After the conference in Kyoto, I was invited to an international workshop in OIST (Okinawa Institute for Science and Technology) .
The workshop was just great. Because the workshop was just after the ICR2016, it was possible to extend the trip in Japan for many world-class rheologists. As seen in the program (available from the link above), cutting-edge topics were presented. The event was a great help for me because I could attend only a few talks in ICR2016 due to the backyard tasks. One of the interesting topics was this, for example.
OIST is an Japanese university, but the place is well-beyond the Japanese standard. The photo above was taken from my flat allocated for my stay. The flat is in a kind of guest house, and the guest house is in a village of such guest houses in the campus. Although guest house is placed in many Japanese universities, facility of the OIST guest house is quite fancy. The campus is also luxurious. The construction is like a museum and labo furnitures are something plush. Of course, the labo is super-well-equipped. We had a labo-tour to Prof. Amy Shen’s group to see the facilities including everything for experimental rheology and further more.
The organization of OIST is highly internationalized. More than 60% of the PIs are foreign professors and all the classes are delivered in English. Even in the admin sector, everything is operated in English. Something interesting is that the graduate students are paid there, as is the case of US. (For the other Japanese universities, the graduate students are not paid and they are supported by parents.)
The reason of the differences of OIST from the other Japanese universities is that OIST is not governed by the Ministry of education but directly governed by the prime minister’s office. Japanese government is trying the different management of university. If OIST achieves great success, the changes may propagate to our universities. Nevertheless, OIST is an interesting place in many aspects.
From the campus, the beach is 15min walk. The nearest store (convenience store) is 30min walk. From Naha, around 70min drive…