The reason for choosing Japan to conduct research,
Research achievements and
Advice to new fellows
Beyond personal reasons, I chose Japan for the possibility of developing cutting-edge research and availability of enough resources for it. The JSPS fellowship not only provided me with the salary, which is generous, but also with the Grant-in-Aid, which allowed me to plan my research and related activities quite independently.
Resources in the laboratory are always available, and the relationship with the Advisor and laboratory mates is wonderful.
I was able to start a new research line in my laboratory, by joining the major of this laboratory (Insect Ecology) and my (limited) experience in biomechanics. This proved successful to the point of my boss offering me to stay longer in the lab with another post-doc fellowship from a COE project. Which I gladly accepted, and is an honour for me.
But I think that a great part of this good experience with human relationships in the laboratory is due to the Japanese language communication. Even though my Japanese is awfully simple and restricted, it allows me to achieve a higher degree of confidence and easiness in human relations in the academic world. This does not mean that few people can understand English!! On the contrary almost everybody can, but speaking Japanese makes me feel “at home” in my working place. This also allowed me to enjoy the incredibly rich culture this country has.
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