I had the first real taste of graduate school classes today. I went all the way to the Tokyo Ookayama campus for an introductory course on photovoltaic. Students don't usually go across campuses to attend a course, but this professor is famous for his research in Japan. In fact, he was my first choice when I applied for Tokyo Tech.
Waking up at 6:30am in the morning wasn't fun, given that I only have to be in my lab by 10:00pm 3 stations away. The Ookayama campus is 40 minutes away while having to commute through the rush hour of the trains. However the course is definitely worth it, Professor Konagai knows so much about solar panels utilization than probably anybody in Tokyo Tech. And I got homework due before next week already. There goes my weekend.
I'm almost adjusted to the crazy schedule as a graduate student in Japan. Despite having no classes the students have to go to our own lab everyday, roughly around 10am and stay there until 7pm. The classes themselves are only once a week and I only need 11 courses to graduate. On the other hand, the research will take most of the time throughout the 2 years.
I still haven't yet to find a balance between food and school, but school does offer decent meal for about 400 yen. My immediate concern is that I have to decide on research direction very soon. I'm glad that I'm still sane.
No comments:
Post a Comment