Saturday, June 23, 2007
Home
I'll see you all soon - I'm flying back on the 29th of June and will be in Lancaster for a few days...
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Pictures
By the way - it recently came to my attention that I should probably explain something about the flickr site. Once you click on a thumbnail of a photo (the baby picture) it should show up slightly larger. What some people haven't noticed is that by clicking "All Sizes" in the top left hand corner of the photo, you can see a much larger version. (Much larger...) OK, be good and have fun!
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Tohoku University part 2
Well then...
Time is rather sneaky isn't it...It seems that quite a bit of its snuck by.
For all of you viewers at home - my apologies - work has been pretty intense as of late. I'm actually sitting at my desk waiting to finish monitoring a test system (its 10:30 pm here right now) and so I decided to write a bit.
I left in the middle of a story about Tohoku Univ. I'm afraid that I don't have enough time to catch up with that and everything else that's happened over here. I'll do my best to hit some highlights and then fill you in when I get home.
So the second day, we got up around 8 and met up in the lobby downstairs. We walked to the subway and caught the line over to the University. We got a chance to see a longterm study with a goat named Eva Hatoko. She's doing really well and the doctor that serves as her caretaker taught her how to "shake" with either front leg and also to stand at attention with verbal commands. Its always interesting to me to see the bond that tends to form between animal research subjects and their respective human researchers.
After a quick lunch (that's the other thing - people wolf their food over here. I'm a slow eater in the US so I have to actually concentrate if I want to try to keep up with the pace. As for stuffing your mouth - I don't know if that's possible over here. For all of the polite niceties of Japanese culture, slurping and shoveling food are strikingly absent.) getting back on track... After a very quick lunch, we headed up into the hot and stuffy, 'uglier than Benedum' (and no that reference isn't to exclude those unfamiliar with Univ. Pitt - its just the best description I could come up with...) to prepare for and conduct the study.
I don't think I'll go into much detail, but it was really amazing watching the LVAD being implanted into the goat. I got to hold an open faced side biting clamp that was attached to the ascending aorta, while the doctor made an incision and sutured the pump's outflow graft into place...it was really cool. It was a great opportunity to ask a lot of questions - I learned a lot that day...
The next day we reviewed the results of the testing, visited Eva again then left for Tokyo to visit the branch office there. While the important people had meetings, Usgawad-san and I went to Shinjuku (famous for its stores/malls) and checked around for a bit. Then we grabbed a train back into Suwa arriving long after sundown... I was pretty tired when I crawled into bed that night.
Since then I've been mostly working a ton. Last week my supervisor, Jon, from EMUSA (where I work in Pittsburgh) made a trip out here to Suwa. It was really nice to see a Western face and have the chance to talk in some full out English. In addition the weekend of his arrival, I went to Tokyo (via train) and met up with a friend that used to work at EMUSA. She and her family live in Tokyo about 30 minutes from Shinjuku Station. We met up with Jon when he arrived. I got to explore Tokyo including Asakusa and the Imperial gardens next to the Emperor's palace. It was really amazing stuff - check the pictures. : D
I have to go now - its time to check up on my test system. Hopfully I can go home then (I came in at 7 this morning and I'm leaving at 11 pm - hopefully) so I guess that's a 16 hour day. Whoopie! haha, oh man - at least I'm taking a break now - and I had a 20 minute lunchbreak outside too - so...yeah. I'll be happy to go back to my 9 - 6 in the US.
Take care all - I'll see you in 17 days or so!
God bless,
Jonathan
Since then, I've been mostly working
Time is rather sneaky isn't it...It seems that quite a bit of its snuck by.
For all of you viewers at home - my apologies - work has been pretty intense as of late. I'm actually sitting at my desk waiting to finish monitoring a test system (its 10:30 pm here right now) and so I decided to write a bit.
I left in the middle of a story about Tohoku Univ. I'm afraid that I don't have enough time to catch up with that and everything else that's happened over here. I'll do my best to hit some highlights and then fill you in when I get home.
So the second day, we got up around 8 and met up in the lobby downstairs. We walked to the subway and caught the line over to the University. We got a chance to see a longterm study with a goat named Eva Hatoko. She's doing really well and the doctor that serves as her caretaker taught her how to "shake" with either front leg and also to stand at attention with verbal commands. Its always interesting to me to see the bond that tends to form between animal research subjects and their respective human researchers.
After a quick lunch (that's the other thing - people wolf their food over here. I'm a slow eater in the US so I have to actually concentrate if I want to try to keep up with the pace. As for stuffing your mouth - I don't know if that's possible over here. For all of the polite niceties of Japanese culture, slurping and shoveling food are strikingly absent.) getting back on track... After a very quick lunch, we headed up into the hot and stuffy, 'uglier than Benedum' (and no that reference isn't to exclude those unfamiliar with Univ. Pitt - its just the best description I could come up with...) to prepare for and conduct the study.
I don't think I'll go into much detail, but it was really amazing watching the LVAD being implanted into the goat. I got to hold an open faced side biting clamp that was attached to the ascending aorta, while the doctor made an incision and sutured the pump's outflow graft into place...it was really cool. It was a great opportunity to ask a lot of questions - I learned a lot that day...
The next day we reviewed the results of the testing, visited Eva again then left for Tokyo to visit the branch office there. While the important people had meetings, Usgawad-san and I went to Shinjuku (famous for its stores/malls) and checked around for a bit. Then we grabbed a train back into Suwa arriving long after sundown... I was pretty tired when I crawled into bed that night.
Since then I've been mostly working a ton. Last week my supervisor, Jon, from EMUSA (where I work in Pittsburgh) made a trip out here to Suwa. It was really nice to see a Western face and have the chance to talk in some full out English. In addition the weekend of his arrival, I went to Tokyo (via train) and met up with a friend that used to work at EMUSA. She and her family live in Tokyo about 30 minutes from Shinjuku Station. We met up with Jon when he arrived. I got to explore Tokyo including Asakusa and the Imperial gardens next to the Emperor's palace. It was really amazing stuff - check the pictures. : D
I have to go now - its time to check up on my test system. Hopfully I can go home then (I came in at 7 this morning and I'm leaving at 11 pm - hopefully) so I guess that's a 16 hour day. Whoopie! haha, oh man - at least I'm taking a break now - and I had a 20 minute lunchbreak outside too - so...yeah. I'll be happy to go back to my 9 - 6 in the US.
Take care all - I'll see you in 17 days or so!
God bless,
Jonathan
Since then, I've been mostly working
Monday, May 21, 2007
Tohoku University
Dum-dah dum dah-dah daaaahhhh!
Dum-dah dum dah-dah-duh-dah dummm daaaahhhhh....
~The Forest Gump Theme Song by I'm not really sure who
Greetings all! Here's the latest from Suwa...
Last week I had a really amazing opportunity. I got the chance to observe 2 animal studies at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan. Sendai is a fairly large city (large enough to hold its own subway system) but certainly no Tokyo or Kyoto. Its called the forest city because so many of its major streets are packed with large, green, lush trees. I didn't have time for sightseeing in the city however, because we had a full schedule. We left from Suwa-shima station at 7:13 a.m. on Monday and after taking 3 different trains (and about about 5+ hours later) and a subway for a few different legs, we arrived in Sendai. We made our way to the University, bags on shoulders or in hand in the warm, bright sunshine (I was a bit sweaty at that point). We arrived at an unimpressive building and hopped into the elevator to make our way up to the Fifth floor. The building wasn't any better inside - for those of you that were cool enough to go to the University of Pittsburgh, let's just say it made Benedum look bright and cheery. Still, when we stepped into the center where the study was to be conducted I was quickly amazed by their research. The walls were littered with posters and news reports from past and current projects.
The people there were very nice. My supervisor started explaining the device in Japanese. Noticing some puzzled faces on some people obviously not from Japan, I ended up also giving a brief overview to two graduate students in the lab from Brazil. I tried some Spanish out later (since its kinda close to Portuguese) and got a better reaction than it merited. Haha, later when I mentioned to one of them that I'd love to visit Brazil someday, he told me that I should come to his home village because "its beautiful *deliberate pause* and safe." Sweet! Sign me up... ((I'm serious...sign me up!)
After we finished our tasks at the University we went to dinner. I had raw tuna and shrimp with assorted vegetables over gohan (rice) - it was really good - as far as raw seafood goes. I really pounded the wasabi (horseradish) along with the stuff and that makes almost anything good for eating. We checked into the hotel at about 9:30 p.m. After setting up my room, I found that there was a pant press (for removing wrinkles) but that there was no iron, nor any way to use the pants press on a dress shirt. Thankfully, after checking out the hotel's information booklet, I discovered that there was a laundermat room on the 4th floor and lo and behold, it held dryers. I soon had wetted wrinkled dress shirts (from traveling) and tossed them in the dryer. (In Japan, dryers aren't all that common - at least as well as I can figure) most people hang their clothes out to dry. (I don't know how that works in the winter. I'll have to ask. Most housed are way to small to just hang clothes to dry all over the place - at least, that's what I think?) Soon I had dry, smooth, dress shirts and I was ready for the new day. I passed out after setting the beds alarm clock (built in to the headboad along with switches controlling all the lights in the room).
Well, that's all for now folks. I'll continue this one when I get the chance...
Have a great week!
Jonathan
Dum-dah dum dah-dah-duh-dah dummm daaaahhhhh....
~The Forest Gump Theme Song by I'm not really sure who
Greetings all! Here's the latest from Suwa...
Last week I had a really amazing opportunity. I got the chance to observe 2 animal studies at Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan. Sendai is a fairly large city (large enough to hold its own subway system) but certainly no Tokyo or Kyoto. Its called the forest city because so many of its major streets are packed with large, green, lush trees. I didn't have time for sightseeing in the city however, because we had a full schedule. We left from Suwa-shima station at 7:13 a.m. on Monday and after taking 3 different trains (and about about 5+ hours later) and a subway for a few different legs, we arrived in Sendai. We made our way to the University, bags on shoulders or in hand in the warm, bright sunshine (I was a bit sweaty at that point). We arrived at an unimpressive building and hopped into the elevator to make our way up to the Fifth floor. The building wasn't any better inside - for those of you that were cool enough to go to the University of Pittsburgh, let's just say it made Benedum look bright and cheery. Still, when we stepped into the center where the study was to be conducted I was quickly amazed by their research. The walls were littered with posters and news reports from past and current projects.
The people there were very nice. My supervisor started explaining the device in Japanese. Noticing some puzzled faces on some people obviously not from Japan, I ended up also giving a brief overview to two graduate students in the lab from Brazil. I tried some Spanish out later (since its kinda close to Portuguese) and got a better reaction than it merited. Haha, later when I mentioned to one of them that I'd love to visit Brazil someday, he told me that I should come to his home village because "its beautiful *deliberate pause* and safe." Sweet! Sign me up... ((I'm serious...sign me up!)
After we finished our tasks at the University we went to dinner. I had raw tuna and shrimp with assorted vegetables over gohan (rice) - it was really good - as far as raw seafood goes. I really pounded the wasabi (horseradish) along with the stuff and that makes almost anything good for eating. We checked into the hotel at about 9:30 p.m. After setting up my room, I found that there was a pant press (for removing wrinkles) but that there was no iron, nor any way to use the pants press on a dress shirt. Thankfully, after checking out the hotel's information booklet, I discovered that there was a laundermat room on the 4th floor and lo and behold, it held dryers. I soon had wetted wrinkled dress shirts (from traveling) and tossed them in the dryer. (In Japan, dryers aren't all that common - at least as well as I can figure) most people hang their clothes out to dry. (I don't know how that works in the winter. I'll have to ask. Most housed are way to small to just hang clothes to dry all over the place - at least, that's what I think?) Soon I had dry, smooth, dress shirts and I was ready for the new day. I passed out after setting the beds alarm clock (built in to the headboad along with switches controlling all the lights in the room).
Well, that's all for now folks. I'll continue this one when I get the chance...
Have a great week!
Jonathan
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Golden Week
Hello everyone!
My apologies that its been so long. life's been a bit hectic as of late. Thanks again to all of you that have been thinking of and praying for myself and my family. Life just refuses to slow down...
Golden week takes place during the first week of May. Its a national holiday in Japan and employees at Sun Medical (as well as most workers in Japan) had a number of days off of work. We had Monday, Thursday and Friday off.
On Monday, I went to FujiQ Highland Park with 4 coworkers. It was pretty incredible to see Mount Fuji up close and to ride some ridiculous roller coasters. One of the roller coasters accelerated from 0 to 172 km (100+ mph) in 3 seconds... We also rode what used to be the world's tallest rollercoaster (its still in the top 5 and at 259 ft. I would say its a pretty sweet ride). The amusement park visit included a brief climb up a small hill in the park that was nicknamed "mt. fuji." It offered a nice view of the park and of Mount Fuji.
That evening we attempted to see Mt. Fuji from a nearby park (nature park) but it was already closed as the sun was beginning to set. We stopped at a restaurant on the way home and I had delicious Japanese style steak. It was actually pretty similar to Western style steak with a distinct absence of A1 sauce... (The steak was cooked with similar spices including a lot of ground pepper.) It was delicious. Naturally I was pretty exhausted by the time we arrived back in Suwa.
On Thursday, I visited Nagano City, towards the north end of Nagano prefecture with another coworker. As many of you probabaly recall, the winter olympics were held in Nagano City in 1998. We visited the M-wave building, the site of the speed skating events, and home to a museum of olympic memorabilia.
After grabbing some lunch, we hit the main attraction: sen koji (I'm not certain of the spelling, its pronounced 'shen koh - jeeh') Its a very famous buddhist temple. It was very interesting to hear descriptions of what the different structures/statues/items meant and were used for by the temple. Ugawad-san gave a good tour...and made for some good conversations. The buildings were very beatiful, but I enjoyed the Japanese style gardens and park adjacent to the temple even more. We spent a bit of time walking around the park - examining the trees, flowers, ponds, stream, and such... I recommend checking out the pictures if you're curious to see what it was like.
We checked out some of the local shops and found some pretty neat things. Ugawad-san wanted to make a special trip to Starbucks (there happened to be one in the city...he spent some time in Texas during his studies and has a friend that is crazy about Starbucks) So we walked along the main strip of shops and made our way to the Starbucks and a bookstore. The way was full of flower displays that were specially crafted for Golden week. There were also a live mariachi band and a jazz trio that we bumped into at different points during the evening, performing live music. As it began to get dark, we made our way back to the car and set out to return to Suwa. Ugawad-san felt a little bit nervous about navigating (as it had been about 5 years since he'd last been to Nagano city. But he managed just fine and we were soon on the main highway headed back to Suwa...
For the rest of Golden Week, I relazed, slept in, and checked out the sights in Suwa itself, including the nearby Lake Suwako.
Well, I must be done for now. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! I'll try to write again soon.
God bless,
Jonathan
My apologies that its been so long. life's been a bit hectic as of late. Thanks again to all of you that have been thinking of and praying for myself and my family. Life just refuses to slow down...
Golden week takes place during the first week of May. Its a national holiday in Japan and employees at Sun Medical (as well as most workers in Japan) had a number of days off of work. We had Monday, Thursday and Friday off.
On Monday, I went to FujiQ Highland Park with 4 coworkers. It was pretty incredible to see Mount Fuji up close and to ride some ridiculous roller coasters. One of the roller coasters accelerated from 0 to 172 km (100+ mph) in 3 seconds... We also rode what used to be the world's tallest rollercoaster (its still in the top 5 and at 259 ft. I would say its a pretty sweet ride). The amusement park visit included a brief climb up a small hill in the park that was nicknamed "mt. fuji." It offered a nice view of the park and of Mount Fuji.
That evening we attempted to see Mt. Fuji from a nearby park (nature park) but it was already closed as the sun was beginning to set. We stopped at a restaurant on the way home and I had delicious Japanese style steak. It was actually pretty similar to Western style steak with a distinct absence of A1 sauce... (The steak was cooked with similar spices including a lot of ground pepper.) It was delicious. Naturally I was pretty exhausted by the time we arrived back in Suwa.
On Thursday, I visited Nagano City, towards the north end of Nagano prefecture with another coworker. As many of you probabaly recall, the winter olympics were held in Nagano City in 1998. We visited the M-wave building, the site of the speed skating events, and home to a museum of olympic memorabilia.
After grabbing some lunch, we hit the main attraction: sen koji (I'm not certain of the spelling, its pronounced 'shen koh - jeeh') Its a very famous buddhist temple. It was very interesting to hear descriptions of what the different structures/statues/items meant and were used for by the temple. Ugawad-san gave a good tour...and made for some good conversations. The buildings were very beatiful, but I enjoyed the Japanese style gardens and park adjacent to the temple even more. We spent a bit of time walking around the park - examining the trees, flowers, ponds, stream, and such... I recommend checking out the pictures if you're curious to see what it was like.
We checked out some of the local shops and found some pretty neat things. Ugawad-san wanted to make a special trip to Starbucks (there happened to be one in the city...he spent some time in Texas during his studies and has a friend that is crazy about Starbucks) So we walked along the main strip of shops and made our way to the Starbucks and a bookstore. The way was full of flower displays that were specially crafted for Golden week. There were also a live mariachi band and a jazz trio that we bumped into at different points during the evening, performing live music. As it began to get dark, we made our way back to the car and set out to return to Suwa. Ugawad-san felt a little bit nervous about navigating (as it had been about 5 years since he'd last been to Nagano city. But he managed just fine and we were soon on the main highway headed back to Suwa...
For the rest of Golden Week, I relazed, slept in, and checked out the sights in Suwa itself, including the nearby Lake Suwako.
Well, I must be done for now. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! I'll try to write again soon.
God bless,
Jonathan
Friday, May 11, 2007
Thanks so much all for your prayers. My Grandmother has gone home to heaven. She passed peacefully while her husband and all her children were right there with her. I will miss her, but I am very aware that God's timing is perfect. It has truly been a priviledge to have her in my life for 23 years. I have been very blessed...
Dios te Bendiga,
Jonathan
Thursday, May 10, 2007
My Grandmom
Greetings from Japan - I'm missing you all. : ) If you get the chance would you pray for my Grandmom and my fam? My Grandmom's dealing with cancer right now and it hasn't been going very well as of late. I'm doing well - tho its weird being so far away. I've been seriously amazed at God's grace to give me joy and peace daily... Emotionally and spiritually, my family is doing well and so is my grandmom. I also did get a chance to see her before leaving for Japan. Thanks so much...
God bless,
Jonathan
And I rationed my breaths
As I said to myself
That I'd already taken too much today
~DCFC
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