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: 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.

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

 

Fund-raising by international students for the Philippines

The sight of the aftermath in the Philippines broke our heart. When looking at the images of people suffering after the typhoon, we grieve the fact that countless people suddenly lost everything, and that there is no food, clean water or medicine at all.

In Sendai, international students at Tohoku University decided to make a collective effort for them: they stood on the street and raised money for the Philippines. In fact, various companies and foundations in Sendai are working on raising funds for repairing typhoon damage in the Philippines. Having experienced the Great East Japan Earthquake, the Sendai City Office also raised money in November, and sent it through the Japan Red Cross Society. We cannot ignore the disaster victims!

Festival at Tohoku University!

 November is a festival season, which means the 65th Tohoku University Festival was held!

 The Kawauchi Campus was filled with so many booths. At each booth, students cooked something special. Here are some shots.

This booth is run by students from Aomori prefecture. Here they cooked and sold Senbei Jiru (せんべい汁), the most famous local dish in Aomori. The ingredients include lots of vegetables (and chicken in some case), but the major one is Senbei—round rice crackers! Except crackers, everything is placed in a huge pot and cooked for a while, and the crackers are added last. Even though they are cooked in hot soup, they do not become too soft.

At this booth, boys tried cooking an Italian dish—risotto.
Original amusing leaflets were put all over their tent,
and the likeness looked similar to both male students.

At the plaza, performers showed their talents on stage.
The Mr. and Ms. Tohoku University contest was held there too.

The cosplayers were in bloom!
These students were selling Chinese-style chicken.

International students did a great job too.
For halal eaters, the Indonesian students showed their strong solidarity. 

They cooked and sold nasi goring for 300JPY.
Egg and shrimp were added to it, and professors stopped by to buy it.

 If you become Tohoku University students in the future, please open up a booth at the University Festival and cook your national food to give us a chance to experience different cultures!

Notice on “Introductory Seminar Presentation” by FGL students

Madoka Hazemi

On next Friday (9.27), three of our students will participate in an event where they will report the results of their studies. This “Introductory Seminar Presentation” (「基礎ゼミ発表会」) was created to give students opportunities to interact with each other beyond their own departments. The presenters from the FGL Program will be Madoka Hazemi of AMC, and Dewi Setyaningrum and Freeha Khalid of AMB. They prepared for it during summer vacation.

They will discuss what they learned through “Selected topics in cell biology” by Dr. Martin Robert. The title of the presentation by Madoka and Dewi is “Effect Colchicine in Cell Development”, while Freeha’s presentation is “Life in an Eye of Science.” In addition to oral presentations by the three of them, Madoka and Dewi will do a poster session too.
"I hope I can gain new experience through this event," Dewi says.

Anyone can attend this event and listen to the presentations, and top performers will be decided by the attendees’ vote. So please come!!

Freeha Khalid

《Oral Presentation》

Time and Date：September 27, 2013 (Fri)

13:30 to 15:30（expected）

Venue：#B200 at Lecture B building on Kawauchi North Campus

Dewi Setyaningrum

《Poster Session》

Time and Date：September 27, 2013 (Fri)

15:40 to 16:10（expected）

※The poster session will be held after the oral presentation is finished.

Poster Display：September 27, 2013 (Fri), 13:30 to October 4 (Fri) 12:00

Venue: Display space on hallway, 2^nd fl. at Lecture B building on Kawauchi North Campus

100-year Aniversary of the first women students

Tohoku University is one of seven former imperial universities (other six are Hokkaido, Tokyo, Nagoya, Kyoto, Osaka, and Kyushu), and is proudly famous for being the first Japanese national university to accept female students. This happened in 1913, exactly 100 years ago, so there have been many events on campus to celebrate the hundred-year anniversary. It was truly an unconventional incident at that time. Thereafter, other universities such as the University of Tokyo started to welcome female students within a few years.

The university accepted three students: Ms. Chika Kuroda, Raku Makita and Ume Tange, and their distinguished careers flourished later. Ms. Kuroda became a professor at Ochanomizu University as a physicist. Ms. Tange had a long career contributing to research on vitamins as a Doctor of Agriculture. Ms. Makita became a mathematician, and taught at a teacher’s school for women for a while.

At "book＋cafe BOOOK” on Aobayama Campus, a book fair, from July 8 to August 9, is taking place to commemorate the anniversary. On the corner, various books that are recommended by Tohoku University’s female researchers are displayed. Prof. Mami Tanaka at the School of Engineering chose comic books such as “Space Brothers (宇宙兄弟 in Japanese),” which was adapted as a film during the last year.

Eight out of 22 FGL 1^st year students are female. Whether they will stay in Japan or go back to their home country, we look forward to their future careers. 

D-1 Grand Prix at cafeterias of Tohoku University

Have you heard the expression “B-1 Grand Prix” before? If you are interested in cars, you may think I mean F-1 Grand Prix. However, this expression exists, and it refers to food in this case.  The name derives from “B-grade gourmet,” which describes casual, inexpensive and tasty dishes served at restaurants and other eating facilities everywhere in Japan.

The first “B-1 Grand Prix” was held in Aomori in 2006 with the purpose of introducing local dishes from across Japan. This event has become annual now, and has been playing a role in grabbing attention for and revitalizing rather unknown towns that nurtured such dishes.

 Now, if we turn to Tohoku University, you will notice the “D-1 Grand Prix” is taking place. Why D, not B? It is for “Donburi” in Japanese, which means "rice bowl dishes." The university’s co-op carries out this event every year to upgrade their menu by bringing in the students’ ideas. So students can imagine their favorite donburi, write about them on special forms, and put them in boxes placed in cafeterias on each campus. Last year, “工学部焼肉丼,” grilled beef rice bowl from the School of Engineering, got first place.

 There will be prizes for the winners: winners selected on each campus will receive JPY 10,000 on a prepaid card usable at the cafeteria. A JPY 30,000 prepaid card will be given to the best of the winners. With ideas from international students, the menu at the cafeteria could include a fusion of multi-cultural dishes!

The Tohoku University Botanical Gardens

Sendai is known for its greenery, and the Tohoku University Botanical Gardens, located on the south side of Kawauchi campus, is one of the reasons why. This facility consists of a botanical museum, gardens, and well-maintained walking trails that wind through a scenic woods. Tohoku University students can enter the grounds free of charge during business hours by showing their Student ID Cards at the ticket counter.

The grounds are planted with various flowers and  scenic plants

The Botanical Gardens were established in 1958, but the history of this land goes back much farther. The woods were originally part of the grounds of Aoba Castle, and have been kept in more or less the same condition since 1600. However, they contain stone monuments, pictured at right, that are much older, dating back to the 13^th and 14^th centuries. 

Following the trails into the woods, you may feel
that you have become lost in a Tolkien novel!

There are various signs on the trails providing useful or interesting information. For example, signs on the trees tell you the species name in Japanese and English (below left). Signposts on the path (below right) show you an overall view of the trails. The number in the red circle indicates which signpost you are standing at, while the red X's  indicate trails that are currently closed. The below right photo was taken at signpost 5, as you can see on the map.

If you follow the trail upwards for awhile, you will reach the below recreation area. It has many shady places to sit and is a perfect spot for a picnic. There is also a second entrance/exit near here.

The Tohoku University Botanical Gardens are a perfect place to relax and stretch your legs. Please take advantage of your free admission to enjoy them!

Hours: 9AM to 5PM (gates close at 4PM)

Days: Open every day except Monday*

Access: See Kawauchi Campus Map 

(Park will be closed for the winter from November 30)

*Unless Monday is a national holiday, in which case it will be closed on the following day.

Student Interview: Chanon Pornrungroj, Advanced Molecular Chemistry

The second-year student Chanon Pornrungroj has a dream—to do satisfying desk study as well as experiments.  Tohoku University is committed to the “Research First” principle, and when Chanon heard about this, and about the existence of the English degree course, he felt ready to apply.  After acceptance by the university, however, his family members and friends were concerned about his departure because of the Great East Japan Earthquake and the radioactivity.  Nevertheless, he decided not to waste this opportunity, and his ardent professors and kind senpai (older students) made his study environment perfect.  “Now I feel very comfortable being here from every aspect,” he says.  Behind this remark is the fact that he tried to meet more people by joining the Tohoku University Foreign Students Association. Through it he met many people, from international to Japanese students.

Student Interview: Farsai Taemaitree, Advanced Molecular Chemistry

Taemaitree Farsai is a first year AMC student from Bangkok, Thailand.  Since her high school years, she has been accustomed to doing research with fine experimental tools.  So she always wanted to go to the university with the best chemistry department in Japan.  “Tohoku University’s motto ‘research first’ is exactly the same as that of my high school,” she says.  Her goal is now to become a chemist in the future.

Farsai participated in a three-week program at Ritsumeikan in Kyoto last year.  However, her encounter with the Japanese academic world happened earlier than that.  Tohoku University’s professors often visit high schools around the world to promote the FGL program, and professors from the chemistry department visited her high school.  This helped her learn about Tohoku University and the course, which lead her to decide to apply.

Now, four months have passed since the start of university life.  According to her, the lectures are tough and impressive at the same time, and her favorite class is Chemistry A by Professor Zhanpeisov.  

“Because I get to know about things that I had never known before,” she says.

Farsai hopes to join some student clubs to intermingle with Japanese students from next semester, but now she does not have time for anything thanks to the large amount of school work from each lecture.  She is, however, already concerned about missing her busy days when staying in her home country during the spring break.

Student Interview: Qiang Gu, International Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

The first-year student Qiang Gu from China had no hesitation about coming to Sendai to study at Tohoku University.  She knew from before that she wanted to study engineering at some excellent school, but her decision became firmer when Professor Ying Chen of IMAC-U gave a presentation on the FGL program at her high school and her school counselor recommended the program to her. 

Ever since she had entered, she has not become tired in most cases: she believes the reason for this is that she enjoys student life, from studying to leisure.  But one thing she admits is the great role of Professor Chen.  “She has been so helpful and encouraging,” Qiang said.  According to her, Professor Chen always tells students to contact her if any problems arise, so for a lot of students she is someone who understands the difficulty of living abroad and doing something at the same time.

In fact, Qiang already had trouble after her arrival from China: she had a small bike accident.  The one who helped her out was an older student at her dormitory.  “One senpai (an older student) fixed my bike, so thanks to him I can ride it to school,” she said.  Having been asked if she often comes to school by bike, she said: “if it snows, then no, but otherwise yes.”

Since she did not have many engineering classes in the first semester, she is looking forward to the later years.  The time when she finds her own special field must be not too far away.

Classroom Visitation

Since the fall semester is almost over, we visited some classes to see the professors and students in January.  At some classes, the atmosphere was very relaxed, while at others students seemed more eager to listen to what their professors were saying.

In the “Linear Algebra” class, Prof. Igor Trushin was teaching ardent students who were working as hard as possible to prepare for an exam.  The class was mixed, with both international and Japanese students, so there were almost 30 people in the classroom. 

Warm porridge at Bee ARENA Cafe

The year 2013 has started, and Sendai is getting colder and colder with a stiff breeze blowing.  In Japan one of the ways to warm up under such conditions is to eat warm porridge.

On Kawauchi Campus, there are three types of cafeteria meeting the multiple needs of students from domestic to international: one of them is called “Bee ARENA Cafe” which resembles a café seen on the street instead of a traditional cafeteria on a university campus.

One-day trip to Hiraizumi, Iwate

On November 3^rd, FGL students, both freshmen and sophomores, took a one-day trip to Iwate prefecture to enjoy the beautiful autumn in the northern part of Japan.

The first place we visited was Genbikei Gorge.  With the gorge's mysteriously blue river and rough stones, students had to totter forward, but were fascinated by the grandeur of nature.

Tohoku University Student Festival! (Nov. 2 & 3, 2012)

Tohoku University is holding a festival today (Nov. 2) and tomorrow (Nov. 3).  Student organizations from extra-curricular activities show their achievements or run a booth to sell food and goods.  This festival is an important opportunity for the students to show what they do at their club activities and also to raise funds to manage their organizations.

“Festina”: Tohoku University’s Indonesian Students’ Festival 2012

Konnichiwa! In this opportunity allow me to introduce Indonesian Students’ Festival called “Festina” that held on the last April at Sendai Fukushi Plaza Fureai Hall. This festival aim is to introduce the diversity of Indonesian culture. Hence, we hope that cooperation and relationship among Indonesian students and Japanese also other countries would be maintained even tighter as well.

This festival’s opening ceremony was chaired by Indonesian Ambassador, Mr. Muhammad Luthfi. After that, Prof. Kimura Toshiaki from Graduate School of Arts and Letters gave some experience when he stayed in Indonesia. He described a story about “how to learn local wisdom of Indonesia's society." Not forgotten by him to mention several Indonesian cuisines that “unforgettable” for him, because of its spicy taste.

Figure 1.    Opening ceremony by Indonesian Ambassador and some experiences by Toshiaki Sensei

Tohoku University's Aikido Circle

One of Tohoku University’s circles that has a long history is the “Gakuyukai Aikido” circle—the Student Union’s circle dedicated to the art of weaponless self-defense.

A Day in the Life of an Economics Department Student

Ms. Dan Li

Today, I want to show you one “day in my life” so that it may provide some direct information about an foreign student’s daily life in Tohoku University.

At first, I would like to show you my dorm. I live in the International House of Tohoku University, it is one of the students‘ dormitory. I strongly suggest you live here as there are lots of activities going on this place. You can always get information in time and keep contact with other students.