The first laboratory trip since the establishment of the laboratory with only three students . It was the first time that it was officially the Uminohikai in summer. There were 14 participants, including a third-year student assigned to our laboratory and a secretary, Mr. Yamada. Next year, two people will be joining the lab making a total of 16 people.

The venue will be held at Kohei, Nagano. It is 2 days and 1 night trip at a seminar house at Waseda University.

First day

The first destination is Ueda City. I haven’t seen it yet, but it’s a city that is attracting a lot of attention in the Taiga drama “Sanda Maru“. First, we went to Nakamuraya, the local famous udon restaurant, to eat the famous “makin udon”. The udon is so sweet and soft. I also ate horse sashimi. Does the rain finally stopped?

Then, we go to Ueda castle. It was the residence of Yukimura Sanada and as mentioned above, there were a lot of people who are attracted to the Taiga drama. Ueda Castle is not a castle tower but has a beautiful fence with autumn leaves which falls gracefully. I think this is the best time to visit. Fortunately, the rain stops and the weather is clear now.

Then, we purchase various kinds of local sake, wine and souvenirs at Michi-no-Eki and a famous hotel. We arrives at seminar house after 5 o’clock. Surprisingly, it was beautiful but it seems to have weird smell when I open the window. The student room is very unique. For the time being, its dinner time and I can eat a lot.

After meal, we all headed to take a bath and then moving on o the main event. Most of the photos are posted here but all pictures look like they are enjoying the trip. Unexpectedly, I went to bed early.

Second day

I woke up at 7.30 in the morning and have breakfast. I slept twice after the meal and took a group photo and left around 10.00. One of my students had a bad hangover but anyway we are moving on to the next main event which is “Mallet golf”.

マレットゴルフ (English: Mallet Golf) is a sport that uses sticks and balls to pass through a goal hole with a small number of strokes. This competition was born in Japan and was named after golf using Kiso (Mallett’s etymology).

Nagano Prefecture has many mallet golf courses so we divide ourselves into 4 teams and about 12-15 holes for each team. It wasn’t enough to play but it is cheap and I highly recommend here.

After mallet golf, we went to a soba restaurant called “Kusue“. This restaurant is famous for its buckwheat noodles. Even though, we made a reservation before but the service took a long time but the soba is delicious.

I felt full and satisfied then I go to a hot spring. After that, we on a road trip to return home using  Fujioka PA (Highway Oasis). There was no traffic jam on the way back and managed to go home safely.

This is the end of the first lab trip with the new undergraduate students and I enjoyed it very much. Thank you to the undergrads who planned this trip.

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山口 潤一郎

教授 ： 早稲田大学

趣味はラーメン、マラソン、ダイビング、ウェブサイト運営など。化学の「面白さ」と「可能性」を伝えるために、今後の「可能性」のある学生達に，難解な話でも最後には笑って、「化学って面白いよね！」といえる研究者を目指している。．化学ポータルサイトChem-Station代表兼任。

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