Thursday- September 27, 2007

Institute

At institute the question was, how can you show respect to your spouse. My friend Sena-san answered saying by writing a card or making a cake or something like that. After class I said, "yeah making a cake is a great idea" so I asked her if she would make a cake for her boyfriend. She said “no way.” After institute I ate dinner with Sena-san and Shougo-san. The food was a lot better than the cafeteria. I love the school cafeteria but it’s nice to eat out sometimes too. This meal cost 1250 yen, and good ol' Shogo-san treated. The best part was the pickled cucumbers on the bottom right.

After a nice dinner the subway ride wasn’t so pleasant. Even at 10 o’clock at night the trains were packed.

Wednesday- September 26, 2007

New York
Today I started seriously planning my trip to go to New York at the beginning of October. It was good to contact old high school friends and plan to meet up with them. I really feel lucky because all of them are so nice and great people! It’s so cool how all the Iolani kids are in all the cool parts of the world.

Tuesday- September 25, 2007

Group Discussion
Once every two weeks our group, the structural biology group, meets with the professor. It was super funny in the morning. The professor singled out Yokoyama-san for not being careful in his experiments. It was funny because he also gets scolded for the same thing. When it came my turn to present the professor was really nice as he just said “good progress.” I guess because he was speaking English to me his tone of voice changed as it became a little higher and a little gentler.

As students returned from the three day weekend they brought with them omiyage- gifts. The best was yatsuhashi, one of the Kyoto’s famous omiyage and it was sooo good. It was triangled shaped mochi filled with anko and strawberry. It was gone before I could take a picture.

Monday- September 24, 2007

Wii
Today was another national holiday celebrating the fall equinox. That’s cool how Japanese have holiday’s like “ocean day” or “green (nature) day.” I just tried to recover in the morning from being sick. But at night I went to play the Wii with my friends. Mel had a projector and we played Wii on the big screen. Well… a big blank white wall. It was quite relaxing compared to being in the lab.

Sunday- September 23, 2007

Sick at church
Whether it was heat exhaustion or the yakisoba sandwich I ate, I felt sick in the morning. I barely made it to church on time. But at church I finally started to feel better and after receiving a priesthood blessing things were great.

Saturday- September 22, 2007

Softball
Well to save some of my coolness, I played softball with church members today. We took a drive out to Mie-ken to play the other wards in the stake. Our ward, Gokiso, was victorious as we won both of our games against the other two teams. We kind of dominated as there were about 4 other foreigners on our team.
When I came home I was beat because we played from 10 to 4:30 and tennis in between. And the temperature was 33 degrees with lots of humidity. The group that gathered to play softball. It was hot and muggy! But fun as our team dominated.

Friday- September 21, 2007

Am I a nerd?
I talked briefly to my friend Kristin and she asked me how I was doing and then I told her I’m enjoying my time here in the laboratory doing experiments and studying. And then she told me, “yeah, having fun with all the nerds.” I just laughed. But then I thought about it more seriously.

Today I stayed in the lab until about 11 at night. Even then I was one of the first ones to go home. There were just a lot of experiments and preparation to do. When it was getting kind of late I finally started to realize hey, I am kind of nerdy. I always thought I was pretty normal or even borderline cool, but as I thought about it more I kind of questioned myself. Who goes to Japan to do experiments in a lab? Isn’t Japan supposed to be a vacation or place to do business? Then I thought about my summer when I went to work at Agilent. Working with Dr. John made me feel cool when I was doing “cool science.” But when I tried to explain to others what I was doing it must have seemed pretty boring. I decided to just think of myself as a “cool nerd” from now.

Thursday- September 20, 2007

Learning
Today I learned something new things that I never knew before. At night I have a hard time sleeping if the bugs are too loud, which they usually are. But the guys in the lab said that they don’t mind it at all. To them it’s like telling them fall is here. Too me it’s like ahhhhh! Right outside my apartment. It’s like a mini forest. It’s really pretty, but at night the insects make lots of noises and it’s hard to sleep at times.

I also learned about what makes a girl pretty. Because the guys in the lab like to learn funny English words I taught them the word “hot.” You know if a girl or guy is hot. Well an interesting conversation broke out about who are the “hot girls” in our lab. So I gave them my honest opinion on who I think is pretty and they told me theirs. It was a lot different. I know that sounds high schoolish, but it was kind of interesting what makes someone pretty. For me, I think teeth are pretty important because you know having a nice smile is really nice. But for the Japanese guys, not so straight teeth doesn’t bother them at all. I thought that was kind of interesting what Western and Asian cultures pay attention to.

I also went to institute today. It was really good and there were a lot of nice young girls there, with straight and not so straight teeth.

Wednesday- September 19, 2007

My new phone!
The day finally came when I got my gaijin- foreign id card. So I thought I could now get a cell phone. Well I come to find out that I can’t get a regular cell phone only a prepaid one because I’m only here until December. It’s a little expensive to make calls. My new phone! It looks pretty normal. The only really cool feature is how you can send information through a remote type thing, like phone numbers and info so you don’t have to put it in manually.

I talked to my old buddy Maya today and she just broke her leg. But even though she was hurt in Japan of all places she still had a positive attitude. So I didn’t mind at all that the 25 minute call was a little expensive.

Tuesday- September 18, 2007

Back to the lab
After the three day weekend it was back to the lab to do more experiments. I just continued in my same routine. Doing experiments and enjoying the cafeteria. Nothing special!

Monday- September 17, 2007

Holiday!
Today I went with my friend Mel friend church to see Nagoya city. I bought one of those 1 day subway passes to save some money. We planned to see a movie but didn’t plan ahead and just killed time by going to shops and seeing things. We went to the Toyota offices where they have a showroom for the new cars. It was pretty cool!
The Toyota/Lexus Showroom! The Lexus cars look the same as in America but the Toyota vans are something else!

At night we met up with some of Mel’s friends from work who also teach English. We ate all you can eat Brazillian bbq. It was pretty tasty. Somehow it didn’t taste as good as it did in Utah. Maybe that’s why you should eat Japanese food in Japan and Brazilian food in Brazil.

Sunday- September 16, 2007

Another missionary reunion

After church today I went with members in the ward to a CES fireside. There I met my old missionary friend Mitsuo Honda. I wish I had a camera because of his fashion: gold watch, tuxedo shirt, and spiked hair. He looked like one of the club hosts that you see in the city. Anyway, it was really good to see him again after such a long time.

When I came home it was already past 6. So I quickly made some gyoza. 30 pieces of gyoza. It doesn’t look good (though it looked okay lined up in the pan) and it didn’t taste that good either.

I realize what a blessing it is to live with family, especially a mom who cooks warm and tasty meals, or at least buys them now.

Saturday- September 15, 2007

Potato digging and all you can eat grapes!

Because this weekend is a 3 day weekend with Monday being a holiday, respect for the elderly day, me and 3 of the lab members rented a car and went to see the rest of Aichi prefecture. The main place we went to in the morning was a place where you can dig up and take your own sweet potatoes. The price is 300 yen for 1 kilogram of potatoes. A little more expensive than the store but it’s the experience that counts. At the same place there is a field where you can eat all the grapes you want and a playground called “tarzan mountain.”

The old lady who sowed us the way and told us what to do. She was really nice but had a strong accent. That’s what happens when you go out to the country.

Nagai-san with the fruits, well… potatoes, of our labor. We just dug them from the ground with our hands. It wasn’t hard at all. But finding a big one felt like digging for gold. But there weren’t too many big ones because we came about 2 weeks too early.

Look at all the white bags of goodness! Inside are the grapes that we came for. You could eat all that you wanted to but we only ate one bunch each.
Members in the lab: Fukui-san, Miura-san, Yokoyama-san.
A tire swing on Tarzan mountain. There were a lot of kids there but us college kids enjoyed ourselves as well.
We ate in a mountain restaurant after playing. On the bamboo sticks is cooked rice flavored with miso, it’s called asukenbou and pretty good. I had the plain curry.
After eating the rest of the day we just went sightseeing in the country at a place called Kourankei. Seeing the nature of Japan was refreshing but the windy mountain roads wasn’t.

Friday- September 14, 2007

Good Results???

I found the schools gym this morning and it’s free!!! I think I’ll continue to run in the morning and work out there after.

Today in the lab I put my one week’s work to the test. After doing the protein purification from E. coli I collected the protein Qcr6 which is used in the mitochondria for respiration. I digested the protein with the peptidase, trypsin, and ran a gel to see if I could isolate the core part of Qcr6 so I could use it in the NMR machine to determine its structure. Well after having the boss, Momose-san, look at the results he said they were good but I need to spend one more day to change the digestion conditions to get a good isolation of the core part of the protein.
One of the gels I made! Qcr6 looks great!!! But there’s a lot more work to do…

Today in the lab I talked about my favorite Japanese actress, Itoh Misaki-san. I said it would be really cool if I could meet with her. They told me it’s impossible, but we’ll see…

Thursday- September 13, 2007

Church Institute ;)

It was finally nice to leave the lab before the sun went down for the first time this week. I went to Sakae- the downtown of Nagoya City, to meet with Yuwasa-san who was a fellow missionary in the Japan Tokyo North mission. We then took the subway to Nagoya station where the church institute building is located. The Nagoya station is huge!!! Because Toyota moved its offices from Tokyo to Nagoya the rent for office space near the station is super expensive. Today was the first time I saw the city side of Nagoya. There are lots of lights and tall buildings. Not as crazy as Tokyo but a bigger city than the suburbs by Nagoya University. Well the institute building, or institute floor as it should be called, is the second floor above a fish shop in a four story building.

Institute class wasn’t stinky it was actually really fun. The institute class was “marriage prep.” It was great!!! I thought I should take it because someday I hope to be married! There were about 30 other young members of the church there and it was really fun. It was really good to feel the same peaceful feelings that I feel on Sunday at church.

On the way home I bought some things at the store that are needed for the apartment like plates and bowls and utensils. After 1 and ½ weeks of living here I finally got them. I also bought some apples. They looked pretty normal so I didn’t take a picture but they were good and expensive.

Wednesday- September 12, 2007

Long day in the lab

Because I stayed in the lab until late I ate twice at my favorite place, the school cafeteria. I just continued to do the experiments that are required for my research. I am starting to become more comfortable with what’s going on.

It was kind of a boring day, but I have fun in the lab with the other students.

Various meals at the cafeteria. The price ranges form 450 yen to 550 yen. Super cheap and super good.

Tuesday- September 11, 2007

Rain

Today I woke up to the Japan rain. It was raining pretty hard so it was a good thing I bought an umbrella the night before. It finally started to feel cool by the end of the day. Last week I was complaining about the hot and muggy weather, but now it’s going to get colder and then soon enough it will be the cold and bitter winter season. It’s not that the weather is that bad it’s just that growing up in Hawaii and living in the Redwood City, where they have the “best climate in the nation” (elected by government test), has spoiled me, so living in a place where you need different sets of clothes is not my thing.

After a pretty light day in the lab I did more Japanese study and played Super Swing Golf on the Nintendo Wii. I dominate that game.

Super Swing Golf- my favorite game on the Nintendo Wii. But I just saw a commercial about this new game called Mario Striker Charged. I guess it came out in America already but is going to come out to Japan next month, I think I might buy it…

Monday- September 10, 2007

Tests… I thought I was on vacation!

Every Monday there is a happyoukai- presentation meeting, for a few students. It lasted about 2 hours. The professor asks the students to present in English because it is good practice for them. So I finally got to learn something cool today. Other than that, it was a pretty slow day in the lab, but it was a good time to do Japanese study.

I looked at the Japanese test seriously for the first time today. You need a score of 70% to pass the test, and the first part of the test that I took I got like a 45%. So there’s a long way for me to go. But I have 2 and ½ months left so we’ll see. More than learning about biochemistry this has become my main focus of my time in Japan.

I also looked at taking the GRE today to get into graduate school. I decided to the general test in October and chemistry subject test in November. With all these tests how am I suppose to take a break? The purpose of my coming to Japan was to get away from the anxiety that comes from tests in college for a semester. Oh, well… Gambaru shika nai ne! ~All I can do is try my best!

Sunday- September 9, 2007

Chyaachi- Church!

My body is finally adjusting to the Japan time. I woke up late at 8:55 am and had to hurry to catch the subway to make the 10:00 am church meetings. I made it, but I sure was sweating. When I got there I met an old friend, Yuasa-san, who I served a mission with in the Tokyo North Mission two years ago. It was good to see him and hear that my trainer (first missionary companion) also lives in Nagoya. I also met a young girl who went to BYU Hawaii and knows my cousin Richie Kiyabu (all the Japanese kids at BYU know Richie). There were also about 6 other American guys there and it seems Nagoya is a pretty international place. It’s nice to know that so many people in the ward can speak English.

After taking a nap after the long ride and walk home I got to call my high school friend Kristin who lives in Sendai, Japan. It was sooo good to talk to her and hear that other kids from Iolani are in Japan teaching English. There are at least 6 kids that I know so it would be cool to have a class reunion here.
Gokiso Ward. There about 100 members in the ward. It’s the oldest Mormon church in Nagoya. Nice people, just like home.

At night I made my first meal at home, yakisoba- fried noodles. Sunday dinner was a lot different eating by myself instead of eating with the Fjeldsted family after church, where there was always a hot and tasty feast for dinner.

Saturday- September 8, 2007

What to do?

I didn’t know what to do today after washing my clothes and doing some apartment clean up. So I gave in and went to the university. I said I wouldn’t work hard like the Japanese students, but I went into the lab to use the internet. Even on a Saturday afternoon there were lots of students still working hard, even my professor was there. I was actually very impressed with the work ethic of the Japanese. I hope I can learn and take that home with me.

Nagoya University- located in Aichi prefecture. Nagoya University is one of the top universities in Japan. Not the best, but still up there. Nagoya is close to Toyota city, where, yes, the Toyota car company’s headquarters are located. The population of Nagoya city is over 2,000,000.
Nagoya’s school of science is famous because Professor Ryoji Noyori won a Nobel prize in chemistry in 2001.

Today I also had my first bad meal in Japan. It was Taiwanese ramen. Should’ve went with the safe stuff.

Friday- September 7, 2007

Welcome party

The Japanese are so polite about welcoming new people. The 20 or so lab members chipped in money to throw a kangeikai (welcome party) for me and the new secretary. We had yakiniku (Japanese bbq meat) and boy was it good. The food was one of the main reasons for me to pursue studying in Japan.

The graduate students work so hard in the laboratory. But when it’s time to party they are funny people.

Shiota-kun (with the peace sign) he played American football. I like to call him “monkey boy”. In the back is Momose-san, he is a PhD student and my group leader.
Mizutani and Matsunaga-san. I guess Japanese-aloha wear is popular. Matsunaga-san can speak English like a pro.

My professor- Professor Toshiya Endo. He is the man! He can speak both English and Japanese fluently. The work he is doing is pretty amazing.
Tanaka-san, she said se did her eyelashes in the morning so I took her picture. Yagawa-san, Yokoyama-san, and Oguro-san. The three other members of the structural biology group. I’m the rookie. But I can beat all of them up. Japanese guys are super skinny- I must seem like a sumo to them.
The yakiniku sauce. Not only is the meat good, they have all sorts of dipping sauces.
Cooked chicken and rice. The Japanese on the rice bag says it’s “not necessary to wash."

Thursday- September 6, 2007

Stinky E. coli

Instead of going running in the morning I played Wii tennis for exercise. I then went to the lab to do some Nihongo benkyou (Japanese language study) while I waited for someone to show me what to do in the lab. It took me almost two hours to do one page of Japanese studying.

One of the students shared Japanese grapes with me and it was so oishii- delicious, so I decided to buy my own. It was about 400 yen for a bunch. Well worth it. Japanese fruits are so expensive, but they’re soooo good.


Budou- Japanese grapes.

After doing some preparations with stinky E. coli until about 9 o' clock I then went home to watch some Japanese comedy shows. They’re pretty silly.

Wednesday- September 5, 2007

New TV

So the highlight of the day was going to Ohtsukakanon (a place in Nagoya-city) to buy a new TV. Well I didn’t want to buy a “new” tv just something to play Nintendo Wii on and watch news at night. I was also thinking about buying a computer monitor as well. Well in good ‘ol Japanland they have both. I bought a new tv that can work as a computer monitor. It cost 16800 yen (~$150) used. I am very happy because it’s just the right size and pretty stylish.

My new tv that also doubles as a computer monitor. Nintendo Wii also shown.

Along with buying a tv, I also bought Japanese books to study. I decided to take the JLPT-Japanese language proficiency test in December. There are four levels and I’m going for the highest one. The passing rate is about 30%, but this gives me something to work for.

I also started working in the biochemistry lab today. It was pretty fun. I got to play with E.coli. I didn’t do much but I got to see the Japanese work ethic in action. Everyone is so busy in there. Most people come to the lab around 10 and then leave around midnight, some people stay longer. I come to the lab around 8 or 9 and then leave around 5. But I’m sure things will get busier as I learn more.

Everyone is really nice in the lab and we have fun talking in Japanese and English. I’m starting to like it here already!


The NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) machine. In the BYU chemistry department I only learned about NMR in textbooks, but now I actually get to play with the instrument.

Tuesday- September 4, 2007

First day in the lab- “free time”

I woke up at 5 o’clock because I was still on Hawaii time. The professor told me to come in around 9 o’clock. So I decided to go for a run and see what’s nearby. I found the school’s soccer and tennis courts and a nearby park to do exercise in the morning. Even at 7:30 it was bright and hot. I took a shower after running but still came out sweating. That’s the Japanese weather for you.

I went in at 9 to see the professor and there was another weekly update meeting that was going on. The topic was on the translocation of proteins into the mitochondria. Again everything was over my head. But, some Japanese words are coming back.

After that I met up with four students that I would be working with. Our project is structural biology and it seems I get to play with the NMR machine. We ate lunch at the school cafeteria and I ate the miso katusu which Nagoya is famous for. They seem like a fun bunch of guys and I look forward to working with them.

Because the lab wasn’t set up for me yet the group leader Takaki Momose-san said that I had free time the rest of the day. So I went out to walk the hot streets of Nagoya. I rode the subways and visited some shops. I bought about three bottles of drinks because it was so hot. As I walked around the shops and asked some questions about cell phones I realized that I really need to study Japanese. Some people think I’m Japanese because I look it, and they must think I’m retarded when I can’t speak Japanese.

After coming back to the school I paid my tuition. 148000 yen (~$1300) for ten credits. It was a little cheaper than I thought so I’m happy. So rent’s cheap and tuition is relatively cheap so I’m set. But if I keep buying vending machine drinks I’m going to be broke.

The Nagoya International Residence. An 8-story building with many foreign students. Rent is 5900 yen a month and about another 6000 yen for utilities. I live in C414 a single room with adequate space.

Monday- September 3, 2007

My first day in Nagoya

Even though I dread flying on airplanes for flights over 1 hour, the 8 hour flight from Honolulu to Nagoya was quite pleasant. I got to the airport early and JAL had a nice lounge where I could relax and read the Sunday paper and drink my last guava juice for a few months. On the flight the amazing Japanese service kicked in with frequent drinks, hot towels, and delicious meals. The flight attendants were first class and could speak both English and Japanese fluently.

Akira Takano, the most senior graduate student in professor Endo’s laboratory picked me up at the airport and it was about a 1 hour drive from Chuubu airport to Nagoya University. After dropping off my bags at the Nagoya University International residence, which only cost 5900 yen (~$50) per month, we went over to the lab. There I sat in the weekly happyoukai- presentation meeting. Sitting there for 20 minutes I quickly realized that studying in Japan is going to be a lot harder than I imagined. Perhaps it was being tired from the flight but I didn’t understand anything that was being said. Professor Endo, who is fluent in English, greeted me and then told me to go and rest for the night. It was already 7 pm at night, 12pm Hawaii time.

After saying my first hellos and goodbyes for the night I stopped over at Lawson’s, the nearest convenience store to buy my first dinner. And then it was off to bed.

A small portion of katsu-donburi and a coconut jello dessert for 340 yen.