My First International Workshop in Japan
About the School
I attended the SOKENDAI Asian Winter School at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) Mitaka Campus in Osaka, Tokyo last Dec. 3-5, 2012. Sokendai, which means The Graduate University of Advanced Studies, hosted the event commonly held every two years with the current theme “Extrasolar Planets.” The School aimed to train undergraduate and young graduate students in the field of Astrophysics by providing various lectures of renowned researchers and professors as well as giving hands-on workshop. The lectures highlighted different techniques and instruments employed in Extrasolar Planet research. Specifically, the workshop dealt with the reduction and analysis of data (i.e. infrared images of a massive star luminous enough to effectively conceal the coldest brown dwarf known then) gathered by the HiCIAO instrument mounted on the Subaru telescope—a famous Japanese optical telescope situated in Hawaii.
Experience before the Event
Attending and presenting papers in national conferences, meetings and other related events are some of my goals as an undergraduate. When I learned that Dr. Sese was arranging the first meeting of the Southeast Asian Young Astronomers Collaboration (SEAYAC) in Palawan, I knew this was the perfect chance. I was lucky enough to present my paper co-written with him in the said meeting last November. The paper I presented was about the combined work of the members of the Astrophysics lab to come up with an Automated Remote Access Workstation (ARAW) for solar observation and sunspot monitoring in UPLB and the first in the country. I felt grateful to have that incredible experience also being able to know various international collaborators at the professional as well as personal level. Days later, NASA published in their website Dr. Sese’s great efforts in molding the Philippine Space Science Education emphasizing the proceedings of the recent SEAYAC meeting. I was shocked to see my picture with my adviser in the NASA website. Our combined efforts really paid off.
My excitement gained even greater momentum when Dr. Sese announced another opportunity for me to grab. He told me to apply to the Sokendai Asian Winter School—the same school he attended way back in 2008. The application process was as simple as filling up personal information in an electronic application form with just a recommendation letter. Since Dr. Sese knew some of the local organizing committee of the event, I knew that I had a big chance of being accepted. And there it was when I received an acceptance e-mail from them. I had mixed emotions and I almost jumped off my feet with sheer happiness. I knew I was up to something big so I didn’t I didn’t mind what it would take me just to attend to the School. And yes, it was initially tough indeed, especially with the documents and other legal matters I needed to accomplish prior to my departure. With consistent perseverance, however, I finished all the requirements just on time.
Experience while in Japan and Feedback about the School
I had an indescribable feeling when I arrived in Japan. Although I travelled alone, I had fun in plenty of ‘lost-kid-in-metropolis’ scenarios. I meandered through unknown paths and intertwined networks of train stations, running here and there just to catch up with their tight schedule. It was more of like a detective story for me to figure out where’s the right way because I had to rely purely on clues since the Japanese people in general could not understand English language. Fortunately, I made it just before sunset to take pictures of the beautiful city and so much more.
Everything I witnessed was as impressive as what I originally expected. In particular, the school gave me a very good overview of the exciting field of Extrasolar Planets research. All the given lectures embodied their cutting-edge research. Every lecturer presented his topic understandable even for amateurs like me in the field but thorough enough to be of high scientific rigor. Also, I really appreciate NAOJ’s state-of-the-art facilities especially when we toured around the campus. It was like there were always new things to explore and amaze us. They had those big telescope facilities accessible for the public. On the contrary, Philippines does not have any of such instruments yet. Moreover, Sokendai has very conducive environment for learning because, aside from the facilities, the landscape is exceptionally relaxing and beautiful. Also, the people who work and study there are kind and very welcoming. The professors are always there to attend to our need and also to enlighten us for every question raised.
One of the first memorable activities was when we had a banquet where we also individually introduced ourselves and our current work. I sat beside Prof. Tamura, the prominent scientist of NAOJ, to talk with him about my future study plans and the current state of the Space Science in the Philippines relative to Japan. The gap is tremendously wide. I did it not because I want to ask pity but for them to acknowledge our hard efforts to take immediate steps towards development and innovation. He understood my point. Satisfied, we went on to exchange ideas we share in common. My heart felt ablaze with the enthusiasm I gained from my conversation with the professors as well as from the other participants. It was nice because most of them were somehow connected to the people I came to know back in our meeting in Palawan. This was my second time (after my experience in Palawan) to have a very comfortable feeling of exchanging thoughts with foreigners without discrimination against race, color, language, and even level of educational attainment.
The strong point of attending an international school is creating strong bonds through the interaction with the delegates coming from different Asian countries. Here I felt the competitive atmosphere that made me more immersed in the flow of events. Especially for the HiCIAO data analysis workshop, I found out that almost everyone except me was adept with the software environment we used. However, I coped with the difficulty of going through the analysis part quite easily because of the substantial help that came from the professors as well as from the other teams. Such was a good practice of a collaborative work. It was a huge success for our group to do IRAF and IDL (types of difficult programming languages tailored for Astrophysical image analysis) just for 4 hours! Afterwards, we were ecstatic about the results especially when I later learned that the same data set was used in a paper published in a prestigious Astrophysical Journal. Hence, this workshop gave me a good feel of what astrophysicists really do. I was not deterred by the intimidating nature of this work but rather it fueled a good sense of motivation for me to learn and outdo myself.