Political Science at MIT
by Tomoya Sasaki First report: I would like to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation to the Ito Foundation USA-FUTI Scholarship for their generous support. I am a PhD student at the department of political science in Massachusetts Institute of Technology since September 2018. With the great support from FUTI and the ITO FOUNDATION U.S.A., I made a smooth move to Cambridge last summer and started my new adventure. At MIT, I am focusing on applied statistics and international political economy and have taken classes related to these fields. Among classes I took last semester, my favorite class was historical political economy. The class focused on the long run effects of political, economic, and cultural legacies. The instructor often asked us to think how events happened hundreds of years ago impacted current politics, which was an intriguing academic exercise for me. The class synthesized traditional ideas with novel approaches and provided me with alternative views of political science. Besides taking political science classes, I have taken econometric classes at the department of economics, which is known for one of the best economic programs in the world. Their way of teaching and approach to statistics are different from that of political science. It is a challenging experience but I am sure that I am learning state-of-the-art knowledge and skills to analyze social science data. In addition, I am enjoying conducting collaborative research with professors in Cambridge. First, I have started research on Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and tariff rates with a professor at MIT. It explores how FTAs affect tariff rates between countries. I am thrilled to work on this project because it strongly relates to my substantive interest in political science. I have also been working on a project that develops a statistical method to analyze text data for social scientist with a professor at Harvard University. As I am interested in political phenomena and how to use statistics in political science, I am excited to make progress in this project and to offer a new method in the field. My academic life at Cambridge has been made possible through generous support of FUTI and the ITO FOUNDATION U.S.A. I am deeply indebted to the organizations. Thank you so much for making this happen. Second report: I am Tomoya Sasaki, a PhD student at the Department of Political Science in Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Thanks to the generous support from FUTI and the ITO FOUNDATION U.S.A., I smoothly moved to Cambridge last September and have started my PhD life in Cambridge. This is my second report and I would like to focus on what I have been working on this semester (spring 2019). As with last semester, my primary task is to take classes and learn variety of theories and methods in political science and applied statistics. In the Department of Political Science, I am taking two classes: one about the modern and contemporary political philosophy and one about international political economy. In the former class, we have read the works of Locke, Marx, and Waver. They deal with fundamental issues in political science, for example, they ask why people form a state or how income equality affects political attitude or the structure of political system. It is a refreshing experience to me because I have not read these pieces in detail and in English before. The other class, international political economy, is strongly related to my primary field of study and I am highly excited to take this course. The professor nicely talks about how the field has emerged and developed as it is right now. Although some readings are quite familiar to me, I get to know how each paper fits into larger contexts and contributes to literature. I am also taking some classes outside my department. The first class is an econometric class, which is offered at the Department of Economics. Since this class is designed for PhD student in the Department of Economics, it is extremely challenging to me and I feel like I am spending an infinite amount of time to solve the problem sets. However, it is a great joy to finish the problem sets and understand new concepts. I also take a math class with undergraduate math-major students. This class is also important to me because sufficient understanding of math is necessary to learn applied statistics. In addition to taking classes, I am continuously working on collaborative research with professors in MIT and Harvard, as I mentioned in the last report. In the project with a professor in MIT, I have started to analyze a huge dataset about tariffs data in the post World War II era. We try to combine this data with the data about FTA to conduct preliminary analysis on the effects of FDI on tariff rates. The other project, which I work with a professor and a student in Harvard, is now ready to present. This project aims to develop a new method in quantitative text analysis. We have decided to apply for a political science conference, which will be held in MIT this July. I am glad that we have made a good progress so far. Although, as a first-year student, taking classes is my primary task, research opportunity is another way to learn state-of-the-art methods and theories as well as how to organize research. I truly appreciate these chances to collaborate with great professors. To conclude, I would like to thank FUTI and the ITO FOUNDATION U.S.A. to make this happen. Especially, I truly appreciate Mr. Matsushita and Ms. Vaida for their continuous encouragement and generous support. Thank you very much.
Fall Semester at the University of California, Berkeley
Asami TakahashiM2, Graduate School of Public Policy Within just one semester at UC Berkeley, I have appreciated and benefited from tremendous number of opportunities offered inside and outside the campus. Every experience nurtured and deepened my understandings of the country, its culture and its people. This report includes the entire study abroad period from the end of August to the end of December. Studying at UC Berkeley As California is one of the only four majority-minority states in the United States, it was quite easy to feel at home where 40% of the student population is of Asian ethnicity. In the cozy and sunny weather, I soon adapted to the Berkeley culture of “party hard, work hard” and found myself delving into research on American Politics, interning twice a week, promoting cultural exchanges at the dorm, traveling within the United States, and participating in many extracurricular activities. Although the school itself mainly consists of liberal voters in a very politically active climate, there was many discussions and controversy over the assessment of the current administration and its impact on the midterm election. At the Goldman School of Public Policy, I was invited to attend several events in which professors such as the Dean of GSPP and President of UCB engaged in a lively panel. Also, every third Friday of the month I have been attending monthly study sessions with Japanese community members in diverse fields of expertise. Some of the members from the session gathered to go to a baseball match when Shohei Otani came to play against Oakland, and showed spirit at the American Football game for Cal against Stanford University. Living in the International House I was told that the first I-House was built in the City of New York under the initiative lead by Harry Edmonds who was an official with the YMCA in 1924. In 1909, he encountered a graduate student from China in front of the library at Columbia University and said “hello” which surprised the student and he said “I have been in New York for weeks and you are the first person who said hello to me.” This encounter inspired Edmonds to bring together international students to make themselves at home and to share experiences. The one in Berkeley is the second international house and this past semester, and with the appreciation of its history, I had the privilege of “living under the same roof” with 584 other students from around the world. The program office at the I-House offered many opportunities for the residents to attend and enhance their experiences in the area. On one Wednesday Evening, Japanese residents put our efforts together to host a Japanese coffee hour for other residents with snacks, tea, calligraphy and origami booths with the general funding from the office. We were able to share our culture with 150+ students who came by and the event turned out to be a huge success. A few other events included; Traveling in the United States: East Coast Trip to New York and Boston Early in November, I was invited to be interviewed and to attend a luncheon for Schwarzman Scholars Program in New York with founder Steve Schwarzman and other prominent interviewers. The program is aimed at nurturing the next generation of holistic leaders who will be equipped to bridge the international community for peace and prosperity through critical yet optimistic lenses. Scholars will be living in a college specially built in the middle of the university and to experience China through lectures, site visits and fieldtrips during the ten months. I am honored to state that I was selected to join the prestigious community of global leaders starting next August in Beijing. Soon after the trip to New York, I headed to Boston to attend Harvard-Japan Career Fair and Boston Career Forum. Thousands of bilingual students gathered from all over the world to compete for job offers at the convention center. I was able to meet up with friends who are spending their semesters in Beijing, London, New York, Amsterdam, and many other cities. I also attended a lecture by the Consul General of Japan in New England. He gave a presentation on his career including his time drafting legislation from policies in Tokyo for the Diet. Thanksgiving Holiday in Salt Lake City, Utah Although this is not my first long-term stay in the United States, I had never experienced an authentic thanksgiving celebration before. My closest friend at Berkeley kindly invited me to stay at her parent’s home for the holiday in Utah. Internship for practical experience During the semester, I also worked for a governmental organization as a research intern to directly apply the knowledge I gained at Berkeley on American Politics. First half of the internship mainly involved the tasks and research related to the midterm election. By analyzing the political trends, party affiliation among racial and demographic groups, and candidates and their policies in the 49 counties in Central and Northern California and the State of Nevada, I was able to understand and grasp the local political affairs. Also, there is more than 80 sister cities between Japan and within California, the recent establishment being Rikuzen-Takata and Crescent City, which was lead by the initiative of high school students. I took part in the first California Sister City Network to support, exchange information, and build a community with different sister cities in Northern California. Further, I had several chances to attend other receptions, conferences, and lectures such as a conference on “Japan in the Pacific World” by Center for East Asian Studies & Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Extracurricular activity: Kingfisher Global Leadership Program by S&R Foundation In addition to the school curriculum, I had the privilege of being one of the selected youth leaders to participate in the Kingfisher Global Leadership Program. It is a two-week intensive program designed to empower the future leaders with the skills and networks they require to thrive and succeed in the international stage. It was
Attending the University of Tokyo for my Bachelor’s Degree
谷口 アレクサンダー禅 // Alexander Zen WIEGMANDepartment of Integrated Sciences, The University of TokyoUndergraduate, 4th-year student Program: PEAK (Programs in English at Komaba) Major: (International Program on) Environmental Sciences, B.A. As I’m awaiting the boarding call, I take a picture with my cowboy hat. The plane that will take me to Narita Airport is sitting at the gate, ready behind a glass wall. It was the last wall of many that I would have to face before making the big move, courtesy the support of Friends of UTokyo, Inc (FUTI). While I have a Japanese background, it never crossed my mind that I might have the opportunity to attend Japan’s most prestigious University. While PEAK also has a Japan in East Asia (JEA) major in the humanities and social sciences, I knew my strengths were in the math and sciences. Hence, I applied to the Environmental Sciences (ES) program of the interdisciplinary sciences. My first year at the University was a learning period to catch up for all the basics. In the first month, I had to set up my bedding, unpack clothes, buy books for courses, and find out directions of how to get from one place to another in a city 50x more populated than the one in which I was raised. In the first year, most of my time was spent studying – mathematics, sciences, or Japanese language. This year was also when I began participating in the Winter Biology lab, where Japanese and International students were paired to conduct cell biology experiments. It was a busy year of studies and not much else. Within that, the Biology Lab was an excellent opportunity to start hobby activities outside of my mandatory studies. As I began my second year, I asked myself what I wanted to do in my life, and for the rest of my University life. I left my dorm room after school, and for the first time, I looked for friends. Between some karaoke nights and major-division courses, my second and third years introduced me to questions most University students ask – what to cook, clubs to join, hobbies to maintain. I ended up joining ECHO (Environmental Club), the Arts Circle (美) and continued playing my clarinet. I also met with master’s degree and Ph.D. students to decide which lab to do my thesis research within. The education system at the University is divided into two years of liberal arts general education (so-called ‘zenki katei’) and two years of major-division studies (so-called ‘koki katei’). In our ‘general education’, we took courses in physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, and some social science courses in government, psychology, and economics. Also, I took classes ranging from introductory medical science to energy engineering, and even mass media communications to find my interests. This interest-searching led to pursuing minor concentrations for major-division courses in Computer Engineering/Informatics and Science and Technology Studies while taking the mandatory courses in measurement, policy, health and safety, energy infrastructure, and core domains. The people I meet here are from the most varied of backgrounds. The professors are a mix of Japanese and International faculty, all with a notable dedication and enthusiasm in making our young, English-speaking program noteworthy. A shared interest in Tokyo, hobbies, and mutual respect that exists somewhere behind the traditionally dreaded ‘icy veil’ allowed me not only movie nights or shared cooking with other students but also opportunities to meet with students from other faculties (including graduate levels) and adults of the community from all around Tokyo. Starting last year and again this year, I have been given the opportunity to guide underclassmen and the direction of this program. Thus far, I have been employed as a Residential Assistant, Globalization Office Faculty Development Assistant, Lab Assistant, On-Campus Speaking Tutor, and am an active member in student government. Each position comes with a slightly nuanced job description, but I accepted each to accomplish the same two principles – to make University life comfortable for my classmates and to contribute to the future generations. I started my fourth year this autumn. Most of my major’s necessary coursework is complete, leaving time for undergraduate research, activities with friends, and job-hunting activities. I want to thank my sponsor in FUTI for believing in my ability and giving me this opportunity to experience my heritage while learning to live responsibly and independently. Whether it be in the professional world, or post-Baccalaureate educational options, my undergraduate education will likely follow with impact, so I will be making the best of my last year and hope to pass on an excellent legacy for my underclassmen.
Clinical Clerkship Program at Harvard Medical School
Ayu Yoneda It’s a great honor to receive FUTI global leadership award. I am heartily grateful to Friends of UTokyo for supporting my clerkship at Harvard Medical School in Boston. I had the opportunity to participate in a clinical clerkship program at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and rotated pediatric surgery department for 4 weeks at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), a teaching hospital of HMS. MGH used to be ranked as the No.1 hospital in the United States and is known for turning out 11 Novel Prize winners. In the clerkship, as with Harvard medical students, I scrubbed in operations, examined patients, wrote medical charts and did presentations during ward rounds. Every day started early in the morning around 5 am. I firstly checked conditions of patients in charge and then participated in 3-4 operations a day. Pediatric surgery department takes care of a wide range of patients from newborn to 20 years. Depending on their age, their skins differ greatly in thickness and softness. When I was allowed to suture skins during the operations, I learned that it is important to control the suturing power carefully. Throughout this clerkship, I was always thinking about what I could do as a student in the medical team and tried to put it into action. For example, I visited bedsides of those children who didn’t look well and stayed beside holding their hands. When they got well, we had time talking together and I tried to make them smile. On the last day of my clerkship, a 9-year-old girl told me that it was very good for her to have me around in her hospital life, handing me a letter with a word “Friends Forever.” I was touched beyond words and felt that we got closer to each other. In addition to the clerkship at MGH, I visited the research center attached to the hospital and observed several projects. For example, xenotransplantation from pigs to monkeys and microscopic imaging of neural networks in human’s colon were impressive. I was surprised at the fact that such large-scale researches using large animals are conducted just next to the hospital. At the same time, I felt the speed at which things proceed from basic research to clinical practice. Doctors there told me that in the United States not only medical staffs but also patients have strong frontier spirits toward new development. This spirit as a whole may be one of the keys to progress clinical research. On weekends, I had some time to join extracurricular events. I participated in the JMSA (Japanese Medical Society of America) NY Life Science Forum 2018 and was honorable enough to receive Future Scientist Award, the award in the student category, for poster-presentation about the research I conducted in the pediatric laboratory at the University of Tokyo. Also, I met many medical professionals who are active in the United States. From them, I was able to learn that various career paths are possible. Additionally, I enjoyed sailing on the Charles River, watching a Japanese runner win the Boston Marathon and hanging out with other medical students studying at Harvard. It was impressive that many students pursue their own interests besides medicine, for example, starting a business, performing illustrations or learning Spanish in South America. Last but not least, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to FUTI, which enabled me to have this precious opportunity to study real clinical practice in the United States. Making the most of this experience, I will keep doing my best towards my dream as a doctor who can take the global initiative in the field of pediatrics.
Environmental Leadership Program
Yuichi Yokoyama First of all, I would like to appreciate all supports from the committee and staff members of FUTI Scholarship. In this report, I express short overview of my days in Berkeley. I participated in “Environmental Leadership Program” at UC Berkeley. The number of participants was about 30 and the number of their countries was more than 20. Most of them have jobs and only 3 students took part in the program. I had great experience with them as a student and had many opportunities to think about my future life. Through courses of the program, I was studying not only environmental problems, but also leadership and communication. All classes were amazing. I was totally satisfied with all courses and activities. I would like to introduce activities with pictures below. I am very happy that I share my experiences with the committee members. I enjoyed all activities through the program. In the end of report, I would like to express my appreciation for FUTI. Thank you.
Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies Summer Internship Report
Diana Wang This past summer, I had the opportunity to conduct neurobiology research at the Sakai Lab of the University of Tokyo. The lab primarily focuses on studying the relation between music/linguistics and the brain through neuroscience and statistics. For the first four weeks, I analyzed brain lateralization of high school violinists from the Suzuki School of Music in Japan. The data was collected over the course of the past year and when I arrived, I was assigned to find any anatomical significance in higher level musicians compared to beginner musicians. I utilized MATLAB, SPM12 software, and R to analyze the brain scans. The last four weeks were spent running the second phase of the experiment of whose data I was analyzing. The difference existed in the type of participants- this time, we also included non-musicians as well as twin studies of siblings who were combinations of musicians and non-musicians. All participants were recruited from middle schools and high schools associated with the Suzuki School of Music. These participants were placed in the 3.0T MRI scanner and were played excerpts of classical music that they were familiar with. The same experiment protocol that was administered in the first phase was replicated during this time. By the time that I left, there were still about 50 students left to test. From my analysis, I discovered that in musicians, it is important to distinguish the different levels of musical understanding. Generally, there are two dimensions: one is a basic, fundamental understanding of music (musical style and type) and the other being a more complex understanding (musical syntax such as tone and rhythm). Overall, I found that anatomical difference in gray matter for more learned students than beginners is only seen in the most basic musical understanding. Students with a better fundamental understanding tend to have bigger volume in the left grammar center (frontal lobe). I concluded that anatomical bases may be necessary to a fundamental understanding of music. Higher level musical processing abilities (such as recognizing pitch, tempo, dynamics, and articulation) may not stem from a structural standpoint because they require a more complex understanding of music and are malleable skills that can be taught later in life- proficiency in these abilities may arise from a functional standpoint. I was also able to find age-dependent negative correlations on the regional GM in the visual system, specifically the R/L calcarine, bilateral thalami, and the R. superior parietal lobe. The latter results need more testing to confirm any significant interaction with musical training. Going into the lab, I really had no idea what to expect. The only other research experience that I had growing up was last year at Massachusetts General Hospital where I worked in the Valera Lab. Even there, my research was related to psychology and social justice. Thus, this summer was my first real exposure to working in a lab that was along the lines of my major, neurobiology. I was a little nervous at first because I knew going into the internship that I would be having to do a lot of computer science and statistics, two fields of which I am not very well versed in. So I did a little learning on my own before reaching the lab, but without having data and knowing exactly what research I would be conducting it was still hard to know which skills to learn in MATLAB and R before arriving in Japan. Thankfully, upon reaching the lab, my PI and the rest of the students were incredibly patient and supportive of me, even when I had to learn everything from scratch. They guided me but also gave me a lot of freedom to learn on my own and gain experience on my own. I enjoyed that I was able to have freer work hours, especially with my commute every day from my apartment to the Komaba campus (about 50 minutes one way). Because my work was computer based rather than dealing with animals, my lab experience was different than my peers who were in wet labs performing electrophysiology. Although I thought I would dislike sitting at a desk coding all day, I found myself liking the work a good lot. This was because I got to work in an office with many other students in the lab who all did similar work to me, so we would collaborate, talk, and code together all day. Not only did I learn a lot of valuable skills in MATLAB and R, I really learned a great deal about myself. For some reason, I used to carry a certain disposition towards CS and statistics, both fields of which I knew are essential to our society’s survival but also fields in which I carry no knowledge of and had little care to learn. Although I still do not wish a career in either of these fields, this research helped me let go some of these heavy biases that I carried. It allowed me new experiences, it forced me to spend time in fields and learn skills that I would not have easily set aside time for, and it most importantly let me spend time with some incredible people who are so passionate about their work. Working with people who are so excited and passionate about their studies will not cease to inspire whoever they come in contact with. Likewise, I was inspired to think about my passions and interests this summer and these people really helped clear my head about vocations. Finally, I especially loved this research because it was on music, a subject and art form that I absolutely adore. My whole reason for studying neurobiology in college is because it has so many important relations to music. I was particularly drawn towards the Sakai lab because, stemming from my curiosity in people, I am especially interested in how early brain development defines a person’s personality and behavior. I grew up absolutely intrigued in the stories and narratives of people’s lives- everything from their
International Research Center for Neurointelligence (IRCN) at the University of Tokyo
Ellen Underwood This summer has been an absolutely incredible experience so far! For the first part of my research internship, I have been based in Tokyo, studying at the International Research Center for Neurointelligence (IRCN) at the University of Tokyo with Dr. Yoko Yazaki-Sugiyama. I first had the opportunity to work with Dr. Yazaki-Sugiyama last summer at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) and was fortunate enough to be able to return to work with her again this summer. My research has been primarily focused on the song-learning process in zebra finches and I have been studying a tissue clearing and imaging method called CLARITY to visualize molecular factors in the brain at a more global scale. This process has been fascinating, and outside of my own project, it is extremely exciting to be a part of the newly established IRCN and to be immersed in an environment of such diverse and collaborative research. We have had amazing opportunities to participate in workshops and seminars on a wide variety of subjects, as well as visit the other campuses of University of Tokyo. Hearing about other types of work that are ongoing here in Japan has been very inspirational. Even more fortunately for me, I had the chance to return to Okinawa to study at OIST for a short time period in the middle of my internship. There, I was able to use a state-of-the-art lightsheet microscope to image some of the samples that I prepared in Tokyo. Additionally, I gained familiarity using advanced imaging processing software to analyze the vast amounts of data generated by these images. Finally seeing the results of my efforts rendered in three dimensions was immensely rewarding. And getting to spend time studying on the beautiful island of Okinawa was an additional plus—I was overjoyed to reunite with some of the lab members and students that I had met at OIST last year and pleasantly surprised to realize the strength of connections that I have already been able to forge around the world. I hope and plan to maintain these ties, as well as new connections that I have had the chance to build in Tokyo this summer, well into the future.
My UTRIP 2018 Experience in a Nutshell
Riya Shah Thanks to the generosity of Friends of UTokyo, Inc, I was able to participate in a six-week internship at the University of Tokyo over this summer. As an intern at the University, I was fortunate enough to be placed in Professor Suto’s group. As an Astrophysics major at the University of California, Berkeley, I research starspots with Professor Gibor Basri. I have known for a while that I want to do Astronomy research as a career, but I am still not sure which subfield I would like to specialize in. I applied to UTRIP so that I could experience a new subfield of research and gain more insight into what kind of research I would like to focus on. Though the Suto group resides in the Physics department, my specific project dealt mostly with Astrophysics topics. I worked on developing a method that would accurately determine the rotation period of Kepler stars based solely upon photometric data. I worked primarily in Python, a language I was not very familiar with since the research I do at UC Berkeley is in IDL. Luckily, Kamiaka san, the PhD student I was working with, helped me a lot in getting used to Python syntax. I am very thankful for his patience and help. The work I was doing was complementary to Kamiaka san’s work and is going to be used to help him publish his next paper. My goal for my project was to have my code determine the same periods from the photometric data of the Kepler stars as Kamiaka san determined from asteroseismology. After countless hours writing and debugging code, I was able to determine the periods of stars quickly and efficiently. After having my code determine the periods of the stars, I had to go in manually and analyze the light curve on my own to check if the period my code determined was the actual period. Because of the six-week time restrain however, I was unable to go through all 90 stars that I was assigned with. I am satisfied with the quality of my code, however, and hope that it will prove to be useful to Kamiaka san. In addition to conducting research at the university, I was also able to explore Japan in my free time. I visited shrines at Nikko, the Cup Noodle museum in Yokohama, Onjuku’s lovely beach, and many more places in and around Tokyo. My fondest memories are of eating Okonomiyaki for the first time at the welcome party my group threw for me, going to karaoke with the other UTRIP interns (as well as a couple honorary interns from Hakusan House), and watching the Adachi fireworks while eating delicious Japanese desserts and drinking unique Japanese wines. I was also able to experience traditional Japanese culture by participating in a tea ceremony while wearing a yukata, a summer kimono. One of my favorite things about living Japan is the crazy amount of delicious food I was able to eat. I tried sushi, ramen, okonomiyaki, takoyaki, and even Japanese fluffy pancakes. Out of all the food I ate, ramen is my most favorite. I made it a goal of mine to try as many different types of ramen as I could. I tried ramen with a seafood-based broth, ramen with fried chicken in it, the local ramen around my dormitory, and even Michelin Star ramen. I miss Japanese ramen so much that I have actually been craving it ever since I returned to the States. Overall, UTRIP was by far the best internship experience I have had. I enjoyed every minute of exploring Tokyo and also working on my research project. I am also incredibly lucky to have met the most amazing people during my time in Japan. Not only did become friends with all the other UTRIP interns, I was also able to become close with the other researchers in my group. I am extremely thankful to FUTI for helping me to subsidize some of the costs of attending the UTRIP program and would recommend this program to anyone who loves doing research and enjoys exploring.
Harvard Summer School Report
Tomohiro Nakano University of Tokyo, Faculty of Arts and Sciences As the program of my choice for the GLP-GEfIL Abroad Program of the University of Tokyo, I have participated in Harvard Summer School (HSS), starting from 23rd of June until 11th of August, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I took two courses in HSS: one is Introduction to Historical Linguistics, which I have always wanted to study but had little opportunity to do so at the University of Tokyo, although I am a linguistics major; the other is Introduction to Irish Myth, Folklore and Music, which I have chosen out of my interest in Celtic culture. Both lasted for the entire seven weeks and were very intensive. In the linguistics course I studied about the changes that occurred to mainly Indo-European languages and sometimes Chinese, Native American, African and Oceanian languages in the course of time. The course also addressed the history of writing systems, the relation between linguistics and palaeontology, and so on. The Irish mythology course was more of an active-learning-based experience, where participants (most of whom were graduate students or adults) were often prompted to summarise Irish folk stories or mythological texts and point out important elements that can contribute to deeper understandings of the ancient Irish culture. The workloads for these courses were tremendous. The linguistics course, despite most members being non-linguistics major, demanded high degree of understandings and skills in linguistic analyses. For the Irish mythology course, on the other hand, I had to read 200 to 300 pages of old folklore texts for each class meeting and be ready for casual, oral presentations in class. Besides, I had to write a paper of 10 to 15 pages in approximately three weeks. The amount of obligatory work for these courses left me studying in libraries and the dorm dining hall every day, often until quite late at night. At the same time, I enjoyed studying about these two fascinating subjects all day long. I talked much with two roommates and a few students from the courses, and became quite good friends towards the end of the session. We participated in extracurricular activities provided by Harvard University, such as whale watching, Boston city tour and free movie showings. We would discuss the answers for the linguistics homework assignments (which was allowed), sitting in the dining hall in the night every day, often for hours. There was not much trouble with the communication in English in general. However, there were some instances where speakers around me had strong accent in their pronunciation that made me less capable of understanding their speech. I once travelled to Boston with one of my roommates who is Singaporean, along with his Singaporean friends, but I was so frustrated because I felt as if I caught thirty per cent of their words and thus were utterly incompetent. On the contrary, my friends at Harvard thankfully did not say that I had noticeable Japanese accent in my English and was in fact not hard to understand. This might be because I have been practising speaking Irish English since I became engaged in Irish mythology. One problem I had in living in the dorm was that the food I got from the dorm dining hall was mostly oily things such as fried chicken, fried potatoes (French fries, curly fries, etc. — they had at least one kind of fried potatoes at every single meal). I spent the first few weeks thinking I could survive the seven weeks, but as the session neared its end my stomach began to malfunction, probably because of the unhealthy diet, and maybe also the stress I got because of the heavy workloads of the courses. I normally prefer vegetables and fruits to meat or fish, but those at the dining hall were never fresh and I quickly lost the appetite for the non-oil food. What I ended up doing is to go straight to the grocery store and choose some healthy food to consume in dorm, instead of going to the dining hall. There was no major accidents or happenings throughout the entire stay in Cambridge and Boston, but I did experience some issues going back to Japan. The transit airport closed down due to bad weather and I got grounded, and was forced to change my itineraries back home. I rebooked flights to Munich and then to Haneda, resulting in the delay of full 12 hours. Despite all the difficulties that I came across in the seven-week session, I have pretty much enjoyed it, and this will definitely be one of the most significant experience I have had and perhaps will have at University. I am grateful that I was able to acquire the chance to participate in HSS, and believe that what I have learnt there will help me get ready for the coming researches that I intend to do in the near future.
Microscopic Musings and Mouthwatering Matcha: Six Weeks at the University of Tokyo
Jasper Miura My last class of the day had just ended when I read the email accepting me to the University of Tokyo Research Internship Program (UTRIP)—quite an unexpected surprise! Thanks to the generous support of the FUTI Scholarship, I was selected to participate in this six-week program at the University of Tokyo, working in Professor Tetsuya Hasegawa’s solid-state chemistry laboratory. As a student at Brown University studying inorganic geochemistry, I had applied to this program in large part to gain experience in chemistry research. Prior to this internship, I have only worked in geology labs, so I was eager to apply my chemistry background more directly with Professor Hasegawa’s research group. Thus began my six-week research internship at the University of Tokyo. From the very first day, I was filled with awe as I toured the University of Tokyo Hongo campus. While the magnificent buildings around me spoke of wisdom accumulated over many years of study, they also carried a sleek air of modernity. From the state-of-the-art chemistry laboratories filled with students and professors busy with experiments, to the beautiful cafeteria filled with delicious scents of curry rice and ramen, I was excited to begin my life as a research intern. In the Hasegawa laboratory, I worked under Dr. Akira Chikamatsu and my mentor, graduate student Takahiro Maruyama. Prior to arriving in Japan, a friend of mine who previously had an internship in Japan warned me about the strict work culture. I was pleasantly surprised by the Hasegawa Lab group—while studious and hardworking, my fellow lab-mates were friendly and eager to help. The first week of my internship was spent reading previous studies, to understand the fundamental concepts behind my project and the methods I would be using to conduct my experiments. With my geoscience background, I was initially intimidated by the high level of chemistry research that I would be participating in at this prestigious institution. However, thanks to Chikamatsu-sensee and Maruyama-san, I quickly learned how high-quality thin films are created, and how atoms are incorporated into their structure. I also discovered that many concepts I previously learned in my geoscience coursework could be applied to understanding the solid-state chemistry reactions that I would be using in the lab; just like minerals in the Earth can incorporate impurities into their crystal structure, synthetic materials created in the lab can also accommodate foreign atoms, using the same mechanisms of replacement and substitution. Studying these concepts from the application-based perspective of chemistry provided a deeper understanding of these ideas, which in the Earth sciences are often used to understand how the planet has evolved over time. The remaining five weeks in the Hasegawa lab were a whirlwind of exciting experiments. Alongside my friend and fellow intern in the UTRIP program, I fabricated high-quality thin films by vaporizing pellets of my material of interest with a laser, which then deposited neatly onto a surface with the same crystal structure as the films I wanted to synthesize. Then, I conducted multiple analyses of the films’ crystal structures by observing how X-rays interacted with the material. Next, I baked my films in a special furnace along with a fluorine polymer, with the hopes of having the films take the fluorine into their crystal structures. To determine whether the fluorine was successfully incorporated, I conducted more experiments with X-rays to determine the chemical composition of the fluorinated films. Making these films and understanding the science behind for every step in this process gave me a better understanding of the importance of the results of my experiments—as an exploratory project, I helped determine the viability of using these fluorinated films for thin film batteries, with many applications for wearable technologies. Of course, the incredible research opportunities were not the only reason why I had applied to this program. I made the most of my weekends by exploring Tokyo and the surrounding area to better understand Japanese culture and my own heritage as a Japanese-American. Almost eighty years prior to my summer internship at the University of Tokyo, my great-grandfather (and namesake) attended graduate school for medicine in Tokyo. No doubt much has changed in the city since he was there; I imagine my great-grandfather probably did not spend hours at Don Quijote shopping for the spiciest instant noodles, or taking silly pictures in a photo booth in Akihabara. I found Tokyo to be a cultural hub for the new and modern; in fact, I visited two incredible digital art museums, showcasing magical light exhibits and incredible displays of ever-changing, interactive artwork. Nevertheless, in a city brimming with the contemporary youth culture and incredible displays of technology, I discovered a culture rich in tradition and recognition for the city’s historic roots. With every bowl of ramen, I imagined my great-grandfather savoring similar flavors of salt and shoyu, in a meal prepared with pride and care. I wondered if my great-grandfather also received “small bad luck” in an omikuji fortune at a Japanese shrine, as he worried about his future; or, if he had ever spent a sunny Saturday at the beach with his friends, as I did in Onjuku. Perhaps he too spent an hour or two relaxing in the warm waters of a local bathhouse on a Sunday night, or enjoying fireworks on a muggy July evening on the banks of a lazy river. Particularly fond memories of my summer in Japan occurred outside of the city. From a visit to the peaceful waters of Lake Ashi and the magnificent Mount Fuji, to an exploration of the Imperial Gardens in Nikko and yuba tofu skin soft-serve ice cream (a new favorite of mine), I appreciated these moments outside of the flashy bustling streets of Tokyo. Sharing these experiences with my fellow interns made these moments particularly special. My experience in Tokyo this summer was memorable, educational, and fun. Every day was a new adventure, whether it be an exciting addition to my research project or a make-your-own okonomiyaki meal. Six weeks is a long time