A future of a PhD student

I have been stumbling across so many articles talking about the "not-so-bright" future of PhD students. Finishing my master and into the first year of my PhD study, I have seen quite a few examples of student body in the graduate program (at least in my field).

A general feeling that I have for the imbalance between the PhD graduate and the available jobs for them is the overwhelming amount of students getting into PhD for a "so-called" wrong reason. I have seen so many people getting into the field with the idea of spending a few more years of free tuition then could end up giving them a PhD. The idea of killing time with PhD is not suitable for this type of degree. I do believe that one should know that he/she commits to PhD program with a passion for science or for teaching. Because if the final end is money, I personally do not think PhD is an appropriate category of study.


Anyway, that is just my opinion. I am also struggling everyday thinking about my own future. But I do believe that I will try my best to fight for my passion with science and teaching.

WEEK 5!!! I AM IN LOVE WITH KOBE!!!

Hi everyone!!!!

So I think Canada right now is having a bit of a heat stroke and the temperatures for the last few days have not been very pleasant. So I guess I will stop complaining on how hot it is in Japan in my blog from now on :)

So as a much traditional country, there are tons of festivals (matsuri) happening all over the country at almost anytime during the year (well not so much in the winter I guess). I was very fortunate to be invited to go with the lab to one of the Shrines festivals in Ibaraki city. Here are a few recaps

Us at the Torii (gate) and having fun in front of the stage!

A few pictures at the event!! How crowded!!!

Escaping from the crowd in the festival, we ended up having dinner at a restaurant. I was very happy to see the professors join us as well. We had a great time (unlimited meals and DRINKS, who would not have a good time LOL)

Later in the weekend, I was able to explore Kobe. The city is about an hour away from where I live. I have to say that I am very lucky to be so closed to all the beautiful cities and sceneries (Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe, Nara,..) The travel has been very easy for me as well since I am always either with a group of friends of local labmates who know the area so well, so that is a big plus. Kobe is one of a few large ports in Japan and although with all the heat (sorry I know I promise not to complain about the heat), I enjoyed the city very much. Being a large trading centre, the city is filled with mixed cultures. Here are a few pictures of us on a boat cruise

So as said in the last post, I will end this post again with a few fun facts about Japan/Japanese. I am sure you guys will love this one (especially for people in science). So we know how Japanese are obsessed with anime, manga…. And I don’t have to look too far to find one example --> MY LAB. Here are a few demonstrations (credited to Yoneyama-san, our lab technician for her amazing drawing skills and her creativity)

1-Hate aggregations! 2-Refolding anyone? 3-Integral or peripheral mem protein?

So, I realize that I only have 4 weeks left!! Is there anywhere else you guys think I should explore in Japan?

Life in Osaka....

So again, I am late at updating my blog. I have been trying to adjust to Osaka and everything around. I guess my adaptation system is slower than everyone else. I try to compile most of the activities I have done in the past few weeks in this blog, so hope its not too overwhelming!

Soooo, I have been in Osaka for about 2 weeks and a half. I stay in JICA, a complex building for international students. It is not so far to where I work and it usually takes me about 15-20 minute walk. They have everything here: dining hall, computer room, seminar rooms, the gym, pool table, KARAOKE ROOM (this is probably the place that I hang out the most lol). They even let you rent bikes whenever you need. So that is very cool!

So as I said, I walk to work every morning and it takes about 15 minutes. It is actually a good exercise for me since after getting in the lab, I seem to just stick myself in there with the cool air flowing around. My lab has about 20 people in total; all the graduate students are all in the wet lab, and all the postdocs and professors are in the next rooms doing mostly computer work. People in lab here usually work from 10-10 so that is kinda new! It is nice in a way that you know you are never alone when you decide to stay late in the lab. We usually have lab meetings on Monday and then everybody helps clean the lab after. I think that is a very good routine! Oh, another nice things about the lab is that we usually sit and have lunch and dinner together, so in a way, it feels like a family around here. Too bad they do not have LAB OLYMPICS though!

The university campus where I work is kind of far away from downtown Osaka so we only explore the town and other close-by areas in the weekends. In the first weekend in Osaka, I was able to see the downtown of Osaka… SO MANY PEOPLE! There are many means of transportations as well: subway, monorail, different types of train, shinkansen… Technology here is very advanced, and all the trains are very clean!!! And do you know that Osaka is the city of food? I feel like I chose the right place for myself lol! We had takoyaki (fried octopus), a traditional cuisine in Osaka. It was good but I expected spectacular!! Oh well, no worries, I have 2 months to eat all the food here! Here are a few pictures of us hanging out in Osaka for the first weekend

The second weekend in Osaka, I was able to go up to Kyoto for a short one-day-trip with some of my labmates. The city is so opposite to Osaka. Most of the houses in Kyoto are very traditional and the city is filled with temples. Seriously, there is temple every 2-3 blocks or so. We had a chance to visit two temples, Kiyomizu and Sanjusangen-do. It was peaceful and refreshing!!Here are a few shots of us at the temples

Then come this weekend, I was going to go with some JSPS fellows to Kyoto again, but I have thesis paper to write…. so I have been locking myself in the room looking at the beautiful sunshine outside (and some writing of course :)) for the last two days. Luckily, I was able to take a bike ride to a park closed to where I stay with Rami (one of my friends in the residence). The park was so beautiful and I had fun trying to practice some professional photography skills that I got off from YOUTUBE lol… they are useful sometime!

So we finished the bike ride around 7pm and to be honest, my legs are killing me right now! It was only about 7-8km in total but going up and down all the hills were so painful for me! After this experience, I have to appreciate all my labmates who bike to work everyday for at least half an hour.

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Oh, so I know that I have been talking about myself a lot in the blog, I figured that I will leave a few useful facts (tips) for us here by the end of each blog so in case anyone wants to visit Japan, they have an easier time fitting in. Of course you can buy the guide book and it works just fine as well!

** So I have three things so far that are kind of cool to know

1. People here do not eat or drink while walking on the street. Every street has vending machines for soft drinks and some snacks. People usually just stand here to finish their food or drinks and then continue their trip
2. There are vending machines for BEER AND CIGARETTES!!!But again, no smoking while walking on the street (at least in Osaka I think) or 1000Yen fine!
3. Beers are cheap, fruits are EXPENSIVE! A watermelon right now costs 25CAD!!!! (I am so angry at myself now for not stopping by the grocery store on the way biking back to take a picture of watermelon with the price but I was exhausted and hungry at that time and usually my stomach sits very high on my priority list)

Time passes by so quickly and there are only about 6 weeks left in Japan for me. It has been great so far but there are still a lot of things in Japan I want to explore. Of course I also miss Canada tons too and cant wait to go back to share all the stories with us in person. I will update more often when I finish writing my thesis (almost there)…

So I guess this is it for me for now

Until next time, Sewa o suru (take care in Japanese)!!

Orientation week, homestay, moving to Osaka...

Hi all,

So sorry that it took me like a zillion years to update my blog! Trust me, I have been so so busy with so many activities (including lab work lol, but well no surprise to us i guess..). It is now 7:40pm in Osaka and I am trying to remember all the FUN things I have been doing this past week!!!

So after the last blog, we moved to Shonan Village Centre (SVC) to attend the orientation week with Sokendai Graduate School. First of all, the view from the hotel we stayed in was breathtaking and I could not ask for a better place for this Orientation week!! It looked right across Mt. Fuji and so GREEN!!! We had the orientation where everyone officially met for the first time. I was able to meet all the students from Canada, including some I have become closed friends. It was fascinating to see so many talented and cool friends from different fields (Math, Engineering, Biology.... all the way to Social Sciences..) and different countries. We picked up our room keys and then headed down for the dinner ceremony. The food was awesome and I think the amount of fish I had at that dinner was way more than what I had in the last few years in Canada. People were just mingling and getting to know each other. It was a great atmosphere. Most of the activities that we were scheduled ended around 7pm after dinner so I usually took a walk down the hill with a few fellows to breath some fresh air and get some DRINKS :).

The next day was a very long day, including Japanese lessons, lectures and then Japanese cultural activities. So, Japanese lessons... I was able to say hi and tell everyone where I'm from. Here are a little bit of Japanese for you guys at home :

Patrick desu (I am Patrick), Canada kara kimatshita (from Canada), Yoroshiku onegaishimasu (very nice to meet you). Oh!! And my Japanese name is Patorikku!!! (That is such a cool name).

After classes and lectures, we were able to learn a bit on Japanese culture such as origami, calligraphy, and tea ceremony. Here are a few pictures at the event. This was definitely a fun kick-off event for our 2-month trip in Japan.









The next day was filled with more Japanese classes (this is when it gets harder and less fun.. lol I know, only the second class) and poster presentation. So just to show everyone that we are not here just to have fun, we had to stand for almost 4hours during the poster presentation. It was actually nice to see what everyone would be working on this summer, a lot of cool projects. I stood right across from a guy from France that had the similar electron transport chain figure on my poster. That was interesting!!

HOMESTAY!!! I was so nervous about this coming in... Here is the story!!! First of all, I totally forgot to buy gifts for my host, so I was looking all day for a "Canadian" gift in Japan. So technically, I have to get something from Canada without the Japanese translation on the back... not so easy to find in JAPAN. Finally, I found a Canadian wine bottle at the supermarket near where we stayed and kindly asked the owner to strip the back label... so embarrassing... (Yoshiko, if you are reading this, I am so sorry :) I think the wine still tasted great though right? :)) Second of all, I was used to living all by myself, so this was definitely different for me!! But I was nervous for nothing since we had tons of FUN for the whole 2 days! Here is a quick recap:

Eating sushi the first night, visiting china town in Yokohama, temple in Ofuna the second day, and playing at the Japanese Arcade the last day!! It was so much FUN!













The homestay and orientation week passed by so quickly. It was time for us to say goodbye to SVC and headed to our research institute. I was kinda sad but excited at the same time!! The experience was fun but now it is the time for me to explore a different aspect of Japan, RESEARCH! I always admire and respect the research mentality of Japanese people and cannot wait to be a part of it. So I moved to Osaka on Tuesday from Tokyo by bullet train (Shinkansen). The train was awesomely fast and NO security-check!! I arrived Osaka University at around 4pm and got introduced to the lab. Probably knowing that I must be hungry, they took me out for Yakiniku (Korean BBQ). Food was good but the price was not!! It was 3,000 Yen for each person!! (about 40CAD). But I will get to that "expensive" topic in the next post! For now, I will leave us with a few good moments in my first 10 days in Japan

(Mount Fuji appears on the last day :) Doreamon's CAKES












AND my Lab family in OSAKA

Japan Summer 2011- Officially Started!!!

Konnichiwa!!!!!

Hi everyone, I hope everyone is doing well. I have been wanting to start a blog for a long time, and this trip to Japan is just a perfect time for me to make my plan into actions :) I hope to write and post new pictures every week of my journey here in NIPPON. So, here is the first one..

After quite a few months putting in long hours at work, I am so excited for this change of scenery. Working until Saturday only left me one day to pack, but I guess it was enough. Arriving at Japan today, I am currently staying at a hotel near the airport and will be moving to the Shonan Village Centre (SVC) tomorrow to start the orientation week. Browsing on some websites, I know that the place we are staying is looking across Mt. Fuji , sooo excited!!!! I am bringing my newly bought camera with me and expecting to take a lot of pictures tomorrow!

Weather in Japan has been good so far (around 25C), but I already miss the sun shining till late night in Canada. I am such foreigners too when thinking there would be tons of sushi at dinner -- Turn out people here do not eat sushi as much as we think we do LOL... a lot of fish though, so definitely good source of proteins with no FAT for me ;)

As I mentioned, we are moving to SVC tomorrow and will be having meetings with our groups from each country. There are only 6 of us from Canada, so I hope I will get to know them better after the orientation. The rest come from USA (like 50 of them), Germany, UK, and France (~ 10 each). I was going to bring my Laurier Science t-shirt to represent, but it got ripped after laundry...boo! By the way, we have to get up at 6:30am tomorrow for the orientation ( I guess they know already we wont be able to sleep anyway because of jetlag so why wasting time right? :))

I am listening to some Japanese radio station right now (1:40AM) while writing this blog. Japanese is definitely a very soothing language. It brings me calm and peaceful feelings. I will start my Japanese lesson on Thursday, so expecting some Japaneses in my later posts :)

This is it for me right now! Oh, the pictures in the blog is my room at the hotel in case you cant tell :). I will keep us updated with more activities later this week. Bed time for me now!!( dont worry I already slept for a few hours after dinner at 7pm lol)

Ps. Have fun at Frisbee everyone!! GO RED RADIATION!