Different cultures

So many differences to life in Japan and in Indonesia. The weather is extremely different. I came to Japan during winter so it's really cold there but fortunately I can adapt with it so I still can follow the study very well. It's freezing out there even though there's no snow but I can walk to the research institute building without any obstacles. Public transportation and facility support the civilian and foreign people very nicely. For the transportation, it is really easy to the train, bus, subway to go around the city. For me it was such an exciting experience to know more about Japan. Even though not all Japanese people can speak English well, they still can give direction to me or accompany me, definitely help me to reach the place I want to go. So many food contain of pork, so its little bit hard for Muslim to find halal food because everything was written in Japanese. The good thing is, there are abundant of fish and other halal food which is really good. I don't see the difference in food as a problem for me since I can still eat fish, chicken, noodle, etc. My supervisor once took me to sushi restaurant, such a heavenly taste. The habit of Japanese people such as discipline, careful, respect to other, hardworker and kind of on time person are very good to be applied to the field of laboratory and medicine. I learned a lot during my study in Japan even with only in the short term, not only the laboratory work, but more than that especially the culture and the kindness and good behaviour of Japanese people. Those are the things that I get beside great experience in the laboratory. I wish I can go back to japan again someday to learn more about medicine, laboratory work, etc, and sometimes I wish I can go back there anytime soon.

During the program, I had an opportunity to study in Osaka University hospital, knowing about the healthcare system in Japan, the nosocomial infection in the hospital, etc. Visiting the hospital gives me opportunity to see closed and know more about hospital management to prevent infection, and have a great discussion with the doctor there, especially paediatric and infection disease department. After hospital class, I studied about virology in RIMD (Research Institute for Microbial Disease). It's really fun do some laboratory stuff in RIMD. We are allowed to do some laboratory procedure by ourselves with the teacher's supervision. In the laboratory of virology department, I study more about virus. It is very rare to study about Virus in my country, so I think it's really exciting, especially the virus is well developed in tropical country like my country. It feels like new experience in the laboratory comes to me everyday. My supervisor taught me how to use the equipment in the laboratory, because some tools is different from in Indonesia, then he teach me to do PCR, electrophoresis, making LB plate, western blotting, transfection, etc. Because the time is too short for studying all of the things, we are focusing on the procedure. The good procedure lead to a good result. From the study from a week long, I also got so many knowledge from making the good power point, learning about the most update journal related to the research in laboratory, and present it in front of everyone. We also be able to see the museum of RIMD and having lunch with all of the professor and the staff. It has really been an honour for us.