The 2nd International Symposium on Precisely Designed Catalysts with Customized Scaffolding

It Is already mid-June and there were so many things happened recently. But I am still able to find time to write blog. So this time around, I have a bit of time to report everything here.

2nd International Symposium on Precision Control Reaction Field

On May 12, there was an international symposium hosted by a new academic field “Precision Controlled Reaction Field” that we participated in as a public recruitment group as presenter at Osaka University Suita Campus.

シンポジウムポスター

It seems like if I write a blog in the symposium I will be caught but anyway the symposium starts at 9.40 am. Then, I left house from Tokyo around 8.30 so it is still not too late. While waiting for the time, I went to eat ramen in Senri-Chuo and the taste is like a normal tan tan noodles.. It’s so normal so it is easy to forget the store’s name.

I don’t know how to get from Senri-Chuo so I just take a taxi to Osaka University Ginkgo Kaikan. Lecture from the evening (click here for the program). After the lecture ends, I feel so satisfied and celebrated at the social gathering. The next day, the symposium was till evening but night was free so I went to drink with OB and OG of Itami Lab. The third test tube cocktail was interesting. The third test tube cocktail was interesting. Uehara-kun and Kobayashi-san who remained until the end until morning. On that morning, I returned back to Tokyo by Shinkansen.

Dan-kun visits Kanda Festival

Feeling sleepy. On Sunday (May 14), Dan-kun (currently a scientist at BMS) who was a colleague at the Scripps Institute Baran Laboratories came to Japan and went to Kanda Festival with my family. I have never seen this kind of festival when I was in the University in Tokyo studying for 9 years. So, I’m glad that foreigners can come in contact with the Japanese culture. There were a lot of people enjoying the festival and my son becomes very close to Dan-kun. He seems to like the small octopus skewers that he had at the store because he keeps taking pictures of it. In the evening, we went to Golden road and drank some delicious sake and call it a day after. I hope more people from Baran Lab would come and visit.

Short visit to Waseda High School

On May 23, I gave a lecture at Kamiishi Kami, Waseda High School where it is only 12 minutes from Takadanobaba using Seibu Shinjuku Line. So near but very countryside.The only time I have ever step into high school is when I had a business trip in Nagoya. The lecture took 100 minutes. I have never taken the exam before so I started organic chemistry even though I was in 3rd grade in high school. I hope some of the kids here will be interested in organic chemistry and enter in the future.

Advanced Science Symposium (Fos)

On May 25^th, I went to the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) at the Advanced Science Symposium. Actually, I went to JSPS before in the last 11 years ago for overseas academic course interview. The building I remembered was so beautiful and what is the Advanced Science Symposium?

According to the JSPS homepage,

The Frontiers of Science (FoS) symposium is a camp-style symposium in which excellent young researchers in Japan and other countries conduct cross-disciplinary discussions on cutting-edge scientific topics in various research fields.
Young researchers who participated in the symposium gained a wider academic perspective, further developing free ideas that are not confined to existing academic fields. This symposium can help contribute to the development of new academic fields and foster the next generation of leaders. The main aim is to form a network.”

So I checked the HP and I saw many people with different background are participating. In September, German, Japanese and American researcher gathered at Germany but I only participated in a pre-review session for Japanese. The chief examiner is Mr. Wakamiya from Kyoto University who is a nice researcher and a good brother to me whom I’ve felt indebted when I was in Nagoya University.

I really enjoyed talking about things other than chemistry after a long time. I felt a difference in culture but it was fresh and good to interact with excellent people in other fields. It was troublesome to go back to the social gathering so I took a bath and sleep at LaQua. The next day, I had another drink at the Editorial Committee of the Synthetic Organic Chemistry Society.

Ishikawa-kun’s wedding ceremony (Nagoya)

The next two days on May 27 is the wedding of Mr. Ishikawa, an OB in the laboratory. He graduated with a Master’s degree who is the same batch as Assistant Professor Muto and now become a high school teacher. It was the only S at Itami Lab at that time but M couldn’t talk about creating a new laboratory atmosphere without him. The whole family was so close that everyone went to Nagoya by car.

This time, the first solo host toast and congratulatory greetings. It was a very good wedding. The second part of the wedding is drinking with Itami OB, OG and active students. I went to sleep in Itami Lab’s seminar room because it was troublesome to go home since the hotel is far.

The next day, I will return to Tokyo after going home. I was very tired.

Kondo-kun visit part２

On June 2, Dr. Kondo who worked at a pesticide-related company from last April re-visited. He came to hand over his doctoral dissertation during his training in Tokyo. Annual? I got a souvenir so I took a picture.

After that, as a celebration of the paper I went to the “Tokyo Meat Shabu-ya”, a shabu-shabu restaurant that was highly evaluated by the local community. We ate rare beef tongue shabu-shabu and ordinary shabu-shabu. I still have some papers that I have not published so I use this opportunity to take a break.

Department of Applied Chemistry Orientation 2017

On June 4, we will go to Karuizawa for the Department of Applied Chemistry orientation. This is a valuable opportunity for both the first grader and the others. I think that everyone did introduce themselves and I mostly talked about ramen only. I forgot to take a picture so I’ll give you a picture of the alcohol I drank and my favorite T-shirt.

There were two lectures and family trips in mid-May to early June and was full of events. However, since June I have so many events packed and I wish to write more articles anytime soon.