Words wouldn’t do the justice of describing my experience in Japan. Every step of the way, from receiving the acceptance mail till the day we left NIG, we were taken care of. The administrative office staff welcomed us cordially on our first day. After that I was greeted by my lab members. (Sawa group)

Sawa sensei and the other scientists in the lab were extremely helpful throughout my stay. They explained me my work and helped me understand it better. The lab is doing some exceptional work in asymmetric cell division. I am really happy that I got to be a part of it. I was very excited to have a project on my own. It’s always fun to work independently. The lab visits and seminars provided us insights from other fields.The Japanese classes were very helpful. Miyouchi sensei made learning Japanese easy and fun.

I have got some great friends through this internship. We enjoyed the weekend trips to Tokyo, Yokohoma,etc… We had an amazing time seeing around the city and travelling to new places. Being a vegetarian, my choices of Japanese food were limited. Nevertheless, I absolutely enjoyed the food in the Japanese vegetarian restaurant where my lab members took me for the farewell party. Meeting people from diverse cultural backgrounds was an invaluable experience.

This internship has helped me understand research better; it has been a great learning platform. Also, I finally got to experience Japanese culture which I have always been a great fan of. It will be very nice if NIG could extend the period of stay so that we can learn more. I take immense pleasure in thanking everybody, who has made this possible. I can’t thank you enough. As I said, it’s difficult to put an entire month in words. It was a summer well spent.