Tokyo has everything what you would expect from one of the largest and the most populated cities in the world. And I mean, truly, everything.

In Tokyo, you’ll quickly notice that while public spaces are often large and open spaced, the living quarters are quite small and crowded. Due to limited space, buildings tend to rise vertically, resulting in tall, narrow structures closely packed together. This might feel a bit claustrophobic at first, but you’ll likely adjust quickly. As a trainee, you won’t spend much time in your room, as you’ll be out with other trainees, friends, or exploring the city. There almost unlimited options of how to spend your free time.

Tokyo itself is filled with many interesting places. Asakusa as the historic heart of the city, Shinjuku and Roppongi famous for its wild night life and parties, Shibuya known from many movies (Tokio drift, Hachiko) and the shopping center of Tokyo. Due to a great transportation system, it is also very easy to visit other remote places, such as Yokohama, Enoshima, Kawagoe, Kamakura, lakes around mt. Fuji and others. For a cities such as Osaka and Kyoto, one of the cheapest options is to take a night bus. Other option, much faster but also more expensive, is to take a shinkansen, japanese famous bullet train.

I was working as a researcher at the Institute of Industrial Science, at University of Tokyo. My supervisor was Kaori Sugihara, very inspiring and also very busy woman. I haven’t seen her a lot, but that wasn’t causing any problems.

I was mostly helping to one of the phd students with her research. I was working with a hyperspectral microscope. Overall, the description in the o-form was good, because the work itself wasn’t hard or exhausting. Most of the time, I was working 8 hours a day, but because I was still depending on my supervising phd student (she was in charge of planning the experiments). If I have to compare it with my standard work day in Czechia, it was a little bit boring, because I had a lot of free time, which I didn’t know how to spend.

Great thing is that the institute paid for the accommodation, so I didn’t have to pay any deposit before my arrival. They also paid for my transportation (only commuting to work and back). Overall, the money was sufficient to survive here, but if you want to go out and have some fun or buy some gifts, you should have some money spared.

It may be a little bit surprising, but Japanese don’t really speak English. Either they are too shy or they never learned. At the university it wasn’t such a problem, as I was in an international lab (Chinese, Japanese, Italian, …). But if you leave the academic sphere, you may have some troubles. Even though most people don’t speak english, they are trying to be super helpful. Very often google translate is going to be your best friend.

The accommodation was searched by IAESTE Japan. It was provided by Freshroom company. It was a shared flat with 2 other Japanese girls and I had my own room. The university was paying for my accommodation, so I didn’t have to pay any deposit before arrival. Anyway, I have to pay for the extra days that I am spending in Tokyo (not included in my internship). The price is 75,000 yen/month, which seems to be reasonable for me.

I wasn’t picked up from the airport, but I got some instructions of how to get to the center, where the IAESTE member picked me up and took me to my accommodation. There were some events organised by IAESTE Japan in July. In August it was mostly other trainees who organised some meetings and for much smaller groups. But for me it was enough.

I met other trainees mostly during the summer reception events, but I didn’t stay in contact with a lot of them. Each of us had some plans and different time frame for Japan, so sometimes it was hard to get a lot of people together. I met other foreign student at the university. It is much easier to make friends with foreigners than with japanese, mostly because of the language barrier. Travelling alone is also one of the best options to meet interesting people.

Get prepared for walking a lot. I personally couldn’t go to the gym because of my tattoos. Tattoos are tabu in japan and you will not be allowed to go to onsen (spa) for example. But even if you have some, people are still pretty helpful and friendly. You will just get some weird looks. Study some of the basic rules in Japan before coming here, since it can be a little overwhelming at the beginning, such as: not talking on the train, waiting in lines for anything, not tipping at restaurants, and much more. Japanese are extremely polite and don’t share their opinions. Learning some basic japanese phases is going to help a lot.

What surprised me the most was, that I didn’t need to cook at all. You can buy a lot o prepared food in the supermarket, which is not processed, of good quality and tastes good. So if you don’t feel like cooking, just head to the nearest supermarket or konbini. Konbinis are convenience stores such as 7-11, Lawson or Family mart, they are opened nonstop and you can get a lot of tasty snacks there. Truly life saver. One of the things that you have to try (except ramen and sushi) is onigiri, okonomiyaki and takiyaki.

I used mostly whatsapp (because of the lower data consumption), instagram and messenger. Same as I am using in Czechia.

If you are arriving in summer, be prepared to sweat a lot. The weather is really hot and the humidity is extremely high. Learn some basic phrases before your arrival. Respect the culture here. And don’t be afraid to travel alone, Japan is extremely safe.

Definitely an umbrella. After a rainy season in June, there is also a typhoon season in August - September. It is also great to cover yourself from the sun.

I didn’t get much of a career experience as I was expecting, except that it is going to look good on my CV. But I was enjoying to getting to know Japan, met a lot of amazing people with the same mindset, made friends for life.

I didn’t have to deal with any problems and from my point of view IAESTE Japan did a nice work with the summer reception events.