Day-Trip to Naruko for Autumn Foliage

 The FGL students went to Naruko-kyo Gorge to enjoy the colorful autumn leaves on Saturday November 9th. Naruko-kyo Gorge is in Osaki City, which stretches between the north east and west areas of Miyagi prefecture. As you know, the Japanese love to experience the four seasons, and seeing autumn foliage is one means of doing so.


 
 Before visiting the gorge, we stopped by the Kankaku Museum (感覚ミュージアム). Founded in 2000, this is the first museum in Japan to be themed on the five senses—vision, hearing, smelling, taste and touch. It consists of two spaces, the monologue zone (瞑想空間) and dialogue zone (身体感覚空間). In the monologue zone, you feel various things by varying the lights or immersing your body in a room with an awkward shape. In the dialogue zone, however, you can feel something else by using tools and touching physical materials by yourself. Many of the students were delighted and we could hear them saying "Wow!" and "Ah!" everywhere.



 Then we stopped by Katanuma Lake for lunch. This time, we brought boxed lunches and dined along the lakeside in the sunshine. On the way to this place, students were already able to see autumn foliage. When they arrived at the gorge after lunch, the whole landscape was so beautiful. While enjoying seeing the gorge, the students did not miss the food stalls, which were like those at the university festival. As is obvious, the appetite of some students was even greater than the grandeur of nature. Overall, however, all participants seemed to enjoy the whole schedule, and there was constant laughter and glee among students and professors through the day.

One-Day Trip to Kaminoyama and Zao

The best season has come for cherry-picking.This year’s place for that was Kaminoyama in south Yamagata prefecture. This is a hot spring area accessible from Sendai, so FGL students and professors took a day trip there by bus.The place where we went is called “Takahashi Fruits Land”. There were several types of cherries there such as Satonishiki, Benishuhou and Napoleon. All of them were very sweet and delicious, but their textures were all different from each other. Some cherries had a very dark color like purple red. 

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.

Interview for Human Security Program’s Students in Indonesia

Dear all! Human Security Program of Tohoku University is a joint educational program organized by four Graduate Schools of the university, incorporating their rich experiences in academic researches and international cooperation. The program aims at contributing intellectually towards building an international society where people enjoy secure and stable life free from fear and want. Each graduate school offers its own program: Food & Agriculture for Human Security, Public Health Sciences for Human Security, Human Security and Society and Human Security and Environment respectively. Human Security Program also affiliated with Future Global Leadership as Graduate school English course. For more detail, please see this link http://human-security.jp/.

Anyway, since 2009, this program has been conducting the Linkage Course Program with Brawijaya University of Malang, Indonesia. The students are selected Indonesian Civil Servants who got a scholarship from the Indonesian Government. I want to take this opportunity to tell you a story of my journey assisting Prof. Hitoshi Yonekura and Assoc. Prof. Nina Takashino from Graduate School of Agricultural Science, to interview the Indonesian students who apply to Human Security Program.

Interview process.

Short Trip Program for International Students of Tohoku Amamiya Campus: Tsuruoka Kamo Aquarium of “Jelly Fish”

Greet all! My name is Bayu, allow me to share one of our activities as an International student of Tohoku University. Obviously, as an International student we have opportunity and advantages to learn more about Japan, which is not only well-known for its interesting culture and landscape but also technology and nature conservation. Moreover, the Japanese has awareness of the environmental damage and the sustainable of natural resources. It made them seriously concern to the nature conservation.

Anyway, every year faculty of Agriculture and Graduate School of Agricultural Science invite us to a short trip program. The main aim is to provide the International Student, not only to know each other during our busy activities but also increase our knowledge about Japan. This year, the committee decided to visit the Kamo Aquarium (加茂(かも)水族館(すいぞくかん)) in Tsuruoka City, Yamagata Pref., which exhibits the highest number of species for jelly fishes in the world.

The group departed from the Amamiya campus gate at 08:30 by bus. The first destination is Shonai Kanko Bussankan Furusato-Honpo (庄内(しょうない)観光(かんこう)物産館(ぶっさんかん)ふるさと本舗(ほんぽ)). The restaurants and fish market among its rest area, making it more interesting as a transit area.

Shonai Kanko Bussankan Furusato-Honpo rest area

From Shonai Kanko to Kamo Auqarium takes 30 minutes, and we arrive in second destination at 13:30. Mr. Kazuya Okuizumi as Sub-Director of Tsuruoka Kamo Aquarium welcomes us and gives us brief explanation at once. He explained that the number of visitors has been on the increase, particularly since Japanese scientist Osamu Shimomura, professor emeritus at Boston University got Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2008, for his discovery of the mysterious green glow of a jelly fish – the green fluorescent protein (GPF). Now, the aquarium displays around 40 varieties, claimed to be one of the biggest in the world.

From Shonai Kanko to Kamo Auqarium takes 30 minutes, and we arrive in second destination at 13:30. Mr. Kazuya Okuizumi as Sub-Director of Tsuruoka Kamo Aquarium welcomes us and gives us brief explanation at once. He explained that the number of visitors has been on the increase, particularly since Japanese scientist Osamu Shimomura, professor emeritus at Boston University got Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2008, for his discovery of the mysterious green glow of a jelly fish – the green fluorescent protein (GPF). Now, the aquarium displays around 40 varieties, claimed to be one of the biggest in the world.

Tsuruoka Kamo Aquarium of “Jelly Fish”

It was a good time for us, unfortunately we had limited time. It’s a new thing for many of us, and still we couldn’t figure yet about the Jelly Fish breeding. It has proven by so many questions that we asked during Okuisumi-san’s brief class of. Luckily, we still got an opportunity to observed jelly fish by the microscope. Hence, the field trip is very interesting, enjoyable and useful. We hope that this program could conduct frequently, not only once but at least twice a year. Mina-san, otsukaresamadeshita!

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Story and Photos by

Prasojo Bayu

November 26, 2011 Trip to Yamadera

November 26, 2011 Trip to Yamadera

The FGL Program organized a trip to Yamadera, a temple in nearby Yamagata Prefecture, for the FGL undergraduate students. The Yamadera area is one of the many places in Tohoku where the Japanese haiku master Matsuo Basho (1644- 1694) stopped off to write a poem during his wanderings.

The conical hat the student in the below photo is wearing is the traditional headwear of “ohenro-san” (pilgrims) who travel to famous temples, such as Yamadera, on foot, or (more recently) by bus.

In addition to taking in the sights around the temple, the students attended a pottery workshop where they were able to create their own dishes or mugs.

The autumn foliage was gorgeous, and the surrounding mountains already had a light dusting of snow. It was very typical autumn weather for this part of Japan.

 The students also held a friendly photo competition. It was a close race, but eventually this photo was selected as the winner!

Almost every town in Japan is famous for some kind of food, sweet, or style of cooking, so no excursion is complete without sampling the local cuisine!

-FGL Staff