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<\/a><\/p>\nThis summer I worked in Japan at Nippon Paper Industries, and I wanted to share a bit about my experiences with y\u2019all!\u00a0 First, here\u2019s a little background.\u00a0 When I found out about this internship freshman year through an email from Dr. Byrd, I always made sure to keep it in the back of my mind because it was something that I was really interested in.\u00a0 Come junior year, I was recommended to go and was ecstatic after hearing the news!\u00a0 I had already been taking Japanese since my freshman year, so I was excited to put it into practical use.<\/p>\n
Once school ended, I was home for a week, which allowed me just enough time to unpack my things after moving home from college and repack for living in Japan.\u00a0 I packed about two suitcases worth of stuff, so with plenty of clothes, electronics, and an open mind, I felt like I was prepared to handle living in a foreign country for three months!\u00a0 And let me tell you that these were some of the best three months in my entire life!\u00a0 Not only did I get to visit a country that I have always wanted to see, but I was also able to learn about everything I had been studying!<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Arrival and Typical Work Day<\/strong><\/p>\n Upon landing, I was greeted by my work partner, Shuhei Inada.\u00a0 At Nippon Paper, I worked with the coating department, which was something I had never dealt with in previous job (i.e. summer and co-op). From the work experience, I learned that research is not really my forte, but it\u2019s always a good idea to explore new parts of study and working to learn just what is a perfect fit for you.\u00a0 I was going nonstop from 7:30am to 6:30pm, so I would be exhausted by the time I got home.\u00a0 After getting back, I\u2019d wait till about 7 o’clock and get some dinner from the cafeteria on the 2nd<\/sup> floor.\u00a0 I had to order in the morning and I wasn\u2019t skilled enough to read the entire menu, so I let the food be a surprise to me each evening, which turned out to be a good thing so I wouldn\u2019t be too picky – haha.\u00a0 I left the exploring for the weekends, so I usually returned to my room and just chilled on the computer for a bit to ease through the rest of the night.\u00a0 Occasionally I would go out or get dinner before coming home, but that was usually only one night a week.<\/p>\n Travels<\/strong><\/p>\n Even though I worked from practically dawn to dusk, I still had plenty of time to visit places on the weekend.\u00a0 I travelled all over the country, from Hiroshima and Miyajima in the west to Oshima Island in the south.\u00a0 Because I loved games, I visited the famous Akihabara and learned just why it earned the nickname \u201cElectric Town\u201d due to its sales of various electronics.\u00a0 I recorded people walking around Shibuya Crossing, one of the busiest intersections in the world!\u00a0 My biggest travels were during my only holiday over there.\u00a0 In one three-day weekend, I left work on Friday and headed straight for the train station to travel cross country on the bullet train (which was so awesome to ride!).\u00a0 I started west In Hiroshima, working my way back east, crossing through Osaka and Kyoto before heading back to Tokyo.\u00a0 In Hiroshima, I saw the very memorable A-bomb dome as well as its accompanying museum.\u00a0 I also went to Hiroshima castle and learned how the area started after being founded on just a sand bar!\u00a0 I visited the nearby island of Miyajima to take pictures and visit the ever popular Itsukushima Shrine (this is the red arch gate many see when people talk about Japan).\u00a0 One of the coolest things was that there were wild semi-domesticated deer that were comfortable with people just wandering the island. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The last major trip I took was to the island of Oshima.\u00a0 It\u2019s known for its popular beaches, camellia oil, and hot springs!\u00a0 The beaches were absolutely beautiful, with water that was crystal clear and several feet deep.\u00a0 We visited a dormant volcano, but we couldn\u2019t see anything because it was so foggy.\u00a0 It was so foggy that the water just condensed right on us after walking for a short bit.\u00a0 That evening, we went to a hot spring, which was one of the most relaxing things I did in Japan.\u00a0 Lastly, we went to a Bon dance festival.\u00a0 In each area, they hold this festival at different times, and each area has its own special dance; for example, on Oshima, the dance was called the Flying Fish Dance.\u00a0 All in all, a fun time was had!\u00a0 I saw so many wonderful places and there were still some that I didn\u2019t get to see, so I still have a desire to go back and see what I missed!<\/p>\n Experiences<\/strong><\/p>\n I tried shabu shabu, which is where you swish raw meat through a pot of boiling flavored liquid to cook and then eat; this could also be done with vegetables, frozen cheese, and mochi, which is a type of chewy flour based dessert.\u00a0 Near the station by my dorm, I was able to eat an actual prepared bowl of ramen, compared with the cup of noodle stuff you can buy in the store and it was absolutely world changing !\u00a0 Another drastic difference was authentic sushi, which just melted in your mouth when eaten.\u00a0 For my leaving party, I was able to eat yakiniku, which is grilled meat, and try different varieties including beef tongue and stomach; they were different tasting but not half bad!\u00a0 My favorite foods were Japanese style dumplings (based off those from China) and Japanese style fried chicken and stir fry dishes.\u00a0 One of the odder things to adjust to was actually being considered legal to buy and drink alcohol.\u00a0 In Japan, the legal age for both drinking and smoking is 20, which was very significant because whenever people went out to eat, there was lots of beer drunk by whoever partook in dinner.\u00a0 I usually drank a little for custom\u2019s sake (so as not to be rude), but I usually had soda or water with my meals.<\/p>\n I also played a bunch of sports too!\u00a0 The company had a lot of events during the summer months, so I was always invited to play some type of sport.\u00a0 As soon as I got there, I played a couple games in a tennis tournament held throughout the first couple weeks of June.\u00a0 In July, we all went to a nearby field and played baseball, as well as soccer on a different weekend.\u00a0 My personal favorite was playing badminton with several coworkers every Thursday.\u00a0 Some of the people that worked for the company were professionals, so it was amazing to watch them play each other as well as get the honor to practice with them.\u00a0 I even went to a Giants baseball game over there, watching the home team of Tokyo bring in a win for the season!<\/p>\n One of my favorite things was visiting the various Pok\u00e9mon centers across Japan.\u00a0 This was very nostalgic because I was able to enjoy seeing and buying things from my childhood.\u00a0 I even went to watch the new movie in theaters!\u00a0 Even though it was in Japanese only with no subtitles, I\u2019m proud to say that I understood it enough to follow the plot.\u00a0 So many different things were at my fingertips and I tried to grab at ever one at each opportunity I had.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Overall this was one of the milestones of my life accomplishments.\u00a0 I was able to mark so many things off of my bucket list with this trip!\u00a0 I\u2019m probably leaving some things out, but that\u2019s to be expected when summarizing living in a foreign country for three months in only a couple of pages.\u00a0 This trip has been such a broadening experience because I got to meet new people, try new things, and experience an entirely new culture.\u00a0 I feel that I made an even better impression because I spoke the language, which helped me connect to this trip and the people I worked with on such an even deeper level.\u00a0 Without that speaking skill, I couldn\u2019t have been anywhere near as independent and confident as I was throughout my stay.\u00a0 It has shown me that I truly have a passion for this new language as well as traveling around to see new things and interact with other companies rather than being completely stationary.\u00a0 I do hope to one day return and see all of the friends that I made.\u00a0 Several thousand pictures, four suitcases (one more than I originally started with), and one summer later, I have done something truly spectacular for a person my age and I\u2019m proud to say that I succeeded.\u00a0 Hope you enjoyed reading about my trip!! \u00a0See more photos on our facebook page,<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Guest Blogger, Todd Moore – rising senior in Paper Science Engineering This summer I worked in Japan at Nippon Paper Industries, and I wanted to share a bit about my experiences with y\u2019all!\u00a0 First, here\u2019s a little background.\u00a0 When I found out about this internship freshman year through an email from Dr. Byrd, I…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","ncst_content_audit_display":false,"ncst_backToTopFlag":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"displayCategory":null,"acf":{"ncst_posts_meta_modified_date":null},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.cnr.ncsu.edu\/pse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.cnr.ncsu.edu\/pse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.cnr.ncsu.edu\/pse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.cnr.ncsu.edu\/pse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.cnr.ncsu.edu\/pse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.cnr.ncsu.edu\/pse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":630,"href":"https:\/\/sites.cnr.ncsu.edu\/pse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554\/revisions\/630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.cnr.ncsu.edu\/pse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.cnr.ncsu.edu\/pse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.cnr.ncsu.edu\/pse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>
\nHe is the one that I worked closely with during my stay in Japan and helped me whenever I needed it with translating, answering questions about the area, etc.\u00a0 He was very shocked to learn that I spoke some Japanese.\u00a0 He helped me get back to the company dormitory via train.\u00a0 I lived in a place called Musashi Urawa prefecture of Saitama City in Tokyo (it\u2019s more than just a city; it\u2019s also a larger area, similar to several counties).\u00a0 I fell asleep really soon after starting to unpack.\u00a0 Not a day after arriving, I was thrust into starting work.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t mind it, but I was still battling jet lag, which took about a week for me to overcome.\u00a0 The commute to the office was one of the most unexpected and physical commutes I\u2019d have ever thought of.\u00a0 It was a twenty minute walk to the Musashi Urawa Station.\u00a0 From there, it was a 20 minute train ride (including a transfer to a different line) to Higashi Jujo Station.\u00a0 Finally, it was another 20 minute walk from there to the office.\u00a0 I did this every day, twice a day, 5 times a week, so I found the perfect way to fit in some exercise as part of my daily routine (it helps when it\u2019s required haha).\u00a0 Every day I would walk past several shops, from food to small items. \u00a0I\u2019d also stop at a convenience store and pick up breakfast, so it was nice to be considered a regular.<\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0 I also worked with other interns from Finland, so I got a taste of another new culture too!\u00a0 One of the biggest things that was new to me was that I would be performing research as opposed to work done by a process engineering intern, so it was certainly eye opening.\u00a0 All of the people I worked with were absolutely wonderful, despite speaking very limited English.\u00a0 But I was glad that I was able to even hold some conversations with them in Japanese, albeit usually very simplistic.\u00a0 Without going into too much detail, I was also able to work with coating color that goes on the outside of paper as well as an experimental use of cellulose nano fibers, which is an emerging innovative application of cellulose.\u00a0 Doing this type of work, I was able to branch out from what I was comfortable with and explore a whole new side of the paper industry.<\/p>\n<\/a> I went to Ueno and visited a wide variety of museums, taking in not only Japanese history and culture, but also other Asian history.\u00a0 I visited Tokyo Bay one day, seeing things from a giant Gundam fighter suit to advancing technology in the Future Museum to a view of the bay from atop a giant Ferris wheel!\u00a0 I shopped all over the place, including areas such as Ikebukuro, Shinjuku, and all around Tokyo itself!\u00a0 I visited the Ghibli Museum (showcasing video animation work done by Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli) with other coworkers during my last full weekend there, which was as fanciful as the movies by the studio themselves.\u00a0 All over the country I visited several shrines, which included Asakusa Temple and Meiji Jingu; these were some of the larger ones and absolutely breathtaking!\u00a0 Asakusa Temple was also near Skytree Tower, which is one of the largest towers in the world!\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>\u00a0 After seeing all that I wanted to see, I headed to Osaka by way of bullet train to spend time there on Sunday.\u00a0 In Osaka, I visited Osaka Castle, which is one of the main highlights there.\u00a0 I also tried takoyaki, which are fried octopus dumplings.\u00a0 Essentially it\u2019s a batter ball with a piece of octopus inside, covered in sauce and mayonnaise.\u00a0 It was very delicious!\u00a0 I also went to the Osaka Aquarium, which was HUGE!!! I found another Ferris wheel here, so I road that and took some spectacular pics of the river during sunset.\u00a0 <\/a>Lastly, I travelled to Kyoto, which is the rustic and historic counterpart to bustling Tokyo (even the syllables are backwards haha).\u00a0 It was filled with all sorts of shrines, such as the Golden and Silver Temples, the zen rock garden, and the 1000 shrine gates.<\/p>\nI also embraced the nerdy side and visited the International Manga Museum and Nintendo video game headquarters.\u00a0 There was so much stuff packed into those three days that I wore myself out!\u00a0 But it was an absolutely spectacular weekend!<\/p>\nI had all sorts of unique experiences while I was over in Japan.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/em>I tried so many different kinds of food!\u00a0 One of my favorites was my welcome party, where I had to fish for my own dinner in a pond full of various fish.<\/p>\n