My Internship at Tohoku University, Sendai

I was in Tohoku University for a one-month internship under the 21st Century COE program in November, 2006. In the first week of my arrival, I attended the 3rd International Conference on Flow Dynamics at Hotel Taikanso, Matsushima. I presented my work on shockwaves bubble interaction using a numerical method known as the Boundary Element Method. The conference was very well organized; I attended many interesting talks and learnt about the forefront of fluid dynamics research in Japan and beyond. On the second night of the conference, there was a wonderful banquet. The food was excellent and I absolutely enjoyed the entertaining performance of a traditional drum troop from Miyagi.

I stayed at the Miyagi Overseas Trainee Dormitory which is located in a slightly suburban area of Sanjo Machi. The staffs and fellow dorm-mates were friendly and the general environment was cozy and comfortable. At first I was not used to the rather cold weather of deep autumn, having been from a hot tropical country like Singapore. But I soon got used to it and found that rather refreshing at times :) There is a bus from the dormitory to downtown Sendai. It took about twenty minutes to get to somewhere near Oomachi walkway and another ten minutes on foot to get to Tohuku University's Katahira campus where the laboratory is.

Oomachi walkway is linked to a few other walkways which are lined up with lots of shopping centers, entertainment shops (pachinko shops, arcades, karaoke centers etc), and restaurants. From Katahira campus, it takes only five minutes or so to get to the Ichibancho walkway. Apart from the great variety of restaurants selling anything from traditional sushi, udon to international cuisines from Italy or India, one can also enjoy the basement food streets at almost all of the big shopping centers there. I loved visiting these food streets because I got to sample different finger food like gyoza, inarizushi, tonkatsu, kara-age etc. Of coarse, shopping is great too along these walkways On the whole, these streets are an absolute walker/shopper/fun-seeker paradise!

On a certain weekend, I traveled via Shinkansen to Tokyo. I visited the Yoyogi Koen, Shibuya, and Akihabara. There is a temple in Yoyogi Koen. On that day, there were several wedding couples and kids who were celebrating their three or five or seven years coming-of-age. These people were all dressed up beautifully in traditional japanese costume. A big contrast to the out-of-the-world beauty of tradition, Shibuya was full of young people dressed in outlandish modern fashion. I visited the 109 building where the latest styling trends of Japan can be found. At the end of my visit, I went to Akihabara electronic street. The whole street was closed to traffic and was instead filled up with pedestrians. It was a much alive and bustling street with lots of shops selling the latest electrical gadgets and anime related items, huge entertainment centers with hundreds of pachinko machines, and budding performers showing their talents on the sideways.

Time flew by and the month stay ended before I knew. It was a very pleasant visit. I must thank my supervisors, Prof Murayama and Prof Sun, for hosting me here. Also, I need to express my deepest gratitude to Prof Takayama and Dr. Menezes for the invaluable guidance they have given me in my research work. Not forgetting too all the other lab members in the Shockwaves Research Center and all staffs at the COE office, whom I must thank for all the help and care. Although it was a short visit, I have obtained precious insights to the japanese way of working, and experiences of living in Japan. I hope to be able to come back for a longer stay next time :)