The Change in My Motivation Toward Studying Abroad
Before coming to this program, I was the kind of local guy, fearing to go abroad Alone, especially for academic programs; always worrying about not having the ability to communicate with people there and fretting about screwing up. I’d been worrying about speaking foreign languages, having no confidence in my English and Japanese ability. After participating in this Short-Stay program, I found that it’s not that difficult to communicate with other people as I’d expected. Having accents and small vocabulary is never a big problem since everyone here is so kind and patient; always trying their best to understand what an alien like me has to say.
And that is why I’ve changed my opinion toward studying abroad. I am looking forward to cooperating with people from different countries. Based on cultures and life experiences of the countries, people from different countries all have different concepts, no matter toward social life or academy career. I expect myself to take great pleasure in exchanging my concepts for that of more foreign coworkers.
This Short-Stay program is so fruitful to my mind that I am even willing to take it again. However, we’d always need to keep our pace forward to another new challenge and leave this great experience and chances here to others for the next session.
My Research Activities and Achievement
At the beginning of my research, my professor gave me a project. The first step was to do the western blot and check the expression of a specific protein. Another researcher in the lab successfully completed this step but I couldn’t get the right one even though I tried really hard. What’s worse is that both the researcher leading me and I failed on this step. Thus, my professor changed the project.
That was my first time failing in western blot and it made me really depressed. However, while I tried to find the reason I fail, I learned more about the western blot. For example, the detail principles about why I have to do these steps and how does it works. I think this is a good experience for me. After all, to endure the failures and to find out the reasons are the real life for researchers.
My life in Japan
In general, I’ve visited lots of towns and cities and had a great time. I’d been to Atami, Ito, Tokyo and Kyoto. The huge differences between Tokyo and Kyoto really impressed me a lot. The former is modern while the latter is more traditional. I like Kyoto better, for lives there is not crowded and fast-paced as in Tokyo. In contrary to Tokyo, the life in Kyoto is much more relaxing and enjoyable. There are many shrines and castles in Kyoto. And all of them are very beautiful and magnificent. I like the Japanese style shrines a lot. The buildings are all clean, peaceful and beautiful I’ve visited many shrines in every city I’ve been to. And I specifically like the mishimataisha, and the shrine in Kyoto.
Traveling around hasn’t made love Mishima a little bit less. I’ve enjoyed my short stay here a lot, and am most impressed by the Mishima Natsu matsuri. Since Japanese people are very obsessed with the matsuri, almost every resident in this town was out and participating in this event. And that’s when I came to realized how amazingly huge a population this quiet town has.
I also went to watch the firework in atami with my lab friend from Taiwan on one weekend. I couldn’t believe there’s such a splendid show every weekend. My friend and I enjoyed a lot the way local people attend the event: people sitting on the beach with lots of hawkers selling yakisoba and takoyaki around; and still the beach side is still neat and clean even when crowded.
During this short stay, I’ve made friend with interns from all around the world; except Japanese, I’ve met people from India, Ireland, and China. Getting to know more about different cultures is very interesting. People always surprise me with they’re own culture glamour.
I’ve had a pleasant time in Japan for the last few weeks. I love the way people here carefully following every detail lawful or ethical rules, making this country a peaceful social. Take the way people follow the traffic rules for example, every driver will always stop and wait until the pedestrian has passed the crosswalk, even if the latters are still far away from the crosswalk. This is something would rarely happen in my country!
Last, special thank to the monthly scholarship from JASSO. It helps me a lot. Without this scholarship, I wouldn’t have been able to have such an easy life in Mishima nor to travel around, learning the customs and cultures of this magnificent country.