Bean's Day!!

So, today is the 3rd of February and in Japan it is also known as bean's throwing day or the Setsubun festival. It is a Japanese traditional that coincides with the beginning of the New Year (using the old Japanese calendar, which is the same as the Chinese one) were families come together to chase out evil from their homes and wish good luck to enter by throwing soy beans.

The father in the family wears a mask of a devil and the rest of the family throw beans at him in the doorway whilst chanting "evil go out, good luck come in" The reason why I'm sharing this bit of Japanese tradition is because today my boss at work wore a mask and the rest of us threw beans at him! It was a truly enjoyable experience. After throwing beans, everyone is allowed to eat as many beans as their age...in my case 23 beans! It was nice to be part of something so Japanese.

The rest of the month has been very busy too! We've had tea parties in the green house built on the company grounds and we've had parties to celebrate the end of a successful project. We've also worked very hard, spending long days in the labs carrying out so many techniques that I have only read about. It's absolutely amazing to be able to carry out PCR, DNA sequencing, purification, electrophoresis, transformation, culturing, screening and so many other procedures on  a daily basis. Also, this week we hosted 13 delegates from Delft university.

 The professors amongst them gave us presentations on the research that they are conducting and explained how Delft is working with many different companies (including: Danone, Nestle, Heineken, DSM and many others) in the form of consortia. This arrangement is helping research to progress at an incredibly fast rate. They have done a very good job with setting up an ideal situation which allows for the progression of research towards cleaner and more efficient energy sources, healthier consumables and many other products. At the end of this year, the building of a state-of-the-earth bio-pilot plant will commence. This will allow for anything researchers need to be found in one place and unlimited resources to be available. As for the work being done, it's mind-blowing! Professor Isabel Arends is doing some impressive work with enzymes as bio-catalysts and DSM are taking pro-biotic nutrients to a whole new level of efficiency. I sat there, listening for three hours and could not believe how lucky I am to be where I am. For the first time I am witnessing what science does in the real world and not simply on paper. At the end of the presentations, an open discussion was held in which European and Japanese minds came together to try and begin to close the gap between Japan's and Europe's idea of biotechnology. It's at times like these that people in my situation realize just how closed off Japan is from the rest of the world. It also made me realize how rare opportunities like mine are...very few European people have the opportunity to enter and be part of Japanese industry. The language barrier and the differences in mentality do not make it any easier.

What else have I been up to...well during the week I relax and sleep too much in Mobara and on the weekend I live it up in Tokyo! Last weekend, we had dinner at this really cool place in Harajuku! It was really cool and the food was really good too! The place is called Nabi and I think it's my favourite place so far. We then headed to Atom for a good dance which lasted till 6am! Needless to say Saturday was obviously spent recovering from such severe sleep deprivation. Sunday, I caught up with an ex-Vulcanus student who has remained in Japan working with Mitsui Chemicals. We met in Shibuya (my long awaited return to Shibuya...my, my how much I missed it!)

This week, we are off to brave the cold up North in Aizuwakamatsu! The time has come to catch up with my host family and enjoy being part of a family for a little while!

Catch you all soon!