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BCs Roman Macháček, CTU Prague, ročník 5

Faculty Civil Engineering
Field of study Fire Safety Engineering
Field of internship Engineering, Other
Specialization of InternshipCivil Engineering, Other
Internship period (from - to) 2.7.2018 - 31.8.2018
Internship duration (weeks) 9
Transport (means, price) 2x airplane (baggage 23 kg) Prague-Tokio + 1x airplane Tokio-Fukuoka + 7 day JPR pass; 23 793 CZK
Insurance/Insurance company Česká pojišťovna
Visa/Work permit (yes/no) no needed for less than 90 days
Price of Visa 0
City of Internship Zobrazit místo na mapě  Japan, Fukuoka
Internship reference number JP-2018-27-KYU

About the country

Location of the place

Fukuoka – Japanese biggest city on southern Kyushu island. City has good transport acces by planes, trains and also by ships.

City

City has 1,5 milion inhabitants, so its similar to Prague. But in compare with Tokio its really small city :D In city is also possible buy everything what you need and in some stores also very cheap. Very popular here are 100 yen shops, which sells everything for 100 yens (20 CZK). And supermarket Sunny, where is a lot of articles 2x cheaper than in another stores, in the same quality. But I recommend learn to cook Japanese foods, because European ingredients are much more expensive in here.

Surroundings (possible trips, ...)

Japan have beautiful coast and nature. Mountains for hiking with great view, food, culture and many, many great things. Near to university campus are several beaches (around 10 mins by bike). Great mountains with beautiful ocean views and Japanese nature. Lot of shrines, temples and so on.
Every week is in Fukuoka city some event with a lot of people. For example biggest firework event is 1st of August 20:00~21:30 at Ohori Park (6,000 fireworks). 1,5 hour uninterrupted firework bombarding. Just wow.
Another possibilities are to travel to another parts of Japan with Train (expensive, but foreginers can buy 7 days JPR pass ticket for 6600 CZK, which is much cheaper than ride 7 days with single ticket. Interesting cities which I visited are: Beppu, Nagasaki, Hiroshima, Osaka, Kjoto, Nara, Tokio.

Employer

Employer

KYUSHU UNIVERSITY
Faculty of Engineering
Department of Civil Engineering

Disaster Risk Reduction Research
Center Environmental Geotechnology Lab.
4th oldest university in Japan, one of the most prestigious universities in Japan.
Around 18 700 students in total and 2000 foreign students are enrolled in this university.

Work description

After my training days, I had opportunity to choose research topic and topic which corresponded with laboratory specialization. It was great for me, because it was similar topic like my diploma thesis topic and I even contributed to laboratory research.

Internship research:
USING GIS IN COMBINATION WITH BIM FOR FIRE INTERVENTION

A new approach towards designing using GIS (Geographic Information System) in combination with BIM (Building Information Modeling) for fire intervention.

Summary:
1st week Investigation of research other laboratory groups.
2nd week Point cloud data, drone terrain analysis training
3rd week Road structures maintenance training
4th – 5th week GIS training
6th – 9th week Research project

+ 2 additional Saturday seminars about GIS and BIM+CIM+GIS

Salary (sufficient for local conditions?)

100 000 JPY per month = 23 300 JPY per week – gross payment.
After I paid accommodation, internet, electricity, water and so on, it was still enough for other things such as food, transportation and so on.

In total was internship unprofitable by 30K CZK because of flight tickets and insurance payment and travelling, but money was not the reason why I chose the internship. :)

Language requirements

Generally level of English in Japan is not as good as in Europe. But in campus every student and teacher speaks at least with basic English. But if you are out of the city centre, you will have sometimes problem to find people which will understand you. Even staff in stores mostly don’t speak English, so its better to use google translator instead of ask them. Because it can be for long time to explain something :D

Accommodation (price, who provided it)

I have been accommodated at university dormitory Ito Harmony House. Dormitory is new, clean and well equipped. Room included air conditioning, bathroom, induction cooker, microwave. Dimensions of room were around 2x6 meters. Included bathroom.

Price of accomodation for 1 month was around 24 000 Yen per month for one dormitory room. Another trainee had the same price and room. Accomodation provided the IAESTE throught university dormitories.

Accommodation was in university campus, Ito Campus. It’s quite far from city centre, so it’s better to buy bike for transportation. Whole campus is new with all needed facilities like library, cafeteria and stores.

Social life

Meeting IAESTE members (pick-up at the airport, organized events...)

In dormitory is periodical coffee hour every week. Good place to meet another foreign student. Another evening I often spend on near beach or with cycling around to visit shrines and so on.
On weekend I mostly visited Fukuoka city centre or went to some far trip with bike or hike. Also visited Okinawa islands and Seoul with another trainee and our Japanese friend – beautiful places.

Meeting other foreign students

This summer was there only one fereign student from IAESTE, but there was events like coffe hours on dormitory, so it was really good to meet new people. Everybody were really friendly and it was easy to plan some trips and events.

Sport and culture

There were a lot of another cultural activities that I tried. Most of them were for me so uncommon and never seen something similar, so I really enjoyed them. It was activities such as: preying in Japanese shrines, wearing Yukata costume, traditional Japanese dance, events like firework festivals and so on.

Food, local specialties

Experience with variety of Japanese food which is totally different than in Europe. Seafood, raw fish, and so on. It was good to try it and even a lot of this food were really tasty. Also try salty wasabi ice cream was really good experience :D.

Other information

Possibilites to communicate with the Czech Republic

There is cheap data SIM possibility, but you have to register for whole year for it. But if you are here more than 4 months, it can be worthy. If not, you can buy travel data SIM card with 1,5 GB data for 4000 Yen for 30 days. Data are really useful while travelling, but you don’t need it too much on campus and dormitory place, because there is university campus WiFi. So I bought it last month before my travelling week.

So best possibility to communicate is using internet – messenger, skype and so on. But there was 7 hour time zone difference, so sometimes it was complicate to found good time.

Recommendations for students who will go to the same place

Buy or borrow a bike from some another student for 4000 Yen or from second hand bike shop for 8000 Yen. Its useful, because campus is quite far from citycenter and subway is expansive.

What not to forget with you

Japanese loves presents. So bring some small souveniers for all your cooworkers would be really cool. And there is only one think that they love more. Alcohol. All of people in my laboratory, even proffesors really enjoyed Becherovka. So I really recommends bring becherovka. But watch the import limits. I brought 3 bottles of 0,7l package.

Another things you can buy. Sometimes are more expansive, but sometimes cheaper in 100 Yen shops. No warm clothes are needed in summertime. There was 30°C on evening and 35°C in daytime whole 2 months.

Useful gadgets are: powerbank, some board games or cards (you can learn Japanese people play games with cards, there its not so popular), JPR pass for travelling.

Benefits of the internship

• Improving language skills (you can talk with another foreign students)
• Work experience
• Knowledge of new culture
• New friends from around the world
• Independence
• Discover of a great Japanese nature

Cooperation with IAESTE in the foreign country

I mostly communicated with Toshiko, she helped me a lot in first days and every time when I had any question, she tried to help me as much as possible. Also send me useful information about transportation, about events in Fukuoka and so on. She is great person and I’m happy that she is doing it for students.

Overall experience with IAESTE

As an IAESTE member I can only recommend not only for internships. It is just a bunch of students that like to discover, work experience and have fun - they just do what they enjoy without any other profit.

Student's website

http://www.linkedin.com/in/roman-machacek/

Employer's webiste

https://www.kyushu-u.ac.jp/en/

Other useful links

Japan Rail Pass:
http://japanrailpass.net/en/

Japanese travel search app:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.navitime.inbound.walk&hl=cs

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