As a final part of my first year at OIST, the graduate school organized a tour of Japan, where we would visit other major Japanese universities and network with them to see how the rest of Japan runs their PhD programs. Naturally these classical universities would run things a little differently from us, so it […]
Having finally found time on a weekend, my friends and I decided to return to the Ocean Expo Park to visit the Churami Aquarium we were unable to visit during the fireworks trip. The aquarium is world famous for having the largest single aquarium window in the world, connected to a tank holding 3 whale […]
Recently the Resource Center at OIST organized another outing for researchers, to attend Okinawa’s largest fireworks show at the Ocean Expo Park. I signed up immediately, having never been there myself and spending most of my recent weekends inside. Thankfully we arrived with plenty of time to spare, giving us a chance to explore the […]
Over the last few weeks I have been able to take more time to properly cook dinner. I have also been looking into recipes I can make in bulk with the limited produce I have access to during the seasons. This resulted in some rather interesting results, including a variant of jambalaya and polenta that […]
Unlike my other rotations, this term my work is mostly based in the lab. My goal is to understand how to best grow crystal films for use in solar cells. Since there is very little known about the exact science underlying the growth process for these crystals, I have to go through a lot of […]
Indeed it has been some time since my last post, and quite a bit has happened. In the period between then and now, I’ve returned home, started a new project, and begun to contemplate my future thesis. So let’s dive in shall we? My three week visit home will be the only time I return […]
Over the weekend, I had intended to mostly rest at home and work on personal projects. Needless to say, things didn’t exactly go to plan, and I ended up joining friends for a trip to the northern part of the island to visit an azalea park. The park was putting on a small festival to […]
This post is a bit delayed bit to a very busy schedule, but as I alluded to last time, I have recently completed another Gundam model. This one’s name is Gundam GP-01 Full Vernian. This title comes from the word vernier, which is a a secondary thruster used for mobility in space. Similarly, this model […]
Every so often OIST hosts outings to help people become acquainted with Okinawa and local attractions. This weekend they were organizing a group to go out on the ocean and watch whales. Given how unique of an opportunity this is, it was hard to refuse. Skip to the bottom of this post for the photos, […]
Sakura is the Japanese name for the cherry blossom, one of the most famous natural occurrences in Japan. Thousands of people turn out for the cherry blossoms blooming, especially because the blossoms last so very briefly. Although cherry blossom season is usually in February and March, down in Okinawa it hits as soon as January. […]