２０１４年８月２日ー４日

August 2nd:

A day of recovery for everyone. So just to let you know, my program was officially over at this point, as in I would no longer be attending the lab to do research. We all got a month to explore Japan at the end of our exchange. This means from here on, I am on vacation. Nothing special happened on August 2nd. The days I don't write much means I either did cleaning, laundry, tennis at the dorm, or some work that wouldn't entertain you all too much.

August 3rd:

A day for a brewery tour! About 8 of us got together and reserved a tour at the Suntory brewery, where they offer half an hour open bar after the tour. A bunch of the guys had gone to the Asahi brewery wearing suits.. Why? Who knows... I just went along with it, so we had about 5 of us suited up hitting the train towards Kyoto. Here are pictures from the brewery and the rest of the day.

Huge distillation tanks.

Lager tanks 

Crazy piping system.

The bottling wheel. It's too bad it wasn't running. 

At the open bar. Pretty good beers. And we made sure to kill em. 

As a side story that's just too funny not to tell, the German guy with the glasses in the picture above got pretty drunk. So after the brewery we decided to take a train to the heart of Kyoto to explore shrines and temples. He ran to try and catch the closing doors of a train and in his rush, he jumped and hit his heart extremely hard on the entrance. So hard, in fact, that he fell straight to ground from the contact. Fortunately, the girl next to him, Youngji, took him to the hospital. Pretty classic..

Meanwhile, we were looking much classier than we were acting.

Cool shrine.

伏見稲荷大社 Fushimi Inari Taisha. 

And the bug Joon found in the forest while hiking... in suits...

That is a nest of baby birds.

The whole group

It was cool how the gated trails would part like this. Almost as cool as duncan looks in that suit..

The day was unforgettable. The weather wasn't perfect but it certainly brought a mystical feel the Kyoto mountain shrine and its foresty, gated, paths. I recommend this place to anyone visiting Japan.

August 4th:

My friend Izawa from the lab was going to northern Japan to get his driver's license on the 5th, so he wanted to grab a dinner with me before I left. So I headed to the northernmost train stop, 北千里 Kita Senri, and met him, Ishizaka, and my senpai, Kariya at a small restaurant there. Boy was I in for a surprise. This place is called 栄ちゃん Ei-Chan. It's a small, rustic restaurant owned by a guy named Ei. For starters, the guy was this 5'6" guy wearing soccer socks in sandals, a large apron over shorts that made it look like he's not wearing anything under the apron, and an oversized black and white Juventus jersey under the apron. You reserve a table in his restaurant, and the guy cooks whatever he feels like cooking for you, but however much you want of it. Oh, and there cold beer on tap. Before we even went in, he stood outside and ran a couple laps back and forth in front of his restaurant to warm up for us. This guy was a character. We sat down on our table and he started serving food. It was all pretty good food, but I think the experience tops it. At one point in the meal, he came up to our table and asked Ishizaka and I to go pick up ice cream to restock his freezer. He gave us 20 bucks to do it and told us to buy ourselves our own ice cream while there too. At another point in the meal, he started rolling おにぎりOnigiri riceballs and threw them at all his customers to eat. For the guys, he made us stand against a wall in his restaurant and he would chuck them at us at high speeds. Here's a brief video.

And here's a picture of one part of the meal.

Left to right: Kariya, Izawa, and Ishizaka. And some delicious fish on the grill.

It was a nice dinner and we shared some sad goodbyes afterwards. Turns out we would see each other one more time after this.

２０１４年７月３０日ー８月１日

July 30th:

I focused on my presentation all day, working out the fine details of it. In the evening we had our last farewell party for the people leaving in August. This picture basically sums up the night.

Ending it right with a feast. 

Denise (my German friend) trying her first Dr. Pepper. The taste of American freedom, liberty, and justice is strong. 

July 31st:

I was in semi-panic mode the day before my presentation. I had no idea what to expect. And despite everyone from the previous semester telling me its graded very lightly, the nerves still set in a little bit. To release some tension, I went out to play some tennis with Felix. And check out this massive praying mantis I found on the court!!

Look at those alien eyes. Amazing..

And all the little spines on its limbs. 

For size reference.

In the evening, my good friend Eunju invited me, Felix, Duncan, and Yo to eat home cooked Korean food and watch a movie at her place. We couldn't pass on her hospitality, so we made our way over by bike and brought some beers and candy. It was a great success. Though the apartment was a single room (like many in Japan are), we all fit on her bed and desk and ate enjoying each other's company. The nice thing about going to hang out with Eunju is that we always had to speak in Japanese. She doesn't speak much English, so all of us strained ourselves to deliver our best Japanese, and it usually worked. And she's incredibly kind, patient and easy-going. Anyhow. We watch Insidious (excpet Yo, he covered his face with his shirt and hands for half the movie cause he was scared... XD). After the movie, I practiced my presentation in front of everyone, and Felix gave me a bunch of useful advice. Finally, after saying our goodbyes, we went back to the dorm, where Felix further critiqued my presentation until about 2 in the morning. It was great practice for me, so thank you Felix for the guidance.

August 1st:

Presentation day! Suited up ready to rock and roll:

I guess I tried to capture my stiff, competitive attitude in this picture.. lol!

Some people didn't wear any suits, but I was shooting to win a presentation award. Moreover, there were tons of professors watching the presentations throughout the day, so I felt it was important to look professional. Unfortunately, it was hot, and my presentation wasn't until about 4 in the afternoon. So I sat through countless presentations, most of which I knew absolutely nothing about because the topics were deep in biology or chemistry. Finally, it came time for me to present. It was a successful presentation. I even managed to slip in a sexual innuendo that a couple people snickered at. Overall, I felt I delivered my data in a digestible manner, no matter what you are studying. And I answered questions pretty well during the Q & A section. I believe, this is what won me my presentation award. That's right! Woohoo!! I got the 1st place prize for my presentation. And everyone pressured me to deliver a speech after I shook hands with the chief of the Frontier Lab program. Thankfully, my public speaking has improved since the last time I was forced into that position. I somewhat gracefully managed to express myself and my appreciation for what everyone had done. I genuinely meant it. I have grown so much thanks to this experience. I learned a lot, not only about the science I was studying, but about myself.

I dropped by my lab to share the accomplishment with my professor, who was super excited for me. 

His support is unreal. Looking forward to going to conferences with him.

And on the way home, I was just so overwhelmed with happiness. There is simply no greater feeling than working really hard for something and having it pay off. Really makes you feel on top of the world. I tried to capture it on my camera on my bike ride home.

This is my happy face.

So what do you do after you finish a huge load of work? Party!!

But first, the "after" selfie.

I taught everyone how to play beer pong that night too.

This is precious. In their defense, everyone got super drunk this night.

It was a wild night. Some people passed out in bathroom stalls, some on the table of the 2nd floor study room, and some even in their own vomit. In the end, no one got seriously hurt, and I was in jolly spirits the whole evening. 

２０１４年７月２７日−２９日

July 27th:

To cap off a weekend full of festivals, we decided to hold a huge barbecue on Sunday. It was also sort of a farewell party for the residents moving out August 1st. As usual, we did it big. Felix and Pramod went to the local 業務 Gyoumu Supermarket to buy dozens of kilograms of meat and other goodies. This time, Pramod even marinated half the chicken in a delicious tandoori sauce. Off the grill, it was unreal... Here's what the food looks like:

Lierally buckets of meat. This isn't even half of it... And check out all that inari on the top table...

Gotta get in those greens.

People enjoying.

July 28th:
My final presentation was on August 1st. And my powerpoint was finished, but I needed to practice/perfect it. I was able to work with my sensei 1 on 1 for an hour on my presentation. He advised me on what to remove from the slides, and what not to talk about. It was great practice and useful advice. I would try to remove all the super sciency stuff that would bore people and talk about the main concepts behind my research. After all, the audience comprised of scientists from all fields, not just materials scientists.
A highlight, I saw this juvenile praying mantis in the hall after lab.

Pretty chall sunglasses.

July 29th:

The day of my goodbye party. I got to lab as usual, except today was my last monthly meeting. Instead of doing a detailed rundown of my research for the past month, my professor told me to just practice for the final presentation. I had cut down some material and was being timed again. I cut off about 2 minutes, but was still a minute over the 8 minute speaking time limit.. My professor gave me his last bit of advice and we proceeded to lunch recess. Instead of going back to the meeting however, Umeda Sensei, Kariya Senpai and I left to go shopping for my goodbye party. They wanted to know exactly what I wanted, so they took me to the market and I helped fill the basket. 40 dollar whiskey, at least 200 dollars of meat from the butcher, tons of beer, and ton of vegetables. Afterwards, Umeda Sensei treated us to an udon lunch. Here are pics from the day:

The restaurant had a house with private rooms built inside a house 

Even a fake little water well. Really traditional Japanese feel.

For dinner, everyone helped to prepare the scene. The newspaper was there to prevent the meat scent from seeping into the computers, walls, and chairs. 

At its prime. There was pizza, sushi, meat, noodles, beer, anything I could possibly want. Haha!

Even a big-ass watermelon.

Received tons of presents from my lab mates. Gave none... Nice going Franco. I wrote them all letters in the end so its ok.

These are my closest friends from the lab. It was fun hanging out late with them after the dinner feast and chit chatting.

２０１４年７月２４日−２６日

July 24th:

The weekend of 祭り matsuri (festivals). Started out on Thursday with an office party. The joining and welding research institute, all 5 floors of it put together a nice festival in which each lab sells something different. Our lab was in charge of making hot dogs and we did a pretty fine job. It was interesting talking to the other foreigners in the building. There were only about 5 of total. They were all long term masters or PhD students and talked about the social problems with living in Japan as the 1%. We agreed there is a serious 外人 gaijin (foreigner) bubble in social groups, and it is typically really difficult to merge with the locals if you don't speak any Japanese. Fortunately, I had a few years of Japanese under my belt which allowed me to break through this barrier. Still, I had to agree with them. Other than that, I enjoyed incredible food, met a bunch of people, played bingo in Japanese and enjoyed the festivities.

Our booth

The people next to us. It was basically a big feast on the parking lot.

An image of our lab team.

Japanese bingo.

People setting off fireworks after the bingo.

Check out the massive bag my friend of my favorite chips Onishi won. 

July 25th:

Another day for a festival! But first I got through a day of lab work. During lunchtime, my labmates and I conjured up the leftovers from the office party and made some bomb hot dogs.

Cooking on the lab desks... 

Lol! Not very appetizing looking here maybe, but it taste great.

I got off work relatively early, which was nice considering how hard I had been working all week. Also, there was a festival to catch, one of Japan's 3 biggest festivals called 天神祭 Tenjinmatsuri. The night was pretty enchanting. Another beautiful sunset, lots of people, fireworks everywhere, tons of vendors on the streets, and all sorts of show boats floating down the rivers. Here are some pictures.

Guy relaxing in the park. Nice shot I thought.

Fireworks from the bridge with cool lighting.

Get an idea for how packed the streets were.

Another shot that shows how crowded it was.

Great atmosphere. 

A boat with a 太鼓 Taiko Japanese style drum show.

Here's a video of it:

Pretty great night. The next day would be crazy too.

July 26th:

After two nights of festivals, we were a little exhausted. But my friend Felix was still adventurous enough to join me for the 取り人間 Toriningen Birdman Rally. To clarify, this is a competition held annually in Hikone in which people build gliders or human powered airplanes for fly them off a platform over lake to see who can fly the furthest. If you have every seen Red Bull's Flugtag, it's something similar but more serious. These gliders were awesome. But to get there, Felix and I got up early, biked to a station about 3 miles away to meet my labmate who was joining us as well, and rode a train for 2 hours into the northeast direction from Osaka. Into the rice-pad-ridden countryside. Here are pictures to help explain the day:

A famous samurai from the area posted outside the station. It was a HOT day!

Can you see all the airplanes being assembled on the platform? 2 teams in line, and one getting ready to fly off the platform.

Me having fun with the airplanes.

Day dreaming of making my own airplanes.

Assembling a glider wing.

We ate lunch near the lake with my labmate and his Buddhist monk friend. I forgot the guy's name, but he was really easy-going. It was nice because all of us spoke enough Japanese to more or less talk Japanese the whole meal. 

Some more pictures. And videos!

To give you an idea how hot it was. I had an umbrella, hat, sunscreen, and even a fan, but my arms looked like this the whole day.

In fact, at one point, the announcer said, "It has just hit 37 degrees. Please drink lots of water and be careful not to succumb to a heat stroke".

What a bad flight looks like:

 What a good flight looks like:

After 17 flights, the sun was starting to come down. 

What a good area of the city looks like. 

My labmate and I comparing watch tans.

Honestly, the hottest day I suffered through in Japan was in Hikone. We had to drink so much water and tea to keep hydrated, but I certainly won't forget all the inspiring glider flights I saw from the participants.
And just when you thought we were all festival'ed out.... We go to another festival. That's right, on the same day and right by out dorm. Presenting, the 吹田祭りSuita Maturi, celebrating the city in which I live.

The lanterns and crowd combination never gets old.

I was pretty exhausted, so I just got some food from the super market and ate it on a blanket with my friends over some beers. Got a nice group shot at the end of the night.

A great group of people.