Surviving the Sendai Winter... Indoors!

Although the weather is already pretty chilly, it's about to get a lot chillier! Sendai's winters are comparatively mild, but if this is your first winter here, you might be in for a few surprises. Particularly when you get home from a long outing to find... it's colder in your room than it is outside!! In this article, we will try to prepare you for Japan's great indoors.

Inside author's apartment during January.

1. Indoor wear: Sendai's apartments and houses are cold. Even the natives say so! Very few buildings have insulation. Even fewer have central heating. As a result, the common practice here is to dress warmly even when inside one's own home. You will want some warm slippers and comfortable, warm clothing for inside use. If you want to go the traditional route, there is a Japanese garment called a hanten. It is a warm padded jacket worn inside and for brief outings. You can find them in any department store in a variety of lovely patterns and colors. Warm pajamas are definitely required at night! Pharmacies also sell chemical heaters (hokkairo) you can use to keep your hands warm both indoors and out.

Hanten -traditional winter wear

2. Heating: As mentioned, most residences don't have central heating. Instead, only the rooms being used are warmed with electric or kerosene heaters. If you use a kerosene heater in particular, please use caution as they release fumes that become toxic if allowed to build up. So be sure open a window or door every two hours or so. Never leave kerosene heaters burning unattended as they do pose a considerable fire hazard. Heated carpets/pads and kotatsu (a table with a built-in heater on the bottom to keep the lower body warm) are also popular ways to keep warm while relaxing or studying inside.

Hanging a curtain in front of
your entrance helps keep out the
cold air.

3. DIY Insulation: Tempting as it may be, you should refrain from trying to seal up the gaps around your room's windows and doors with plastic sheeting etc. If you manage to permanently caulk or tape a window shut, you will of course be fined by your landlord. Moreover, if you seal your room up too well, mold may begin to grow. If you allow mold to spread, you will be charged around JPY 100,000 for cleaning/de-molding. But there are some things you can do to better insulate your apartment. Many Japanese residences have a curtain-rod near the entrance inside. In the winter this can be used to hang a floor-length curtain (or an old piece of material, sheet, etc.) to prevent drafts from coming in through the entrance. Keeping window curtains securely drawn at night will also help keep the cold air out and the warm air in. If your curtains are too flimsy to block the winter drafts, consider replacing them.

We hope this guide is of some help. Stay warm and have a great winter!

Summer School 2014

Tohoku University invited high school teachers and prospective students to Future Global Leadership (FGL) Summer School again this year, from the 4th to 6th of August. 21 Participants joined the event from 7 high schools in China, Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia.

During the three-day program, participants got detailed information on Tohoku University, FGL courses, the application process, and even the city of Sendai.

On the 2^nd and 3^rd day, participants took a tour of the labs in each faculty of the FGL program: the Advanced Molecular Chemistry Course (AMC), Applied Marine Biology Course (AMB) and International Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Course (IMAC-U).

This is one of the labs in AMB. Students are working on research in the field of Integrative Aquatic Biology.

Students also learnt Japanese flower arrangement (Ikebana). This Ikebana class was taught by Prof. Chen. She is a professor of Nanomechanics in the School of Engineering of our university!

Thank you so much for joining the event. See you again!

Preparation for your new student life

 Right now, we cannot eat at the main cafeteria, “Kawauchi Daiichi Shokudo,” on Kawauchi North Campus. It is a very spacious place and usually many people from students to professors to staff take time at the lunch time there, but there are only a few students at the moment thanks to the spring vacation. So it is being used as a support center for freshmen entering in April!

 If you enter the room, various desks can be seen: near the entrance is the housing section for those who are looking for apartments. Staff explain about the areas suitable for students and the price range of apartments. Lately, according to reports by the media, more students prefer sharing an apartment or living in a dorm, so you can ask about the choices there.

 Then, on the left side there computers are displayed. In some afternoons, there are only a few people there, but it gets more crowded by the hour. Both laptops and usual computers are available, so it might be a good idea to buy new one before the sales tax rises on April 1st. 

 In front of the computer section, the staff invites students to join the university co-op. You need to pay 25,000JPY, but it will be refunded when you graduate from Tohoku University (necessary procedures must be conducted). If you become a member, you will be provided a membership card: it allows you to buy books at discounted prices, and can be used as a prepaid card. You will also have a meal card (chargeable prepaid card), so there is no need to pay with cash for lunch and supper. 

 Having walked around, you can see many bikes at the exit of the cafeteria. Many Tohoku University students commute by bike, and say that it is difficult to live without one. Just don’t ride too fast since a lot of accidents have happened!

All these support systems are the fruit of efforts by the university coop: in April, they will hold a bazaar in aid of international students. More details will be given in the next blog!

Library offers great service!

  The main building of the Tohoku University library is now under construction, and the annex building is the only one that you can enter. But the library continues to provide service for the students and will be even better from April.
 The most popular service is a concierge desk for international students. There, you can receive help in four languages—English, Chinese, Korean and Indonesian. Each concierge is a native speaker of each language, and they are all fluent in Japanese too. A Japanese concierge also exists for the Japanese students. According to Ms. Mika Yokoyama, a librarian, the number of Indonesians utilizing the library is rapidly increasing. 

 “Inquiries by students vary extremely,” Ms. Yokoyama said. They are from how to find books suitable for a certain theme to how to utilize the library. Some students actually ask about how to write papers for assignments, or about unclear points in some lectures, etc. Whatever the question is, the concierge tries to relieve students’ concerns. On the third floor, you can find a section of displayed books recommended by the concierge.

 On the second floor, you will find shelves of English books on the left side. That place is called the “Extensive English Reading and Readers Corner.” It was founded based on the idea that reading as many books in English as possible naturally improves English proficiency. Each book is color-coded. Red is the easiest level. The next level is orange then yellow, green, and finally blue—the most difficult. As the difficulty level increases, the amount of reading increases too. At the beginning of the school year, this corner got so crowded with students that the library staff was very surprised.
 The fourth floor is an archive where books from the Edo and Meiji Periods are stored. Many hand scrolls are preserved in good condition too. There is another room there for “The Kano Collection.” It is the private collection of the educationist Kokichi Kano who was a president of Kyoto University, and active in the Meiji Period. A limited number of graduate students were able to view the materials, and according to Ms. Yokoyama, “they always gasp in pleasure, feeling as though they time-traveled!” 

 The library offers a wireless internet access service, so you can bring your own laptop, or your smartphone. When the construction is completed in October, the whole library will be renewed, including the annex building. Tohoku University’s library is free from fixed concepts (e.g. that a library is just for quietly studying), and aims at being a space for spending enriching time. There is a lot to look forward to at the library.

Student interview: Lailatul Binti of IMAC-U

 Lailatul Binti from Malaysia used to go to a different university where she was majoring in a different subject. However, she decided to get back to her original dream one year ago, and applied for universities which have aeronautical engineering faculties. 
“I found that there were two such universities in Japan, Tohoku and Kyushu, but eventually I chose Tohoku University because of its character,” she said. By character, she meant the “research-oriented” aspect of the university. “I was attracted by that so I submitted application materials, and thanks to God I’m here!” she laughed.

  After graduating from a local high school, Lailatul went on to the matriculation course of the University of Malaya (UM) in Kuala Lumpur. There, she studied hard to prepare for university education for one year, and later became a student of UM majoring in actuarial science. When asked about the reaction of her parents to her change of mind, she said “they were not surprised. Now I am in the same grade as my younger brother, but it’s good. We share a lot of talk since he majors in electrical engineering, another faculty of engineering.”
 She has always made much effort when it comes to studying her favorite subjects, such as mathematics, from an early age. This way, she figured out what suits and does not suit her. So now Lailatul has a picture of the days ahead: she wants to continue her research at Tohoku University until acquiring a Ph.D, and become an engineer in the field of aeronautics.

 She saw snow for the first time in her life in Sendai. “When I saw snow in the light at night, it was so beautiful.” In fact, it snowed so much in many Japanese places in February that it set an all-time high record since observations began. Sendai was not an exception: the city awoke to more than 35cm of snow on the morning of February 9th. Sendai is famous for having snow every year but it had never snowed so much all at once. So this year’s snow is unusual. She is now enjoying her spring vacation in Malaysia, but must bring a lot of winter clothes to Sendai!

 The FGL students so far are from 13 countries, but Lailatul is the first Malaysian student to be accepted to the FGL program. Having been in Sendai for six months, she really wants to recommend Malaysian students apply for Tohoku University. She said with a smile that, “Sendai is so beautiful and safe. I love this city. The area damaged by the earthquake is limited now. If not, why are there people here? Be positive!”

Indonesian Festival on this Saturday!

Tomorrow, our Indonesian students will join "FESTINA 2014" which will be held in the evening at Sendai Fukushi Plaza.
For those who can, please visit the venue and enjoy the Indonesian culture!

Student interview: Dwiky Rendra of AMC

 The third-year student Dwiky Rendra from Indonesia has engaged some experiments during his high school years, and he wanted to continue conducting research in the university. He was accepted by the AMC course in 2011, and mostly completed studying the foundational scientific subjects by 2013. Now he enjoys most of his time experimenting for his own research, and looks back on how he chose his field of studies. “I was fascinated with learning about biological processes at high school, and the good thing for me is that there are biochemistry classes here,” he says. Although he is affiliated with the chemistry department, he was, and is still, drawn to the field of biology. He works on issues related to the human body.

Dwiky Rendra

 Dwiky is affiliated with Prof. Satoshi Takahashi’s laboratory, and specializes in a cancer suppressor protein called p53. They work together to look for roles of inker region in p53. “I was so happy that I could start experiments from the summer of freshman year. It is such a rare opportunity,” he smiled. While many international students have returned to their home countries to escape from the cold winter season, Dwiky is staying in Sendai to continue researching. The combination of chemistry and biology perfectly fits his area, so he truly thinks of his choice as suitable.

 Having lived at University House Sanjo for two years, Dwiky now resides at a house shared with his friend. His friend had already been living there for a while, so Dwiky easily found a place to live. One of the reasons is the existence of a large Indonesian community at Tohoku University, and their way of helping each other. Dwiky mentions, however, that many international students find a place to live without much difficulty. “Many friends of mine live in apartments in Sendai.” “Once they visit a local real-estate agency, they easily find nice apartments,” he continued.

 Students may think they will never need to go to a Japanese hospital. However, adjusting to a new country can be hard on your health. It is actually very common for international students to require medical care. For example, at the end of last year, one FGL student was diagnosed with tuberculosis, but recovered from it thanks to good care by the hospital. Dwiky also had to see a doctor this year suffering from a cold. When he visited a local clinic, he was given a medical interview sheet in English, which was helpful. “Doctors seemed to be used to foreign patients,” he recalled. His full recovery shows that there is nothing to worry in the event of sickness.

 Having found his own objective at Tohoku University, Dwiky genuinely looks forward to his future. By doing what he enjoys, he will be contributing to beneficial changes for human life.

G30 Wrap-Up Symposium in Fukuoka

On February 14th, the G30 Wrap-Up Symposium was held at Hotel Nikko Fukuoka. The project for Internationalization of Japanese universities (a.k.a. the Global 30 Project) will end by March 2014, so quite a number of people, from professors to university staff members, gathered in Fukuoka, and discussed the fruits of the project as well as highlighted problems.

Venue of the symposium

Four sessions were concurrently held in each room.

A. Reaching out to internationally mobile students: promotional activities and overseas offices
B. Managing degree programs in English: admissions, curriculum, and pedagogy
C. Internationalizing the campus: support system and accommodations
D. Internationalization in the eyes of students: voice of students

The most interesting session was D, which was facilitated solely by international students who came to Japan through the G30 Project. To name some of the opinions that were raised at the venue, international students often have difficulty in entering the community of Japanese students. Even though they want to join some clubs, there are no brochures in English. In addition, the support environment for people with various cultural backgrounds has not caught up with the real situation—Islamic students chronically cannot find space to do prayer, and there is a lack of medical experts who can communicate in English.

Prof. Masahiro Yamaguchi was invited from Tohoku University, and delivered a presentation at session C. He talked about how Tohoku University handled the situation after the Great East Japan Earthquake suggesting several patterns of action that international students took. He also introduced Tohoku University’s unique program for both International and Japanese students to co-study and earn credit at the same time.
In a different room, 13 universities presented their activities with an original poster that lit up the whole space with nice photos and illustration.

Prof. Masahiro Yamaguchi                                                                 Poster Session

Now the internationalization of Japanese universities is unstoppable. Thanks to the G30 Project, many university staff became aware of aspects of universities abroad. There is so much to be reformed, but the selected 13 universities for G30 surely accelerated internationalization and preparations for it in the future.

Student interview: Leo J. Che of AMB

Leo J. Che, an AMB student from the US, was always interested in the ocean, and especially in fish.  When asked if his career decision had something to do with his home town in California, he not only agreed, but also told us about his other reasons. “I used to go to Monterey Bay Aquarium, famous for its display of the bay, and my father took me fishing from time to time.” Then he talked about the special topography of Monterey Bay in California, where a large number of diverse marine organisms exist. This had a tremendous impact on him, and helped him to choose marine biology for his research.

However, there are more interesting and, in a way, unique reasons as to why Leo came to Tohoku University. The first is that the ocean is shared by many countries, meaning it would be advantageous if he can prepare to work internationally in the future, considering his specialization in marine biology. The second is Fukushima. “It is the first nuclear incident to have happened near the ocean. The Chernobyl accident was not near the ocean, and no other previous nuclear event has occurred on this scale. So it creates a unique opportunity to research things that we otherwise might not be able to explore,” he said. In fact, the nuclear power plant in Fukushima is about 100km from Sendai. Thus it is at far enough to allow one to safely live in Sendai while still being able to meet and learn from many professors in multiple faculties of Tohoku University who continue working on themes related to the disaster of March 2011.

Although many FGL students are hard workers, Leo told us about prior knowledge will definitely help prospective students in their studies. “Be strong at mathematics,” he said with conviction. “You will be required to work with numbers in different ways than you may expect. In addition, it may be difficult for students who aren’t familiar with statistical concepts to understand certain lectures. Some of the lessons seem to assume that you know something that you might not necessarily know,” he advised.

One of the good things about Leo noted about the FGL program is housing. All FGL students seeking bachelor degrees can live at University House Sanjo for two years. While the kitchen has to be shared, each student is allotted a private room. This is a clear difference from the US, where students who live in dorms usually share rooms. “So it is very nice,” he says.

 

Having accomplished the fall semester by now, Leo is slowly getting a picture of his future career. “I’m sure I want to study ichthyology. After the lab tours with the agricultural department that I did this semester, I’m now looking forward to investigating my field of interest and and clarifying what I'll specialize in.” The Great East Japan Earthquake and following accidents were definitely disturbing occurrences, but many people have set themselves straight and started learning from them. Leo embraces this and intends to keep working across international borders, like the ocean.

Student interview: Sirinda Khurewattanakul of IMAC-U

Sirinda Khurewattanakul

 An IMAC-U student Sirinda Khurewattanakul is spending her 3rd year at Tohoku University. Having moved from Bangkok Thailand, she has gone through the first two years acquiring a solid foundation in liberal education on Kawauchi Campus. Now, she mainly stays on Aobayama Campus to focus on experiments and specialized classes, and says that the new environment is very different from previous places. “Before, almost all students at lectures were international students, but now I get to know quite a few Japanese students of my own age through a laboratory, which is nice” she says. She belongs to Prof. Kosuge’s system robotics lab, where there are more female students than at other laboratories. Joining the department’s field trip let her get to know the other female students well. Asked about the Japanese students, she says “they are always very helpful, whether male or female. If handouts are in Japanese, they explain them for me.”
 To our surprise, Sirinda’s first choice for her field was not robotics at the beginning. “I was drawn to the computer field, but rather than just dealing with information and serial numbers, assembling stuff and machines was more fun, I found,” she said. In fact, her knowledge of computer and programming helps her very much when working on robots and mechanisms. As is often said, everything is of use! “I still need to know more about programming for controlling mechanics…” She seems to have been, and still is, on the right truck.
 IMAC-U students actually participate in a program called Team-Based Engineering from sophomore year, in which Sirinda studied about silicon dioxide. There, doing experiments with a team was the main purpose, and she had to wear special white cover-alls, and get air-showered to become completely clean to prevent the experiments from being contaminated. So students can do fully-fledged experiments from an early stage. According to her, some other laboratories let their student participate in an international competition, and they were able to fly to the US where the competition was held.
 While being super busy with her school work, Sirinda thinks of what she will do in the future. “After receiving a bachelor’s degree, I want to go for a master’s degree, then work at some Japanese company in Thailand.” She has a clear picture of her future self. Though a student on an English degree course, she speaks Japanese quite well. Thanks to the new environment with many Japanese students, her abilities are improving more and more. With brilliant equipment and tools added to her competence, Sirinda will be able to become an outstanding female engineer.

Student interview: Yiwen Li of AMC

When asked about her student life, Yiwen Li cheerfully told us about every relevant topic. Since biochemistry was her research focus at high school, she was able to quickly decide to apply to AMC at Tohoku University. “As is known, Tohoku University’s chemistry department is prestigious!” she smiled. Then after she entered, she discovered more good sides of the department. First there was the equipment: there are many laboratories fully equipped with the latest tools. If you go to Katahira campus, you will find modern buildings such as the Laboratory for Nanoelectronics and Spintronics, and WPI- AIMR Main Building. The second is the personal side: she has already had a lot of chances to share time with the skilled staff and experience their assistance during her research and experiments. One of the university’s mottos is “Research First,” and her story was true to this motto.

Yiwen Li

 According to Yiwen, professors profoundly care about students, and there is a special program called the “Homeroom Section” which was started by the AMC course. There are three professors and two student mentors exclusively for AMC students, and they share time and talk with them at a special room prepared for them on Katahira. “The topics we chat about there have such a variety” she says, “about everyday life, questions that came up through lectures, scholarships, and even Japanese food culture… anything!” Taking time for communication nurtures the students' social nature and capability for problem-solving. For her, Sendai is quite international like Shanghai, her home town, and everyday life is full of discovery.

 Yiwen is truly a science girl, so she enjoys any subjects concerned with math and science. Asked about other fun classes, she named two—business management and health. “Particularly the subjects that Prof. Nagatomi deals with at health class tend to be hotly-debated among students since they are familiar subjects like sleeping, diseases and radiation,” Yiwen said.

 Recently she has been trying to learn foreign languages like Thai and Indonesian. Going out downtown with other students, sharing cultural food with them, tackling the tasks from the professors with classmates…her interests go beyond science, and all of them will, like a chemical reaction, interact with each other resulting in the creation of her own original research field.

“Smart Work Week” with Netherlands

 Tohoku University’s School of Engineering will hold another interesting event on Wednesday January 22. This event became possible thanks to the cooperation of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The lecture will be on the theme of “Smart Networks and Reconstructing the Tohoku Area” at Center Hall on Aobayama Campus (where Prof. Koichi Tanaka will give another lecture on Jan 29).
 Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands, is called one of the world's Smart cities. The definition of smart city is a place where people can live comfortably thanks to a smoothly operating ICT infrastructure. The targeted subjects of infrastructure include not only hardware like transportation systems and the water supply, but also software for education, medical services and disaster prevention. The Netherlands has solved various infrastructure problems with a unique method called the “Dutch Approach.”
 On the day of the event, panelists will participate from many notable companies in the Netherlands such as Amsterdam Smart City, DNV KEMA, Green it, Phillips, Quby and so on. The Tohoku area is still far from completing reconstruction, so the talk by panelists from the Netherlands will include many good and useful clues and hints for a better Tohoku.
 The event will be held both in Japanese and English, so international students can enjoy the talk for sure. You can take the information back home, and apply it to your own country!

Lecture by a Nobel laureate, Prof. Koichi Tanaka

  On January 29^th, a visiting professor, Koichi Tanaka, will give a lecture on the 2^nd floor of Center Hall on Aobayama Campus from 13:00. Prof. Tanaka is one of Tohoku University’s alumni. He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2002. At that time, he was a corporate employee at Shimadzu Corporation contributing to technology research, and he is still affiliated with the company. His lecture will be held on the theme of “environments for interdisciplinary research—developing mass spectrometry”

Thanks to the prize, he has taught at many prestigious universities in Japan so far. This is a rare chance to meet a Nobel laureate and hear his story. The lecture will be in Japanese, and will be aimed at Master’s level students. However, if you are interested in joining the event you can register your name by writing the School of Engineering at event@eng.tohoku.ac.jp .

 

 For more information, please click here.


Map of the venue on Aobayama Campus

 

Happy 2014!!

The new year of 2014 has started. The university reopened this week, and students started to prepare for the semester-end exams and final papers. In the high schools, there is a tense atmosphere as students have entered the season of university entrance exams. On January 18 and 19, the National Center Test for University Admissions will be held across Japan. It is a standardized national exam that must be taken by applicants who wish to enter governmental universities, and Tohoku University will be one of the test venues.

In Japan, people who have something they wish strongly to achieve usually go to shrines and pray for success. There are also people who visit shrines to ask for perfect health and safety for family members. For such people, there will be an annual event on the evening of January 14. It will be at Oosaki Hachimangu Shrine. The name of the event is “Matsutaki Matsuri.” It is a kind of bonfire festival. The shrine is not far from Kawauchi Campus, so Tohoku University students can easily attend the event. There, you can encounter an intense fire of tremendous scale made by burning New Year’s decoration, talismans and so on. Legend has it that your mind and body will be cleansed if you stand close to the fire.

Just before ignition

After the ignition (photo from 2013)

 Sometimes it is hard to tell shrine from temple, but the fundamental difference is that while temples are associated with heaven after death, shrines are associated with life on earth. We wish you a happy new year for 2014!