It’s beginning to look a lot like…Japan! | International Research Experience at Yamagata University

BY Georgia Babb

IRESUVM Participant

It has been about two weeks since arriving in Yonezawa…although it feels like I’ve been here a month. Yoshida-sensei, our gracious host, has brought the IRES group to many beautiful places and many more restaurants. Here are just a few of the amazing things I have experienced so far…

My favorite picture from the Kamo Aquarium which is most well-known for the extensive jellyfish collection.

This is one of the many different colored ponds we saw at Goshikinuma (Five Colored) Lakes in the Bandai Asahi National Park.

Here is me in the lab transferring the pre-gel solution into the mold. Once this solution is treated with UV light it can be placed in water to make a hydrogel.

Here is me holding the final hydrogel up, very nervously…this was purely to show that it was completely transparent. Thank you to Sazzadur Rahman for showing me this technique.

There hasn’t been a moment I don’t feel welcome here and not a single night where I can’t find someone to go to dinner with. Whether it’s in the lab or out on the town, there is no shortage of things to do. I’m very excited to see what the next 6 weeks have in store!