Yes, every summer I write a blog post, in a weak attempt to practice whatever remains of my writing skills. I haven't even started yet but I already feel so demotivated. Why is it so hard to collect my thoughts and express myself in a way that's not dull?

Words cannot express the amount of gratitude I feel for being given the opportunity to do research in the University of Tokyo, not only because Japan is cool and has great food (I think I had cheap sashimi once every 2 days) but also because I really wanted to try my hand at research since I'm considering that as a future job option. I only wished the programme was longer because I felt like I didn't manage to accomplish much in the span of 5 weeks, but I am grateful enough that I had the opportunity to make my own plug flow and batch reactors and hydrotalcite catalyst from scratch, something which I have never done before:


I could go on all day about my month there, but I'm far too lazy and too inept at articulating everything I want to say, so I'm just going to list down some facets that I found interesting:

1. One can go cycling at 10 pm without fear of getting mugged
The University of Tokyo Kashiwa campus is located in well, Kashiwa (duh), which is in Chiba prefecture. Compared to the hustle and bustle that is downtown Tokyo, it's much more serene here and a lot of people cycle to work and school, there are even bicycle lanes and bicycle parking lots:

Not sure if this is the norm throughout Japan, but I love this system because it is a much greener way to get around. I wish the same could be implemented in Malaysia, but cycling here feels like asking to be knocked down by a car.
Since there were plenty of events going on and running experiments in the lab is a full day business, there were many times where I left the university campus late at night. And whenever I could get my hands on Daniyar's bike, I would cycle back to the hotel. With the crickets and cicadas chirping and the wind on your face and hair, cycling in the night feels amazing, even more so than in the day - You're lost in the moment and for a while, all your problems don't matter in the very slightest.

2. The onsen experience
I told myself I would try going to the onsen at least once and I am proud to say I accomplished my mission and went a total of 4 or 5 times, albeit only in the last 2 weeks I was there. I find it interesting that a country with such a reserved culture would have a tradition of public bathing. I can't stand looking at myself naked, let alone looking at other people or letting others see me in this way, but everyone was telling me how awesome soaking in the onsen felt and the hotel's onsen was exceptionally beautiful so I thought, what the heck right? I should at least partake in this cultural experience at least once. After a few failed attempts at finding a time when the onsen is completely vacant (NEWSFLASH IT IS NEVER EMPTY), I gave up and just went during a time when there were less than 5 people around. Being short-sighed is a blessing in this case, the moment I took off my glasses in the changing room, I couldn't see anything but rough shapes, so public bathing ended up being not that mortifying after all. After the first attempt, I decided I kinda enjoyed it so I ended up going a few more times when there were less people around, namely after midnight.

3. Japan is a wonderland for drinks
I can't help spending money on drinks, it's been a really bad habit of mine since young. Every time I catch sight of some cool-sounding beverage on the menu, it takes enormous self-restraint to prevent myself from shelling out the sad remains of my purse. Most of the time I just give in and treat myself. Lucky for me, there is no lack of variety in Japanese supermarkets when it comes to drinks, alcoholic and non-alcoholic alike, and every season, beverage companies come up with new varieties of existing drinks or completely new drinks that are limited to that particular season. I remember there being a lot of melon-based drinks as well as isotonic drinks since it's summer right now. I regret not taking pictures of my favourites, I only have one of the green tea I love:

Normal green tea (Summer version, which is supposed to be more refreshing), ice lemon tea and jasmine green tea all by the same company, Suntory, coincidentally, whose whisky distillery we also got to visit.
After coming back to Malaysia, I tried looking for the same green tea in Shojikiya and they actually have it! Joy! And then I found out they wanted RM 8 for it. ROBBERY IT'S ONLY 100+ YEN IN JAPAN.
I really love this one too:
Kirin's Salty Lychee isotonic drink, picture looted from Kirin's website because I was a fool and forget to take a photo.
And back here I'm stuck with plain ol' 100 plus. :'( Don't even get me started on the alcoholic drinks, I miss Suntory's yubari melon chuuhai and Horoyoi drinks so much it hurts. Actually, I think variety is present in almost everything here. If you walk down the snacks aisle in the supermarket, you can see more than ten flavours of Calbee on the shelves and Calbee is but one brand.

4. Conveyor belt sushi is amazing
And I am not talking about Sushi King. I only went to two different conveyor belt sushi chains during my stay, the first (and, according to Masahiro, the best conveyor belt sushi chain) was Sushiro and the other was Kurazushi, and each restaurant has their own unique ordering system. Sushiro goes by a colour system where each table is identified by its own individual colour and everything you order on your personal screen will be delivered on the conveyor belt to you on plates with aforementioned colour, so that you know which is yours. You also know when your food will be coming because of a burst of cheery music from the screen and an announcement of "Your food is arriving shortly!"".

Photo from the time I Sushiro-ed alone because everyone had already left Kashiwa at that time. :'(
I should really franchise Sushiro and bring it to Malaysia, then it'll be goodbye Sushi Zanmai your service has been steadily deteriorating anyway. A potential problem will be having your food stolen by others who just couldn't be bothered to order their own, since there's nothing stopping people from taking someone else's food. So maybe Kurazushi's system would be more easily implemented in Malaysia...
Besides the normal conveyor belt with the different types of sushi on it, Kurashi has another belt? or what Masahiro calls "the shinkansen track", because after ordering on the screen, your food will be delivered by zooming straight to your table on this track (Hence shinkansen), bypassing the other customers' tables. HOW INNOVATIVE IS THAT. :D I was so fascinated I felt like ordering more stuff just to see them zoomed to me. I should also mention that not only is the tech cool, the food in all these conveyor belt restaurants is actually really tasty, no Sushi King or Sakae Sushi nonsense, but I guess that's kinda a given since it's local fare.

5. The curious case of the lack of rubbish bins
There is a serious lack of rubbish bins in Tokyo. I experienced this first hand when, after eating about three quarters of the crepe I bought in Harajuku I wanted to chuck it because I was feeling jelat from all the whipped cream that all these crepes seem to have. Walked down half a street, and not just any street but the main tourist attraction street Takeshita Doori and we couldn't find a single bin. Reddy was convinced there would be one in the JR Harajuku train station so we walked back there since we were going home anyway but we failed to find one there either which really surprised all of us but no matter, we were getting off at Akihabara to change to another line, the Tsukuba Express, that would take us back to Kashiwa, so there was bound to be one somewhere along the way right? Nope. We didn't find any until we got back to our hotel rooms. On the bright side I got tired of holding my half-finished crepe, so somewhere along the way back I finished it. Despite there being no bins around, the streets of Tokyo are still almost spotlessly clean though.

6. Summer is a great time to be in Japan
If you can stand the heat and humidity, summer in Japan is great because there are a lot of different festivals going on and every city seems to have its own fireworks festival. I was lucky enough to have had the chance to go for the one at Arakawa River near Kita-Senjuu, just a few train stops away from Kashiwa. By that time, everyone from my programme had already left, but Matsuoka-san from my lab said he was going too, so I had great company watching the most amazing fireworks I have ever seen in my life (Sorry Hong Kong Disneyland, I'm booting you to second place):




In my blog post about my 3 day visit to Japan last year I said

Next time I'm going to visit Hakone, Kyoto, Osaka, Hokkaido, Okinawa...... You know what I'm just gonna travel all across Japan.

Despite my month long stay, I didn't manage to visit any of the 5 places for a multitude of reasons: Having too much fun with my program mates and lab mates in Tokyo, not enough cash to shinkansen my way around Japan etc . etc., but I did visit Yamanashi and Tochigi (Gotta thank my lab mates for this trip). So... including Chiba and Tokyo, that's 4 prefectures down, and 43 more to visit! I'm pumped up and ready! Now I just need the cash and some good company. ;)