first week in Nagaoka and NUT #part 1

Assalamualaikum! 

#1st Day: Introduction 

We arrived at Nagaoka station around 6 AM in the morning, and took a number 7 bus directly to Gidai-mae, the terminal for Nagaoka University of Technology. while waiting the bus, we met another NASSYE participants, Numan from Turkey. he happened to bumped on two NUT international students from Thailand, and they were kindly guided us along the way to the campus. 

it was on the very first day that we met each others. besides 3 participants from Indonesia, the rest 17 of us came from another countries like Malaysia, Thailand, China, Canada, Mexico, Korea, and Turkey. on the first meeting, we were explained about the schedules and activities we would have in this program. the staffs guided us for a mini campus tour, and the girls ended up in NUT Guest House while the boys headed for NUT Club House; these are places for us to stay for the next 5 days.

I really loved the guest house. although I happened to lost my room key on the very first hours I came ;;; (luckily I  managed to find it back yay). the house was very cozy, and the room was in a traditional Japanese room style. my room mate was Qisthi. they provided shared toilet and shower (alhamdulillah I had to do my Shubuh prayer so early in the morning then could manage to take a shower before anyone else). the facility was very complete too. ah, and the most important thing was; they provide LAN cable in every room :") I can reached internet by using my laptop as the wireless hotspot.

#2nd Day: Baking Class

in the beginning of our 2nd day, we were introduced by our Teacher Assistant that would guide us in these 5 days laboratory work. my lab mates from NASSYE program were Fah from Thailand and Chelsea from Canada. on the first day of laboratory work, we learned about fermentation technology from Bioengineering Department. and the lab work were making a bread; one of the food that being made using fermentation technology, yay!

in the end of the lesson, we managed to eat our bread along with some staffs in the department.

my lab mates from NUT said that they would bring us to eat outside in the night. but it was so sad that she couldnt come, so we went with another NUT students to the 100-yen sushi shop. it was a really good time to meet and get along with the other students; they were all very nice, kind and cheerful! it made me hard to believe that most of them were now pursuing their graduate studies for master and doctoral degree... ^^;; they also helped me read the ingredients of food I wanted to buy in grocery store, and even suggested me for which food I could and couldnt buy. 

#3rd Day: Laboratory Visits and Fermentation Idea Contest

in this day, we were having some tours on different labs. the first lab was in Department of Environmental Systems Engineering. we were introduced to a system of water filtration using both anaerobic and aerobic process combined with a reactor filled with sponge. this sponge was special as we didn't need to change it regularly. the aim of this project was to minimize the cost and wastewater produced in the fishery industries. there was also a modified model of this reactor, which shaped like a windmill machine. with the help of electrical motor, it spins and filter the water. the second department we went was Department of Bioengineering where we observed that by using fluorescence paint, we could 'color' the small parts of single cell and observe it by using confocal microscope.

after having the lab tours, we went to classroom where the Fermentation Idea Contest were held. apparently this was one of the prestigious annual contest in bioengineering study area across Japan. after preliminaries, six team with best paper were invited to have a presentation in front of the judges. the judges were all the experts from each region; there was even a Professor who were a member of team that won a Nobel prize.

....but the presentation was in Japanese :") couldn't understand any single words but pictures.