going to keep this blog limited to everything that doesn't happen in my daily life. If you want to talk to me about that stuff ask me directly. However I will still post teasers about what happened. In short, Earthquakes, Gokon, Racism, Nerdyness and Nomihoadais. Ask me if you've got questions!
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Tabemono (Food)
Food in Japan is hard. Breakfast, and dinner are a constant struggle for me. Thankfully lunch is taken care of due to good, and fairly cheep school food. There are two main problems with eating in Japan: Kanji and Rice. Rice is easy to explain, kanji is a bit harder.
Breakfast in Japan is hard because of rice. As some of you may know rice is a major staple here. Its eaten for breakfast lunch and dinner. As a result bread is somewhat of a luxury item, and cereal, let me tell you about cereal. Walk into the standard super market and you have 5 maybe 10 choices, tops. A box that you could buy in the states for 2.50$ runs around 500 yen. Seeing as I go through one of those boxes every two days, and given that milk 1L of milk (Think a nalgene bottle) costs another 300 yen at least standard American breakfasts are out the door.
To make matters worse my roommate and I have delayed buying a rice cooker until we stop being lazy. In the mean time I've settled for making omelets as they are surprisingly cheep to make here and very filling. They are getting a bit old though. Anyone have other suggestions of non-standard breakfast food that doesn't involve bread or cereal and is fairly cheep?
Dinner in Japan is also a struggle, partly because of the rice issue, but mostly because of Kanji. My staple for any type of meal at home in the states was tons of cheese. Sadly due a joke played by natural selection thousands of years ago I live in a country of lactose intolerant people. This makes even a small bock of cheese prohibitively expensive to use as a staple. This is where the kanji comes in, when I go to grocery stores in America I'm at a loss for what I might be able to cook, I can kind of figure it out though, with those handy danady recipes they put on the sids of boxes and such. When I go to stores in Japan I don't even know what I'm looking at I can barely tell soy sauce from BBQ sauce. Kanji I can learn, but the cooking part is a bit harder, any ideas for quick easy dinners that don't use cheese?
Thankfully my roommate turned me on to the idea of noodles for dinner (ramen style), so if I don't eat out I won't starve, but its getting old fast. This brings me to my last point about kanji, eating out.
Eating out in Japan is great, its always an adventure, and your almost guaranteed to get good food, the staff is super friendly and helpful and you are never expected to tip. When your on vacation this is fantastic. Walk into a restaurant and you can't go wrong! Well except for Natto, but you probably won't accidentally order that anyway.
Anyhow, vacations and living somewhere are a little different, pointing at a menu and saying kore kudasai (This please (Rem I'm looking at you here)) gets old after about two weeks, sometimes you want a specific type of restaurant when your eating dinner with friends in a new part of Tokyo, or you find a type of food you like and want to remember how to order it at a different place in the future, or sometimes you just aren't in the mood for Curry Rice 15 times in a row, as amazingly good as it is. What it comes down to is if you don't know kanji you can't easily do any of those things. Not knowing kanji crippling when it comes to food selection, and its something that I need to fix ASAP.
Ok that all for now, maybe next post I'll give flash update on whats actually been going on in my life for the past few weeks.
Breakfast in Japan is hard because of rice. As some of you may know rice is a major staple here. Its eaten for breakfast lunch and dinner. As a result bread is somewhat of a luxury item, and cereal, let me tell you about cereal. Walk into the standard super market and you have 5 maybe 10 choices, tops. A box that you could buy in the states for 2.50$ runs around 500 yen. Seeing as I go through one of those boxes every two days, and given that milk 1L of milk (Think a nalgene bottle) costs another 300 yen at least standard American breakfasts are out the door.
To make matters worse my roommate and I have delayed buying a rice cooker until we stop being lazy. In the mean time I've settled for making omelets as they are surprisingly cheep to make here and very filling. They are getting a bit old though. Anyone have other suggestions of non-standard breakfast food that doesn't involve bread or cereal and is fairly cheep?
Dinner in Japan is also a struggle, partly because of the rice issue, but mostly because of Kanji. My staple for any type of meal at home in the states was tons of cheese. Sadly due a joke played by natural selection thousands of years ago I live in a country of lactose intolerant people. This makes even a small bock of cheese prohibitively expensive to use as a staple. This is where the kanji comes in, when I go to grocery stores in America I'm at a loss for what I might be able to cook, I can kind of figure it out though, with those handy danady recipes they put on the sids of boxes and such. When I go to stores in Japan I don't even know what I'm looking at I can barely tell soy sauce from BBQ sauce. Kanji I can learn, but the cooking part is a bit harder, any ideas for quick easy dinners that don't use cheese?
Thankfully my roommate turned me on to the idea of noodles for dinner (ramen style), so if I don't eat out I won't starve, but its getting old fast. This brings me to my last point about kanji, eating out.
Eating out in Japan is great, its always an adventure, and your almost guaranteed to get good food, the staff is super friendly and helpful and you are never expected to tip. When your on vacation this is fantastic. Walk into a restaurant and you can't go wrong! Well except for Natto, but you probably won't accidentally order that anyway.
Anyhow, vacations and living somewhere are a little different, pointing at a menu and saying kore kudasai (This please (Rem I'm looking at you here)) gets old after about two weeks, sometimes you want a specific type of restaurant when your eating dinner with friends in a new part of Tokyo, or you find a type of food you like and want to remember how to order it at a different place in the future, or sometimes you just aren't in the mood for Curry Rice 15 times in a row, as amazingly good as it is. What it comes down to is if you don't know kanji you can't easily do any of those things. Not knowing kanji crippling when it comes to food selection, and its something that I need to fix ASAP.
Ok that all for now, maybe next post I'll give flash update on whats actually been going on in my life for the past few weeks.
Monday, October 4, 2010
Hajimemashite (Nice to meet you)
So, I've got a few stories to tell, just to teaze you guys. Walking 50km in one day, Missing the last train on a Sunday night, and the constant battle that is finding cheep food in Japan.
But before I tell those stories I want to talk about something a little more boring, my research. Friends you can zone out now. I'm writing this for those people trying to figure out if YSEP is a good fit for them. Why? Because I was one of those students once, and I wish I had more information.
So a bit about me. I was born and raised in Seattle, Washington. I went to school at the University of Washington (Thats in Seattle for you people with no sense of geography) and have never lived more than 6 miles away from my house.
In college I majored in Computer Science, with a minor in what amounts to bioinformatics, although my school doesn't actually offer a bioinformatics minor. I decided to do this program, not for the credits, because your not going to get many from this program, but for the experience, both in terms of intense research and in terms of living in Japan for a year.
I've been to Japan twice, once was an intense guided tour of Tokyo, so I know the city fairly well, although my language ability is poor. I took Japanese for two years in college, and can navigate the city and have basic conversations, but not much else. In terms of what the program and survival in Tokyo requires its more than enough, you could get away without any Japanese here, but more is always better.
My current goal is to head to grad school to get a PhD in bioinforamtics so this program was a good fit for me. Don't do this unless you want to get lots of research experience.
Ok on to actual life in Japan
Accommodations are amazing for the price, the dorms are twice as big at the UW for 400$ a month less. I decide to live in a double because it was slightly cheaper, but you can't go wrong with either choice. Also the location is fairly good. We are located in a town called Aobadai, in Kanagawa prefecture near Yokohama, but a 30 min train ride will get you directly to Shibuya, the time square of Tokyo, so entertainment is never far away. Also Aobadai was a town targeted by the train companies for development, so you can eat, drink and sleep there without ever having to go into Tokyo proper.
In short, where you live will be amazing. Don't worry about it. Also keep in mind your in fucking Japan.
In terms of locations to do research there are two campuses. The Suzukakedai campus, where all the biology research is done. Its about 10 min away from Aobadai by train. Also there is the Okayama campus, where everything else happens. Its about 45 min away from Aobadai by train, but closer to central Tokyo.
Ok, so on to research, without going into to much detail, and boring 99% of the people out there, I do Bioinformatics research, I like doing the computational analysis side of bioinformatics. Making up new algorithms isn't my cup of tea, neither is doing the actual wet work required to validate experiments. I was placed in a Molecular biology lab because the lab does stuff tangentally related to bioinformatics, and the professor is a baller at English. I regret a little not going more research into where I was going to work before I came, but I can't regret it to much because I did spent 30+ hour looking at labs I might be interested in and reading papers.
I should emphasize that spending that long looking for professors isn't necessary, but obviously the more you know the better off you'll be.
More on research later, once I get into it a bit more. My first impression though, at least for biology, this school isn't as well set up at the UW. Although thats not saying much considering the UW has one of the best Biology programs / Genome Sciences programs in the world. Don't let that discourage you though. Its still set up fairly well.
In general, depending on your research topics and major your millage out of this program will vary.
Alright, this post is getting long so I'll cut it off here. I'm mostly going to use this blog post about my life, but I'll try to include some tidbits about research from time to time. I'm also applying to grad school currently, so I might use this blog as a place to muse about that as well.
Prospective YSEPers, if you've got any questions just post them in the comments, I'll try to answer them when I see them.
But before I tell those stories I want to talk about something a little more boring, my research. Friends you can zone out now. I'm writing this for those people trying to figure out if YSEP is a good fit for them. Why? Because I was one of those students once, and I wish I had more information.
So a bit about me. I was born and raised in Seattle, Washington. I went to school at the University of Washington (Thats in Seattle for you people with no sense of geography) and have never lived more than 6 miles away from my house.
In college I majored in Computer Science, with a minor in what amounts to bioinformatics, although my school doesn't actually offer a bioinformatics minor. I decided to do this program, not for the credits, because your not going to get many from this program, but for the experience, both in terms of intense research and in terms of living in Japan for a year.
I've been to Japan twice, once was an intense guided tour of Tokyo, so I know the city fairly well, although my language ability is poor. I took Japanese for two years in college, and can navigate the city and have basic conversations, but not much else. In terms of what the program and survival in Tokyo requires its more than enough, you could get away without any Japanese here, but more is always better.
My current goal is to head to grad school to get a PhD in bioinforamtics so this program was a good fit for me. Don't do this unless you want to get lots of research experience.
Ok on to actual life in Japan
Accommodations are amazing for the price, the dorms are twice as big at the UW for 400$ a month less. I decide to live in a double because it was slightly cheaper, but you can't go wrong with either choice. Also the location is fairly good. We are located in a town called Aobadai, in Kanagawa prefecture near Yokohama, but a 30 min train ride will get you directly to Shibuya, the time square of Tokyo, so entertainment is never far away. Also Aobadai was a town targeted by the train companies for development, so you can eat, drink and sleep there without ever having to go into Tokyo proper.
In short, where you live will be amazing. Don't worry about it. Also keep in mind your in fucking Japan.
In terms of locations to do research there are two campuses. The Suzukakedai campus, where all the biology research is done. Its about 10 min away from Aobadai by train. Also there is the Okayama campus, where everything else happens. Its about 45 min away from Aobadai by train, but closer to central Tokyo.
Ok, so on to research, without going into to much detail, and boring 99% of the people out there, I do Bioinformatics research, I like doing the computational analysis side of bioinformatics. Making up new algorithms isn't my cup of tea, neither is doing the actual wet work required to validate experiments. I was placed in a Molecular biology lab because the lab does stuff tangentally related to bioinformatics, and the professor is a baller at English. I regret a little not going more research into where I was going to work before I came, but I can't regret it to much because I did spent 30+ hour looking at labs I might be interested in and reading papers.
I should emphasize that spending that long looking for professors isn't necessary, but obviously the more you know the better off you'll be.
More on research later, once I get into it a bit more. My first impression though, at least for biology, this school isn't as well set up at the UW. Although thats not saying much considering the UW has one of the best Biology programs / Genome Sciences programs in the world. Don't let that discourage you though. Its still set up fairly well.
In general, depending on your research topics and major your millage out of this program will vary.
Alright, this post is getting long so I'll cut it off here. I'm mostly going to use this blog post about my life, but I'll try to include some tidbits about research from time to time. I'm also applying to grad school currently, so I might use this blog as a place to muse about that as well.
Prospective YSEPers, if you've got any questions just post them in the comments, I'll try to answer them when I see them.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Vacation in 30 seconds or less.
About 4 weeks to late.
Ok, I've got a lot to catch people up on, and I really don't fell like writing down all the details. There are a lot, and some stories I just can't tell properly.
I'm going to use this blog to write the highlights, and observations more than day to day accounts like a travel blog because, well I'm not exactly traveling anymore.
But first a rough outline of the trip.
Highlights (I might expand on these more later):
Day 1
Craig's dad flying us to Japan
"Traditional Japanese Bar" that served Teriyaki. As a side note I saw McDonnalds has a Teriyaki burger on the menue, Teriyaki was written in Hiragana, with no kanji, like the Japanese didn't know what to do with a word that they didn't invent.
Day 2
Met some kids in Yoyogi and played a modified version of tag with them, in the rain. We all got super dirty.
Day 3
Got our bikes from bumbfuck Tokyo. Everything was broken, I ended up spending 100$ on new breaks. Although Craig did talk / flirt his way out of paying taxes.
Day 4
Continued fixing bikes, had a fantastic dinner with some of Craigs friends. We went to this amazing Italian place. Japanese are great at putting their own spin on different ethnic foods.
Day 5
Finally started riding, we rode to about where I live now, and camped on Tamagawa river, where I will go waling on Saturday. Hella sketch, but a damn good story. I'll tell it later
Day 6
Rems bike suffered a catastrophic failure. We got delayed by 2 hours and eventually made it to a town outside of Machida, which is 10 stops away from where I live by train. Stayed in a Toyoku inn, actually had a good nights sleep instead of sleeping in a hammock.
Day 7
Had to take a rest day because of Craigs knee, wasted 3 hours playing in an Arcade.
Craig accidentally managed to set up a date the rest of the story is his.
Day 8
Finally on the road, in the mountains. Highly recommend biking through Japan to anyone who has the chance, the views were amazing. It looked a lot like the Olympics actually. We ended up camping by a mountain river. That night it rained, I got soaked in the tend with out a ground cover.
Day 9
Had our pictures taken for a local paper. Rode on, in the rain. Oh so much rain. Mom, that "waterproof rain jacket" you gave me is anything but. We rode / walked 60km in the rain that day. But the mountains made up for it. Also the fuji-gokyuu are amazing. Need to go back and hike around them.
Day 10
Did about Jack shit in the hostel. Partied with some Aussies. Also proved that the American stereotype of being loud when drunk is undeserved. That honor belongs to the aussies :)
Day 11
Spent half the day taking our bikes apart. Took the train to a bumbfuck town called Mishima, on the Shinkansen tracks. There I had about 30 seconds to decide if I wanted to spent ridiculous amounts of money going to Hiroshima, or if I wanted to try and crash the dorm. I opted for the dorm.
Ok, thats the vacation in very brief. Settling in stories, observation, and pictures of my all to cheep and big dorm will be forthcoming.
Ok, I've got a lot to catch people up on, and I really don't fell like writing down all the details. There are a lot, and some stories I just can't tell properly.
I'm going to use this blog to write the highlights, and observations more than day to day accounts like a travel blog because, well I'm not exactly traveling anymore.
But first a rough outline of the trip.
Highlights (I might expand on these more later):
Day 1
Craig's dad flying us to Japan
"Traditional Japanese Bar" that served Teriyaki. As a side note I saw McDonnalds has a Teriyaki burger on the menue, Teriyaki was written in Hiragana, with no kanji, like the Japanese didn't know what to do with a word that they didn't invent.
Day 2
Met some kids in Yoyogi and played a modified version of tag with them, in the rain. We all got super dirty.
Day 3
Got our bikes from bumbfuck Tokyo. Everything was broken, I ended up spending 100$ on new breaks. Although Craig did talk / flirt his way out of paying taxes.
Day 4
Continued fixing bikes, had a fantastic dinner with some of Craigs friends. We went to this amazing Italian place. Japanese are great at putting their own spin on different ethnic foods.
Day 5
Finally started riding, we rode to about where I live now, and camped on Tamagawa river, where I will go waling on Saturday. Hella sketch, but a damn good story. I'll tell it later
Day 6
Rems bike suffered a catastrophic failure. We got delayed by 2 hours and eventually made it to a town outside of Machida, which is 10 stops away from where I live by train. Stayed in a Toyoku inn, actually had a good nights sleep instead of sleeping in a hammock.
Day 7
Had to take a rest day because of Craigs knee, wasted 3 hours playing in an Arcade.
Craig accidentally managed to set up a date the rest of the story is his.
Day 8
Finally on the road, in the mountains. Highly recommend biking through Japan to anyone who has the chance, the views were amazing. It looked a lot like the Olympics actually. We ended up camping by a mountain river. That night it rained, I got soaked in the tend with out a ground cover.
Day 9
Had our pictures taken for a local paper. Rode on, in the rain. Oh so much rain. Mom, that "waterproof rain jacket" you gave me is anything but. We rode / walked 60km in the rain that day. But the mountains made up for it. Also the fuji-gokyuu are amazing. Need to go back and hike around them.
Day 10
Did about Jack shit in the hostel. Partied with some Aussies. Also proved that the American stereotype of being loud when drunk is undeserved. That honor belongs to the aussies :)
Day 11
Spent half the day taking our bikes apart. Took the train to a bumbfuck town called Mishima, on the Shinkansen tracks. There I had about 30 seconds to decide if I wanted to spent ridiculous amounts of money going to Hiroshima, or if I wanted to try and crash the dorm. I opted for the dorm.
Ok, thats the vacation in very brief. Settling in stories, observation, and pictures of my all to cheep and big dorm will be forthcoming.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)