Let's Play With Water Guys!

Our meet up time for today was 9:15 am for breakfast. I had rice, two egg rolls, and mizo soup. At 10 am, we were given a lab tour at the Tricea building for Civil Engineering. The students started out by showing us the water they irrigated on their own through rocks to help water grass and plants. When we went inside the building, they showed us different rooms where each room had their own experiment being worked on. It was really cool because the building was literally built for experiments and research. I find that a great way to learn, especially as an undergraduate school. Our last stop was in a lab where a couple graduate students conducted an experiment for us. This was to compare water quality between Lake Biwa and the water they were irrigating by the campus building. The Lake Biwa water set the standard which showed a pink color. The irrigated water showed the same color which meant both samples were at safe levels. While they were demonstrating this to us, one of the students passed around a microscope that was small enough to be carried around. It was like one of those old school Kodak film cameras you would use to look through the lens. Seeing this device completely excited me since I’ve worked in labs three years of my college career and it was neat to see something that I had never seen before. I took so many pictures with it! Along with this, it was also very neat to see a laboratory have all of the same equipment and chemicals as our lab back at Illinois College. But it was really cool to see that everything was labeled in Japanese and not in English.

Me trying the cool microscope

Ritsumeikan students working on water quality test

Results of water quality test

Graduate students giving the group a tour

Water irrigation system by the science department

After the tour was done, we went to lunch in the cafeteria on campus. I had a bowl of rice, mizo soup, and some fried chicken with tartar sauce. Then, we were able to have free time for a couple hours before our interviews with the Ritsumeikan professors. For my interview, I went as a group with Julia and Leo because we are sharing the same paper regarding the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Disaster. Our professor was from the College of Economics and his name was Professor Koji Shimada. Our conversation lasted for nearly an hour and a half where he discussed the social issues regarding the Fukushima disaster. I really enjoyed the conversation because I didn’t really consider the social aspect where culture was a factor. For example, the government wants to lease out land from families to use for a disposal site for waste for the next 30 years. However, this is an issue because many families have kept their land for many years and generations and they would not want to do that to their land. Overall, this was a very good conversation because I was able to learn something new. After the interview, I went to dinner in the cafeteria with the group and had a break before we went to our next event.

Our next event was to meet graduate students to do a project with them. The student I paired up with was named Sakura. Her project was on the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physicology or Medicine. It was “for their discovery of RNA interference – gene silencing by double-stranded RNA” from the C. elegans microbe. We set up a plan for who would work on what and set up a time to meet up the next day. Once this was finished, I went back to my room and fell asleep for the night. 

Collaboration of Illinois College students and Ritsumeikan Graduate Students

Where does all the waste go?

Today, I woke up at 6 am. Ever since we arrived to Japan, I have woken up at the same time every single day. I find it to be annoying because I never wake up this early even when I’m getting ready for school. Anyway, today we ate breakfast and caught a bus and train to go to the Lake Biwa Environmental Research Institute. When we walked into the lobby area, we were asked to take off our shoes, put on slippers, and enter a lecture room. It amazes me of how clean Japanese people are. The material that was handed to us by the researchers was all written in Japanese. Not a lick of English. Therefore, Professor Webster had to stand in front of the room with the lecturer and translate everything for us. I was really impressed with her because I know it is not easy to translate between languages. After the lecture was over, we had a tour of the institute. They showed us some of the research they were working on and explained some of their procedures. One of the things that I found interesting was that in Lake Biwa, there is a species of plankton that is only found in that lake. I was super excited, and took pictures so I could look more into that research later. Overall, they showed how they measured water quality and if it met the standards needed to be safe.  After that, we then exited the research institute and walked down to the beach of Lake Biwa. We gathered a bottle of water so we could use for an experiment with our collaboration with graduate students on Tuesday and Wednesday. 

Lake Biwa Environmental Research Institute entrance

Lab tour

Lab tour

We ate lunch at a nearby restaurant and I had beef with rice. This was actually the first meal that I was not quite fond of. Afterwards, we went to our next destination which was the Shiga Wastewater Treatment Center. Just like at Lake Biwa Environmental Research Institute, we had to remove our shoes in the lobby and put on some slippers. When we entered the room for the lecture, we were again given a packet, but all of it was in Japanese. Professor Webster had to translate everything for us again. With this situation, I found it so intriguing. For the first time since we’ve came to Japan, I saw the cross-cultural exchange between two languages that were nowhere similar. It finally hit me that I was doing research for a different country and I was seeing first-hand what it meant to understand science and do research in a different country. After the lecture, we were given a tour here as well. They showed the process of water treatment and where smudge cake goes if it is no longer useful. It was cool to actually see everything in play. Based on my notes, there are three different locations for Lake Biwa: Northern Basin, Southern Basin, and the Seta River. The lecturer wrote on the board that with sludge cake, 25% is solid and 75% is water. From the 25% solid, 80% of that is organic matter and 20% is inorganic matter. The 80% that is organic matter is carbonized and turned into coal. 

Where coal is stored when not used

Machinery in Shiga Wastewater Treatment

After tour, we went to a 7/11 store across the street to buy water. I decided to buy a doughnut and as I was handing the lady the money, I realized another cultural aspect from the Japanese people. Every time I hand someone money or any type of item of some sort, they hold hands together, receive the item, bow and turn away. I liked this because in the process of exchanging items, their body language tells me I have their full attention whereas in America, we just reach with our hand as if we are in a rush and don’t care for anyone else. After this encounter, we went back to BKC and got ready for our Welcome Party with the Environmental Systems Engineering Department students and professors. It was a nice little get-together where I was able to meet some Japanese students who were very nice and respectful. The party lasted for about an hour and we mostly ate little rice balls, a type of noodles, and chicken. I honestly don’t remember half of the things that were given to us to eat, but I sure did enjoy it! As soon as the party ended, I went back to our room and fell asleep for the night. 

I look at a kimono how I would look at a wing dress

Today, we started off the day by heading to the Kyoto station by 10 am. We ate at a little café area where they served a lot of sweets and sandwiches to eat. I chose to eat four different kinds of pastries because once again I couldn’t figure what I should eat and what was good. Afterwards, we visited two temples. The first one was called the Golden Pavilion and the second one was called Ryoanji where there was a rock garden inside. Both of these places had beautiful nature walks and it was really hard not to get lost in all of the beauty of it. My favorite was the rock garden because sitting there looking at it was very peaceful and calming. On top of that, the air smelled fresh and it was quiet again. I loved how quiet it was here.

Golden Pavilion

Rock Garden at Ryoanji temple

After we visited the temples, we went to the shopping center in Kyoto. It was interesting to see some stores that I saw in the United States and some stores that I had never even heard of before. Some of us ate at a restaurant that served Ramen noodles. It was a neat little place because I was placed in a little seating area where they would open a window to see if we needed anything else. The Ritsumeikan student that I was sat with was Shin and he was nice. He showed me how to fill out the form on the type of noodles I wanted and he showed me where I could get water and go to the bathroom. While I was here, I bought myself a kimono because I think the traditional dressing is beautiful here. After I bought the outfit, I wore it around and realized I wanted to learn more about Japanese culture and history.

Shin enjoying his ramen noodles

Waterfront of Kyoto

Denpota and I

At around 7:30 pm, we attended a Kyoto Traditional Musical Art Foundation. My favorite part was the last showing. It was the Bunraku which is a puppet play. It was interesting to watch how they moved the puppet and made it look so realistic. It took three people to move her around for the show. Two of them were completely covered in black so that you couldn’t even see their faces, and one was covered in black except for the face. I wonder if there was a reason behind that. After the show, we went back to BKC and fell asleep for the night. 

Bunraku puppet play

Kyomai (Kyoto Style Dance)

Green Tea flavored ice cream?

This has been a very long day for me. I woke up at 6 am because my sleep schedule is still off and got ready to head to the lobby at 8 am. As we headed towards the cafeteria to get some food, we realized that nothing was open on campus because everything was closed on the weekends. So we took a bus to the Kyoto station and ate at Café De Monde. I had three doughnuts and a sandwich. Needless to say, I felt very fat this morning with how much food I ate. What I found interesting though was that there wasn’t very many trash cans around and I had a hard time finding somewhere to throw away the doughnut that I didn’t like. I ended up having to throw it away in a trash can in the bathroom.

 After that mission was complete, we took a train to go to the Monkey Mountain and to the kiyomizu-temple. Monkey mountain was a lot of fun because we were able to hike up a steep mountain and it was nice to get some exercise in on such a nice day. The monkeys were interesting looking as well. Their faces were red and it looked like they were sunburned. I learned that you should not look the monkey in the eye because they could charge you. I thought that was great advice to know.

View from Monkey Mountain

I'm feeding one of the monkeys!

When we walked back to the main city area, we got ice cream in the shops. It was interesting to see all of the different flavors. I got a banana flavor, even though there was green tea, vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry flavors. I thought the green tea looked the weirdest because it was a deep green and tasted weird as well. As we were standing there, it was funny because Sam was stopped by a group of students who went to a nearby school. They had to speak to him in English and asked him what he liked about Japan and things like that. It was cute.

Noodles for Lunch!

The different flavors of ice cream

The ice cream shop

Before we got to the temple, I experienced a very cramped bus ride. It was interesting because there was literally no room and I was barely able to hold onto the handle. Visiting the temple was a beautiful experience especially the part where I got to walk through the area where they pray. It was peaceful and rather quiet which was surprising to me because of all the people that were around. One of my favorite spots at the site was an area that was dedicated to little children that had died before their parents. There were tombstones with a Buddha and others that were small to represent children. I thought it was a nice message to send to parents that a God was watching over their children.

Tombstones dedicated to children

Entrance to Kiyomizu-temple

Shrine in Kiyomizu-temple

Once we were finished visiting the temple we went souvenir shopping. I found a Hello Kitty purse for my sister and some green for me and my grandma. We then had dinner at a restaurant in the Kyoto station. It was a great time where you didn’t order any food, they just brought it to you and you ate. I enjoyed this restaurant because we had to take off our shoes and for some reason I find this experience riveting.

It's All About Lake Biwa

Today, I woke up at 6 am because my body still is not use to the time change. So, I got ready and went to breakfast with the group at 8 am in one of the cafeterias here on campus. When we were standing in line, I basically took every single food item because I didn’t really know what to eat. I ended up with tofu (which I originally thought was cake), a soft hard-boiled egg that wasn’t completely cooked all the way, spinach, bowl of rice, fish, and an egg roll. I surprisingly ate everything, except for the tofu.

Mioko Sensei and Day at breakfast

 Our first destination was to the International Lake Environment Committee Foundation by Lake Biwa. We had to take two buses and two trains to get there. I enjoyed the ride there because I was able to look at some of the landscape. I quickly realized that I wished I was able to read some Japanese. When we got to ILEC, we were brought into a lecture room, and a man showed us a powerpoint on what they do. Basically, they are an awareness group and target lakes all around the world that have bad water quality. I asked whose standards they used to determine if the water quality was bad and they explained that they go off of the country’s preference that they were working with.

Left to Right: Kristen, Leo, Julia, Tori, and Sam
Posing in front of "Motherland" after lecture

Afterwards, we were brought to the Lake Biwa Museum. I thought this was really neat because it showed prehistoric stories and other things that showed how the Japanese once used Lake Biwa with their boats and fishing resources. I went into the gift shop there and bought a post card and some chopsticks. Then, we went to a restaurant in the Museum where I had some type of noodles to eat. 

Restaurant in the Museum

Sam in front of traditional long boat

Our next destination was to the ferry boat around a portion of Lake Biwa. Our boat set sail at 3:20 pm and it was an hour and a half long ride. It was beautiful and I was able to see a duet play on the boat. They serenaded our group with a song that was from the United States. I forgot the name of the song but it was really cool because they sounded pretty good.  After the boat ride, we had dinner and went back to BKC for the night.

View from boat

Jill and I with the male singer from the duet

BKC (Boy's Kingdom Campus)

I seriously hate having to change time zones. I fell asleep at 10:30 pm and woke up startled at 1:30 am. I woke Jill up asking her if it was 6:30 am already because it felt like I had overslept. She laughed at me and said no, it is 1:30 am. When we did finally wake up for the day, we caught another plane from Narito to Osaka. While on the flight, I noticed that when the flight attendants had to sit, they would bow towards the people, and then they would bow towards each other and then sit. It made me wonder why they did this? From there, we took a bus to BKC.

Garden by hotel

 At 3:20 pm, some of us met in the lobby to meet a professor to visit one of their labs here on the campus. When we arrived, we watched them measure the amount of E. coli in the water and work together as a team. This was interesting to watch because the students actually worked together. They would literally all hold the bottles and water together at the same time. This was different to me because in America, or at least at Illinois College, the students in lab usually break the work up. For example, one person will be measuring the contents, and other people will be writing down the information. Mind you, I couldn't completely understand the entire lab experiment because I don't read, write, or speak Japanese.

Information on board in lab

Students working together

Chalkboard information

After we observed the classrooms, we went back to the lobby of where we are staying and met with the rest of our group to have a tour of the campus. In my opinion, the classrooms were very intimidating. The walls were cemented and everything was so bare and big. It kind of reminded me of being inside a prison of some sort. I enjoyed the convenient store and the places to eat because there were so many different kinds of treats and items to look at. The vending machines were fun to look at because of the way they are displayed. I can’t quite explain it, but it’s not pictures that we’re looking at when selecting the item, we are looking at the actual item being purchased.

Pastry from convenient store

A hang out area with drinks to buy

Pastry from convenient store

After the tour, we were brought to dinner and that is where we met some students from the BKC campus that had gone to Illinois College and some students who were from Illinois College that were studying there this summer. It was a nice evening because I was able to see Risa, the student my roommate and I hosted back in February. After that, we all went back to the rooms, took a shower, and fell asleep by 10 pm.

AND WE HAVE LANDED!!

We landed at 8:30 pm. So, in essence, I didn’t live Wednesday which is really odd to think about. I was really excited to go through customs because that meant a new stamp in my passport which is awesome! As soon as we passed customs, we jumped on a bus, went to the hotel we were staying at in Narito, and called it a night. 

TO A DIFFERENT COUNTRY WE GO :)