British pub

I went to a British pub in Tenjin with 3 people working in the same lab. One of them has been to UK and some other parts of Europe and knows a lot about European food. They had many kinds of beer and the glass was so big. Drinks were served in a pint glass. In the picture is apple cider in a half pint glass.

We had special Christmas dinner, which included turkey, chicken, duck baked in the oven. Fried potatoes and the salad were also nice. I like thefriendly atmosphere in the pub and it was different from the bar I went to when I was in Seattle.

Christmas!

4 days to go

Only 4 days to go for Christmas! Christmas songs in the street, decorations in the shops and illumination on the trees... all of them make me happy and excited. I already bought some presents and ready to enjoy!

BUT experiments are still waiting for me... Since I ordered a wrong primer, which is used to amplify DNA, I had to start my experiment from the beginning. Luckily it took only 2 days but I still have to conduct restriction enzyme treatment, ligation, and transformation. I am really running out of time...

I will do my best not to end up having no results to present in March. hmm...

Sad realities of "fur"

The other day I saw a stunning video about "fur" on BBC and it made me think a lot.

Clothes with fur are very common and popular among many people, especially the young but we do not know how the fur (not synthetic but real one) is produced and sold.

As you know real fur is the fur of animals such as rabbits, raccoons, and foxes. Before I saw this video, I thought vaguely that these fur are produced by domesticating the animals just like keeping a caw on grasslands or having sheep in a field. The truth is, however, furs are produced mostly in China in an extremely cruel way without any consideration.

Some heartless people catch wild rabbits, raccoons and foxes and kill them by hitting them, stepping on them or just strike them against something hard. Those poor animals barely breathing but still alive have their skin removed violently by the humans. I could not see the fluffy cute animals bleeding from their body helplessly abused. You too surely would want to cover your eyes when you see it.

I am not sure whether all the clothes with fur are being produced like this, but it tells us a sad true story about them. We, consumers, are part of the blame because the business people sell those clothes because they sell well. In this world where capitalism dominates, there are no way to stop the attempt to make profit. In other words, however, customers can control the market by deciding to buy or not to buy the product after they investigate whether it is produced in a proper way.

What we see in a department store, or a clothing shop are part of the animals' body, which may have been robbed off very mercilessly. We have to know this fact first, and then take actions to realize what we think is right.

Going to gain weight??

My experiments are the busiest now, in addition to preparation for the English seminar in which I have to be a presenter this Friday...

I came back at 8.30 and had dinner at 9 pm! Since I was very hungry, I ate a lot. If this kind of lifestyle continues, I am surely going to gain weight... In winter it is easy to gain weight (partly because of the enjoyable events coming soon) for the first place, how much more if you eat quite late and a lot?

I don't worry too much though... Hungriness is the sign that your body needs some energy. What is important is not to overdo it.

Tomato pot

4th-year students had a tomato pot party last night. While "Nabe" is a typical Japanese food which is usually flavored with soy sauce, the tomato pod has tomato flavor. It contained potatoes, carrots, eggplants, cabbage, mushrooms, chicken and pork. It was very similar to Minestrone, one kind of Italian soup and tasted really nice.

7 of us all enjoyed ourselves when we cooked it, ate it and cleaned up the room. Many many jokes made us laugh out loud and it made the dishes even more delicious. We cooked so much (with two pods), and ate too much. The tomato pot perfectly matched with cheese very well and pasta added at last was scrumptious too. I took the leftover home and brought it for lunch to the laboratory today. The party was so enjoyable that we were eating until 12 am and talking until 2 pm. I love our good friendship.

I do not why but I am so energetic these days. I feel good all the time. There was even one time that my friend asked me "Why are you so happy?" and I said "I'm always happy"! I burst out laughing quite easily, conduct experiments without worry and am very enthusiastic to improve my English. I am just wondering why I suddenly became so active. Well my cheerfulness sometimes varies, but I am still kind of filled with energy. I was not able to go sleep because my mind was so active and never stopped thinking on Monday. I went to bed at 4 last night so probably I will be fast asleep tonight, though.

I think I was in the similar kind of status of mind when I was in Seattle. I was just excited every day and everything I encounter stimulated me quite a lot. The feeling is now coming again.

One week passes really fast! Only 14 days to Christmas and winter holidays....

Brilliant day

My PCR finally got a good result. When I changed the buffer and the conditions, it worked well. I appreciate to my senior's advice very much. So now I will start constructing a fusion plasmid carrying Green Fluorescent Protein. At last I have reached the starting point.

One more good thing, today I went to the faculty office to get a document for one of my friends who is going back to India for New-year vacation. In order to go outside Japan, it is necessary for him to fill out the document, get his professor's signature on it and then submit it. I went with him because nobody in the office speaks English and everything on the document was in Japanese. On the way there he told me that "People like you make my life easier" and thanked me. It impressed me quite a lot and I felt like I am worth being here. The idea made me happy that I was able to do something for other people. I really like this kind of job.

Cooking day again

These are dishes I cooked the other day. I hardly ever cook eggs because I do not like it very much (especially half-cooked ones). But my mother left some for me so I tried to make omelet with potatoes, shrimps and tomatoes inside. At first it made something like a scrambled egg, which was quite different from what I had in my mind. I added one more egg and smashed potatoes. Then I got a round and flat omelet! I was very careful not to damage the shape of the omelet when I flipped it over.

The other one contains tofu, scollops and a kind of spinach. Tasty!

Laboratory

So busy with my experiment these days...

I do PCR again and again every day but have yet to get a good result. Doing research is really a long way. I started to like it, though. I somehow got used to the experimental procedure, which takes some time to learn, and I am also accumulating knowledge on the field of my research. Reading articles is not bad once you understand the abstract.

Although I am quite busy with experiments, I love spending a lot of time in the laboratory because all the people are so nice and friendly, willing to teach what they know and to offer help. I really appreciate their attitude and also would be happy to return the favors.

I would like to obtain rudimentary skills required to conduct experiments before I leave the laboratory. I will keep it up so that my learning would never be stagnant.

Incidentally, as you may know, the word "laboratory" is very different from "lavatory". I just mention this because I did not know this and found it funny.