Experience at UTokyo

I was interning at the University of Tokyo during the summer after the 3rd year of my B. Tech. This was the first time I visited any foreign country.

The University of Tokyo

The University of Tokyo, Hongo campus is a beautiful place. The campus has some of the oldest yet modern looking buildings. There is a small pond (Sanshiro pond) inside the university campus. There are two co-op stores to buy souvenirs. There is a Lawson store and a Lawson 100 (Here you get most of the items for 108 yen) inside. Outside the university, there are a few Indian restaurants (especially needed if you are a vegetarian). There is also University Chuo dining hall if you want to get food at an affordable price (I ate here only once during my stay). The University has a big library. There is Shirucafe (you can get free coffee here) for international students outside the University.

Internship

The process to apply is simple. The application starts in November, and the selected students are notified by February. The IJEP Secretariat sends the required documents for the visa application. They also book the flight tickets.

I was interning under Prof. Reiji Suda at Suda Lab, Department of Computer Science, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology. My project was based on High-Performance Computing, and I am continuing to work on the same after coming back to IIT Hyderabad.

The IJEP gave an amount of 240,000 yen as the scholarship (excluding flight tickets). The scholarship is not provided at once but in three instalments. The first one was given after around 20 days of our stay. IJEP also took us to a plant of DMG Mori at Nagoya. I got to travel on the Shinkansen (bullet train). The IJEP were kind to pay for the entire trip to Nagoya. Later, we visited TCS (Tata Consultancy Services) Office in Tokyo. The IJEP also organised a traditional Japanese Tea ceremony (Green tea with sweets).

Accommodation and Moving around

I stayed at Fujimi House, Tabata, Tokyo. The rent here is cheaper when compared to other Guest Houses and dorms. There are many convenient stores in Tokyo to buy things for regular needs. Generally, people working in the stores may not know English. Thanks to Google translate, I was able to manage most of the time I needed any help. Japanese people are very kind; they will patiently try to understand your problem even if they don’t understand English.

The University of Tokyo, Hongo Campus was around 2.5 km away from Tabata. Most of the days I took the metro. I used to walk till Nishi-Nippori station and took Tokyo Metro Chiyoda line to reach Nezu station. The University of Tokyo is a walkable distance from Nezu. I had bought a Pasmo card which can be recharged and used while commuting. The fare was 170 yen from Nishi-Nippori to Nezu (Actually it costs 165 yen if you use Pasmo card). During my stay at Tokyo, I never needed to take any Taxi or Cab. All of my commutes happened via trains.

Food

Being a lover of Indian cuisine, I faced difficulty adjusting to Japanese taste. Most of the time, I had food at Indian restaurants. I didn’t bring anything from India to cook. (If you are a vegetarian, I would suggest bringing some ingredients that you can cook here. It will save you money.) The food was a little costly. It was not difficult to find Indian restaurants in Tokyo. For breakfasts, I used to eat bread (bought from one of the convenient stores). Sometimes I used to eat at Subway inside the campus for lunch. For dinner, I used to eat at Indian restaurants. I also had Japanese curry rice at CoCo curry sometimes. I also ate sushi, ramen and miso soup during my stay at Tokyo.

Places visited

There are many places to see in Tokyo. I spent most of my weekends travelling and visiting sites. Some of the places I visited are Tokyo Tower, Tokyo Skytree, Enoshima Island, Zōjō-ji (Buddhist temple near Tokyo Tower), Meiji Jingu (Shinto shrine dedicated to Emperor Meiji), Nokogiriyama (If you like nature and quiet place, this is one of the places to visit.), Inokashira Park, Yoyogi Park, Ueno zoo, Kahaku (National Museum of Nature and Science), Omiya Railway Museum, Omiya Bonsai Museum. For shopping, there are Don Quijote stores at Shibuya and Shinjuku. Shibuya has the busiest crossing in Japan. There is a bronze statue of Hachiko at Shibuya. Akihabara is a great place for buying electronics.

Conclusion

Overall I had a wonderful experience during my internship, and I would recommend everyone to visit Japan. If you have anything to ask or say, feel free to ping me on facebook.

MY DAYS AT JAPAN

A research internship at the University of Tokyo was a dream come true for me. From being exposed to a really advanced research environment to being able to experience Japanese culture it was exhilarating. The objective of my internship and the background required was communicated to me well before the start and helped me to prepare accordingly before my arrival to Tokyo. After experiencing a beautiful sunrise through the flight windows I landed in the land of the Rising Sun with hopes up for a really beautiful summer. Work My research lab was very friendly and got me up to pace in no time. I made a lot of friends from different nationalities and they were always there to help me and answer my queries. My lab also gave me a welcome and farewell party! My work was interesting and also left me with enough time to explore the city. The cutting edge technology and facilities available at the University is really commendable. At the end of my internship I could really feel that I have experienced a steep learning curve.

Other Activities

Enrolling in the Japanese learning class help me to get closer to Japanese culture and make many more new friends. IJEP had organised to industrial visits for us. One was to the DMG Mori plant at Iga and the second to TCS office in Tokyo. These trips helped us to get an insight into the kind of business models and facilities at these companies. Other than this I also could spare time to visit some of the tourist spots, shrines, parks and so on.

I also got a chance to be part of a macha (green tea) party, Yukata wearing workshop and a meet-up with Sumo wrestlers.

Overall my Summer Internship has been fruitful from academic and leisurely point of view thanks to IJEP for giving me this opportunity, and I hope to return to UTokyo soon.

Research

The quality of research at the University of Tokyo is incredible. It was quite awe-inspiring to see how much thought actually goes in each step of the work. My sensei gave me a week’s time to understand the research done at the laboratory before taking a call. Thus, I could suggest and modify as to what I wanted to do. My research theme was Complex Valued Neural Networks. I worked on classification of subsurface objects by evaluating the degree of conformity between self organizing maps. The work was totally experimental and practical, something which I had not experienced earlier. We also had weekly seminars where I got to know about the research of each of my lab mates. It also helped increase our bonding. All the labmates used to go for lunch along with sensei everyday, which greatly helped me bond with my labmates, many of whom had become the best of my friends towards the end of my internship! I also got a farewell party at the end of my internship. Thus, I would say that the work culture, especially at Hirose Lab, was phenomenal. The IJEP Coordinators also took us for a trip to DMG Mori at their innovation day, in shinkansen! The trip was completely sponsored by IJEP and I enjoyed it thoroughly!

Life

I made sure not to waste even a minute of my time while in Japan. I used to walk to my lab and back home even though there were direct metro links, and it made me get closer to the Japanese culture and everyday life! Cooking is my passion and I have been close to the Japanese cuisine even in India, since I Ioved cooking Japanese. Food was the best part of my trip to Japan! I ate anything and everything Japanese, and food will be the what I’d miss the most about Japan. Oh, umami!

Every Saturday, I made it a point to travel through all lines of the Tokyo Metro (I might sound insane, but I’m a bit obsessed with Subway Systems around the world), and travel to the less explored corners of Tokyo.  I collected eki-stamps, went to lesser known shrines, dagashi shops, and simply walked around otherwise. Sundays were for the famous, touristy spots like Enoshima, DisneySea, etc. etc. The highlights of my trip were an urban challenge game, Journey to the End of the Night and my Fujisan climb. Fujisan climb was something that I had really been looking forward to and the entire experience was phenomenal. I went to Fujisan in the morning, climbed till the evening, stayed at the mountain hut, started to the peak at midnight, saw the sunrise and went to Kengamine, finally went down and straight to an onsen! Certainly my best time in Japan!

Language

As for Japanese, I had started to learn before coming to Japan itself. It really helped. I further attended Japanese classes while in Japan, taught by volunteers for a nominal fee. I plan to continue my studies further while in India.

Conclusion

My time during the internship will be something that I will remember for life. I made a lot of new friends and got quite emotionally attached with my lab and labmates! Will surely miss UTokyo! Hope to be back there soon!