Closure

Closure
Noun.

1. the act of closing; the state of being closed.

2. a bringing to an end; conclusion.

I just found out that I'm pretty much being paid to study nanoscience in Japan and pretty much have the best time of my life. $3,000 from the Friends of Todai organization, plus an additional 80,000 yen from the Japan Student Services Organization (JASSO) or the University of Tokyo. I am so lucky.

Day 10: July 13, 2011
Today for lunch, we went to the restaurant near our hotel where we ate yakitori for dinner one night; however, this time, they were serving Japanese hand-cut noodles. It was very tasty. They gave us bibs so that the oil from the soup would not splatter all over our clothes.

Then, we had our last day of class. Today's topic was nanotechnology, and both of the lectures had to do with semiconductors, physics, spin of electrons, and quantum mechanics. It wasn't really my favorite, but I was glad to see that I was very familiar with a lot of the material that I had just recently learned in my physics and and electrical engineering classes. I have also noticed that I have been able to understand the lectures more and more. Either the professors can speak English better or I am just learning to comprehend their Japanese accents and poor English. I can just remember the first day where I spent most of the time in class trying to figure out what the professors were saying rather than learning the actual material that they were teaching.

After class, a lot of people were just really exhausted so a bunch of people stayed at the hotel and did their own thing. However, a few of us decided to head over to a festival that was held in central Tokyo, near the Imperial Palace. My experience at the festival exceeded my expectations by a lot. I went there thinking that it would be another shrine with Japanese music and lots of people just walking around, but it turned out to be more like a huge fair, much like the San Diego County Fair that I have been to several times back at home. Based on the "Save Japan" posters that we were seeing around everywhere, the festival seemed to be some kind of fundraiser for the earthquake. When we walked in, there were walls of lit up lanterns decorating the entire area. There were also a bunch of shows going on near the temple. One show consisted of some kind of Japanese musical on a stage surrounded by a crowd of people. We saw another show setting up on the side, with boys dressed up in karate uniforms and huge drums. Unfortunately we did not get to see them perform as we waited for an hour and we were getting hungry.

"Japanese line dancing"

So we headed off towards the main area, where there was an endless road lined with tons of little shops, games, and food vendors, just like I had seen at the fair. The street was so crowded with people that you could not walk without pushing people. It was definitely a sight to see. We ended up getting Japanese-style corn on the cob, which was basically just corn on the cob seasoned with soysauce. Then we saw another vendor selling bananas on a sticks covered in chocolate and sprinkles, so we had to get one of those. We were then stopped in the middle of the street as a performance was going on on a circular stage in the center of the street. It was kind of like Japanese line dancing and all around the stage were other people in the crowd, joining in and doing the dance around the main stage. Our stomachs still weren't satisfied, so we continued on and found some really tasty okonomiyaki, which is basically like a pan fried pancake of batter and cabbage. It was a good night and our stomachs were definitely full to the max at this point, so we decided to head home.

Bananas covered in chocolate and sprinkles.

Endless food vendors.

A vendor selling masks.

 

Thursday, July 14, 2011 (Last Day): Study Visit to Terumo, Fujifilm, and Hakone

Today, all of the GSP students only enrolled in the Nanoscience course taken on a study visit trip. There was a total of five of us accompanied by five of the people in charge of the program. They provided a whole tour bus for the ten of us so we each got our own row of seats.

Stop #1: Terumo Medical Pranex

This place looked like one of those futuristic business buildings that you would see in a movie. It didn’t look too impressive on the outside, but it looked very modern in the inside. We were greeted two formally-dressed individuals that came through large, automatic glass sliding doors and led us to a room where we watched a presentation of the company.

We were then led on a tour of the facility by a Japanese man that claimed he did not speak English. So he provided us headsets so that another person in our group could translate for us. It was quite silly and unnecessary since there were only five of us and the man translating through the microphone was standing a foot away from us. But we looked cool with our headsets anyway.

Terumo Medical Pranex is a laboratory and training center where medical students and professionals can practice their clinical and medical treatment skills on mannequins and fake body parts. The facility consists of a “practice zone,” a “simulator zone,” a “hospital studio,” medical and human engineering laboratories, a “communications zone,” and an “exhibition zone.” Students and professionals can do everything from catheter/guide-wire handling, medical technology trials, practicing medical techniques, creating new products, studying new medical equipment and materials, and home healthcare training. The company Terumo is also a very successful biomedical device company.

On the tour, we all got to pretend to be doctors. We got to feel for the brachial artery on a fake arm, check for pulse and breathing on a mannequin whose pulse and breathing was automated through a computer, perform CPR on a mannequin hooked up to a cardiac monitor where the mannequin’s pulse returned to normal after correct CPR was performed, and practice inserting a catheter into a mannequin using a computerized x-ray of the mannequin to guide us. All of the mannequins were hooked up to computers so that the instructors could alter their medical conditions and students could practice dealing with different scenarios. The material that the mannequins were made out of was as close to real as possible so that if the student did not perform well, the real consequences would result (for example, if a catheter wasn’t inserted correctly, an artery might be punctured). I was very amazed by all of the technology that they had. It was so realistic that any real-life scenario could be imitated. This could be the future for medical schools as students can practice medicine without harming any real human being. At the facility, there was an entire fake hospital with numerous mannequins on hospital beds for students to practice working in a clinic. There was even a cardiac surgery room so that students could practice surgery on a mannequin with fake blood. It was so real that it actually made me a little queasy. There was also a fake Japanese house within the facility so that students could practice procedures for patients that stay at home since a lot of Japanese have doctors visit their homes when they are ill.

There was also a museum with all of the devices that Terumo has made, such as thermometers, syringes, needles, artificial hearts, catheters, stents, etc.

Stop #2: Fujifilm

We then stopped at Fujifilm, which was another huge building that looked very futuristic. The entire building is very exposed with windows everywhere. Thy claim they have so many windows so that researchers can see each other working and be motivated to work harder. There was no privacy anywhere.

We ate lunch in one of the meeting rooms there. We were given our lunch in little cardboard boxes that consisted of rice and a various little Japanese delicacies. Most of the food was stuff I had never seen or tasted before, but I was hungry so I ate pretty much all of it.

At Fujifilm, we watched a presentation of the company and then were taken on a tour of their facility. I learned that Fujifilm develops all kinds of products, not just products related to their well-known cameras. The company does all kinds of research from medicine and pharmaceuticals, to cosmetics, to Xerox machines and cameras.

The main surprise to me was their cosmetic products. They seem to be very proud of a new type of organic product that they developed called Astalift. Currently, it is only sold in Japan and it is “top-notch.” They even gave us free samples of Astalift whitening cream. Not like I’m going to use it or anything. Who uses whitening cream in California anyway?

Stop #3: Hakone (not much of a stop)

After leaving Fujifilm, we drove around through Hakone, enjoying the beautiful scenery through the mountains. Our GSP leader even gave us all Japanese candy on the bus ride!

Apparently there are gorillas in Hakone.

The main goal of our Hakone drive was to see Mount Fuji. Apparently, they do this trip every year and Mount Fuji is always hidden behind the clouds. We stopped at one spot near a lake, where we caught a glimpse of Mount Fuji, but half of the mountain was hidden behind the clouds. We drove around for a bit more and eventually, the clouds were blown away and we could see the whole mountain. The bus driver pulled off to the side of the road just so we could all take pictures. I took about 50 pictures of the mountain and they all look exactly the same.

Swan peddle boats!

Pirate Ship! And Mount Fuji hiding behind a patch of clouds in the distance.

Mount Fuji!

The GSP coordinators claimed that we were all very lucky because they rarely get a chance to see Mount Fuji when it’s not hidden behind the clouds.

Back to Campus

We finally got back to Hongo Campus, said our goodbyes to the GSP coordinators, and headed off to dinner. After walking around the streets for a while, we finally found a place that could seat the six of us and the food was pretty good. We even got to eat “Japanese style” by sitting on the floor! And we decided to make it even more “Japanese style” by doing origami with the napkins at the table as we waited for our food. It was quite the Japanese experience (because I’m sure that’s exactly what real Japanese people do at meals). We ended the night (and the entire two-week program) with another rooftop chat and some sake. And that was it. That was goodbye.

Our last supper. Japanese style.