Journeys for Knowledge

It’s been a while since I updated about my life in Japan, so there will be a lot to cover today. To start with, research has become a lot more interesting. The simulations I was given to complete have given me a much better understanding of the electron microscope I’m working on, so I’ve been able to use real data collected last week to help characterize the focusing power of the system. Analog electronics class has been mostly review thus far, so I spend most of my time in that class helping other students and explaining how their circuits work.

Last weekend, a first years all got together to have a potluck. Naturally my first instinct was to make real curry to show my Japanese friends how different Japanese curry was, but while buying ingredients, I realized I could actually make muffins here, so I did that instead. As expected, they were a huge success. It was fun to see all the unique foods people would make, and reinforced the realization that it’s quite possible to make just about anything I would cook back home.

After dinner, a group of us went down to the beach to set off fireworks. I’ve set off sparklets before, but back home fireworks are mostly banned due to the risk they pose of starting wildfires in dry California. As such, it was really great so see so many types of fireworks, from sparklers to rockets to littles boxes that shot out mini rockets. The pictures below speak better than my own words, so I simply leave it at that. I will follow up with another post soon about my Master’s defense with Cambridge.

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