My life as a JSPS researcher in Japan

I first thought of working in Japan after a conversation in a pub with one of my PhD supervisors. I followed the idea up and contacted a research group whose work I respected and a year later I was applying for a JSPS fellowship through the Royal Society.

I spent two years in Japan living in Sendai, a lovely modern city of around a million people, in the Tohoku district of NE Japan. I was working at Tohoku University Medical School doing research on a new drug made by the Kirin Company which is better known for making beer - as the company rep often brought beer when he visited it made me popular at departmental gatherings! Japan is a little bigger than the UK but made up of over 3000 separate islands and is very varied which makes it difficult to summarise easily, Some parts are mountainous and cold (great for skiing!), while Okinawa in the south is subtropical with warm coral seas.

I was lucky enough to have travelled around Japan and it was tempting to just show slides of well-known places but I decided this approach was a bit touristy. Working in Japan gives you the added dimension of time; you get to see how places change and to see things like the festivals that occur throughout the year. There are also all of the cultural aspects to life in Japan; I particularly liked the gardens and aspects of Japan's samurai history. One thing you will notice in Japan is that most people are Japanese - you will therefore stand-out from the crowd, especially if you are tall, blonde and obviously foreign. Furthermore, perhaps the most important aspect of working in Japan is the people; they are often shy at first but are kind and polite and soon become good friends. I chose an odd slide to summarise my view of Japan, a traditional Japanese toilet it's different from a Western toilet, perhaps a bit "old fashioned", perhaps not that comfortable at first, but clean, efficient and practical. There is also an ultra-modern high tech Japanese toilet, perhaps more recognisable but equally different from the UK norm. I think this summarises Japan, as my Japanese professor once told me eJapan is modernising but is not strictly speaking westernising'. That is what makes it different and that is what makes it fun! I had a rewarding and interesting time in Japan, it was great fun and I would recommend the experience to anybody!

At the JSPS Programme IntroductionEvent

at the University of Edinburgh

on the 2nd March 2006,

at the University of Cambridge

on the 9th May 2006,

at the Imperial College London

on the 22nd November,

at the University of Cambridge

on the 30th May 2007

• Presentation (Kingsbury) (6.80mb)