Konnichiwa こんにちは
Heyy guys, this is Adarsh Prajapati, a third-year student at the Mechanical Engineering department. I am an editor at Insight but no one asked me to make my Sophie blog 🙁 so I had to volunteer by myself.
I had spent my summers of ‘24 in the land of the rising sun – Japan, where my internship was at Kyoto University through a research internship program KU-STAR (Kyoto University Short Term Academic Research).
Why Research Internship in Second Year?
From the inception of my second year, I started worrying that maybe the hobby and fun exploration year was over and I should start worrying about my career now (˘･_･˘), which leads to a different quest, which is the work that I would find myself happy to do for a long time. In the eagerness to find something unconventional and ‘hatke’, my mentors told me to take up an interesting project in my department or anywhere that ignites my brain, so I don’t spend my entire year going to gym and wander across the campus in search of protein 😛 I did the same and started working meticulously over my research project. Through mutuals, I came across some seniors who had done second-year internships in universities abroad, which sounded quite fascinating that professors were willing to call you to their country for a stay of 2 months and let you research at their labs. These seniors got their internship through PT cell and as things unraveled I found out that Mech Machaxx is not given any foreign univ opportunities for the second year. So I started contacting people who got theirs through apping or university programs and started making my own internship database, CV, and portfolio website in the month of December. Shout out to the Core Internship Booklet (now called Univ Internship Booklet) by Enpower as one of my main sources of univ programs.
Let’s play HOLI 🎨🔫
KU STAR was another such program to which I applied in the month of February. The application procedure was simple: select the research area and professor, make an SOP, and arrange an LoR, and I diligently did everything. One quiet and normal day sitting at the library a kyoto-u email id messaged me to schedule the interview round for the internship. Given the availability of the professor for the interview, it was supposed to be held on the day of holi. After getting wasted(not literally) playing Holi in the morning, I sat for the interview post the dedicated effort to scrub my face and not look multicoloured in the online meet. The 20 minutes included me trying to show enthu about their culture (obviously not by convincing the professor that ‘I watch anime at 2x’ and know konnichiwa and ohayo), along with my interest in the work on Terahertz Spectroscopy to let them know my curiosity in the research. They told me they are expecting me in Kyoto for summer 2024, which got listed as one of the happiest days of my life.
The Land of the Rising Sun 🌅
Landing in Japan, we were awed by almost everything we experienced there, be it the systematic and disciplined nature of the nihong-jin (japanese people) or the privileged treatment that we got from Kyoto University. The combini (convenience stores) like 7-Eleven, Lawson, Family Mart at every 500m were the ultimate saviours whenever you run out of any supplies. The Kamogawa(Kamo river) which divides the Kyoto city into two parts is the hotspot of peace and delight on weekends and evenings. There are no dustbins in Japan and everyone is used to keep their trash in their bags, still the streets are as clean as one could imagine. Traveling in the buses, and trains is also an experience on its own. The KU also organised various special events for our cohort like an industry visit to Shimadzu Corporation, a meeting with the Mayor of Kyoto, special classes to learn Japanese, and the interaction with various industry professionals on the final day of the internship presentation.
Doing a university internship also allowed me to discover a student’s life in Japan by attending some classes (only a handful were in English lol), participating in cultural activities, playing with my labmates, going to the gym, and hanging out with the KU International Student Cooperation.
The nihong-jin have the goodwill and helpful nature imbibed in their personality so there is a high chance that even if they don’t understand you they will still try to do their best in resolving your problem.
TRAVEL 🚅
Obviously there is a lot to explore in Japan, from its rich culture to its seemingly astounding beauty. We got to stay in Kyoto, the ancient capital of Japan and visited many shrines, temples, restaurants, and mountains. My favourite destinations were Universal Studios in Osaka and Mt. Fuji. I got to ride 5 record-breaking roller coasters which proved the love for my mom while climbing up to the top ಥ_ಥ. We swam in the Miyazu bay which were the backwaters of the sea of Japan at Amanohashidate. We also travelled to Tokyo via Shinkansen (bullet train) and visited the marvels it has to offer like the Teamlabs Planets, the 634-metre-tall Tokyo Skytree, Kabukicho, and the man-made island Odaiba. There are plenty of stories behind every trip, so I won’t bore you people.
Let’s get to work
My research area was to conduct spectroscopy experiments in the Terahertz spectrum of EM waves. The procedure involved optical alignment through pinholes and mirrors, then shining a laser over the sample of the Perovskite Solar Cell to generate Terahertz waves and detecting them to study their changes with different sample conditions to determine their generation mechanism. The problem was interesting but the sample that we had was outdated and the new sample delivery took a few weeks so I couldn’t do something publishable. We had two meetings every week where the researchers presented their progress and discussed the future plan with the professor. My internship concluded with a poster presentation in which all 18 students presented their posters to numerous faculties, students and industry professionals.
But everything is not as rosy as it seems ;(
Life in Japan looks so pleasing and comforting through the screens but it’s not completely honest. The two major setbacks that we encountered after reaching there, which we didn’t anticipate to be hitting so hard – LANGUAGE and FOOD. Statistics show that a maximum of 20-30% of the population of Japan speaks English. Some of my friends faced problems with the labmates(Kyoto University students) and even their own professors to communicate their research and get proper guidance. One of my non-Japanese friends at KU told me, “Bro, a random old man who likes to talk to foreigners might know better English than the students😭”, which surprisingly I found true. However, we managed to navigate through numerous roads, trains and situations using Google Maps, Lens and Translate.
Now the food, Japan is majorly a non-vegetarian country which naturally will pose a problem to any vegetarian visitor to survive. They can try to pass their time by eating cup noodles and side dishes through 7-Eleven or Family Mart, but it’s very difficult to get cooked food in any restaurant. But as we Indians are everywhere on the globe, you can probably find an Indian restaurant within a radius of 5-10 km in the city. Not just vegetarian, but finding chicken also becomes tough sometimes in Japan as they majorly serve pork and beef, so beware to plan your trip keeping in mind these issues.
Key takeaway
If you stayed till the end, then you might have noticed that my research area, i.e, Terahertz Spectroscopy, wasn’t even remotely related to my major of mechanical engineering. This allowed me to step outside the domain of my major and explore interdisciplinary work, which is quite beneficial as it allows you to think of problems and their solutions through a multi-faceted point of view. Don’t be afraid to approach any professor for projects in/outside of IITB even if they are not in your department, events like these can become turning points in lives 🙂
Sayonara さよなら
Ending with beautiful lines by John Lennon,
“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”
If you still have any further questions related to career, KU-STAR or Japan. Feel free to contact me at adarsh.p@iitb.ac.in or WhatsApp(+91-8989134246)
