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Dispatches from the Field Archive:
Young Chun

Fireworks, Lanters and a Giant Buddha

Nara, Japan, Aug. 20 -- There are now just two weeks left in UCSD’s Pacific Rim Undergraduate Experiences research program, and my fellow PRIME students and myself have been very busy finalizing our summer research. To experience as much of Japan as possible, we are squeezing in as much travel as we can in the few weekends we have left. Since my last dispatch, we went to Japan’s famous Yodogawa Fireworks Festival and walked around Nara, an ancient capital city, where we were greeted by many deer and thousands of beautiful lanterns for the To-kae Light Festival.

The Yodogawa Fireworks, which are launched over the Yodogawa River, were truly the experience of a lifetime.

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From Traditional Festivals to Hand-made Instant Noodles

Osaka, Japan, Aug. 6 -- We went to two of Japan’s biggest summer festivals, called Gion Matsuri and Tenjin Matsuri. We spent a whole night having lots of fun, including singing karaoke and playing the latest Japanese arcade games. We even had the chance to create our own hand-made instant noodles at an instant ramen museum.

The past five weeks I spent here thanks to UCSD’s Pacific Rim Undergraduate Experiences (PRIME) research program have been an incredible time for learning, sharing and experiencing both Japanese culture and international collaborative research.

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Movie Land and a Giant Microscope

Osaka, Japan, July 6 -- It has been just over two weeks since we arrived here and so much has already happened. I walked around the old temples and shrines of Kyoto – and occasionally got lost. I attended lectures with Japanese graduate students, sang Karaoke songs with professors and even operated the world’s biggest electron microscope. It all has been amazing- to say the least.

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