Science summer camp :)

Tuesday

All of us!

Well, Tuesday and Wednesday were much like Monday – talks ALL DAY and then some fun at night.

Tuesday we were “released” early –ish (6pm) and after a quick group picture, a few of us decided to head into Tokyo for some fun. Even though I was supposed to give my talk at 9am, I joined in! We grabbed some Japanese fast food (interesting burgers…), hopped on the train and headed into the big city. We decided to try out Odaiba Island, which is a man-made area built out of the former dump! Now it has a huge ferris wheel, lots of arcades, and a great view of the rest of the city over Tokyo Bay.

Tokyo from Odaiba

We got to ride a cool monorail that winds through the skyscrapers of downtown Tokyo, over the bridge across the bay, and to the “island.” It was cool to see Tokyo all lit up at night! When we got to our destination, everything seemed kind of dead…none of the bars or restaurants were still open, so we strolled along the water, snapped a lot of pictures of twinkling Tokyo and a replica of the Statue of Liberty, and eventually found a small waterfront café that said they would still serve us a beer.

Lady Liberty in Tokyo

It was a relatively uneventful but really fun evening, and we headed off the island a little early to beat midnight rush hour.  At some point in the commute home, I realized I was the only American, but felt so lucky to have met such cool people from all over the world that had so much in common and were so much fun!

We made it back to the hotel, a few of us had our now ritual lobby beer before bed, and we called it a relatively early night!

Wednesday

Well, Wednesday marked the last day of the class and the last day of student talks, and I had the pleasure of giving the second talk of the morning. I can’t say I felt overly prepared, but its sort of hard to say that much in a 7 minute talk, so I didn’t over think it :P I was honestly a bit intimidated by the other speakers – everyone had given great talks, and some seemed really professional or extremely practiced! But my talk was fine…I won’t claim to have wowed my audience, and I forgot to emphasize a point or two that I wanted to, but I think it was coherent!

Science!

After more talks, lunch, and the final round of non-student talks, we came to the LAST session of the class: another poster session! We were all kind of scienced out, so again we just drank the beers, ate some more sushi, and avoided our little science fair displays. I fielded a few questions, but for the most part my job was done, and the organizers sensed our anxiousness and told us we could all get out a half hour early!

We went back to the hotel, dumped our poster tubes (mine was generously donated to RIKEN :P) and a big group of us headed out locally to find some drinks. There were WAY too many people, and again we wandered around for 15 minutes trying to find a bar that could hold all of us. We were relatively unsuccessful, and ended up losing half the party when we were winding through some back alleys and popping into bars only to be told we couldn’t be served.

But the half of the group I was with was a fun half, and we found a cool “Okinawa-themed” bar to squeeze into: think Japanese Hawaii! There were murals of the beach on the walls, and we were warmly greeted by the completely non-English speaking staff. After ditching our shoes, we curled up at a more traditional table where we basically had to sit on the ground. We had a few rounds of beers and talked forever! While we were there, we even met people at the table next to us who worked at the Institute hosting our class!

It was fun to talk politics and career ideas with the others, as most of them were European and have a completely different view of grad school. For example, one of the students, Stefan, is having a baby. He gets several months paternity leave AND a 400 Euro raise… just for procreating! In the USA, we barely get 6 weeks for maternity, and I’m not even sure that fathers get anything!

Not so shocking...

After the bar, most people went home, but a few of us heard there was a temple on the other side of the hotel, so we grabbed some beer-to-go from the convenience store. While we were in the store, I noticed that there were a lot of men just standing around reading magazines…I quickly realized they were NOT G-rated, and got a bit curious. Since I had a beer or two before this point, I bravely marched over and picked out a magazine to investigate. Weirdly enough, they ended up being pretty PG for the most part, and seemed more like Maxim or Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition than anything too racy. But everyone thought it was hilarious, and there are now more than a few pictures on Facebook of me standing in the Family Mart poring over the centerfolds.

We found the temple only two blocks away, and hung out in the eerily quiet courtyard and admired the shrine. Its amazing how modern Japan is, but there are hidden little bits of history tucked into every alley and around every corner.

After a while we ran out of beer and all got tired, so we walked back to the hotel. Overall, it was a fun night of celebrating the end of our summer school.