Motivation
I was wanting to gain experience in my field of study (chemical and biomedical engineering), while also getting insight into working in another country. I personally think internships and work experience overseas is a great way to build confidence, leadership and expand connections. I knew that my country of choice, Japan, is extremely innovative and skilled in the fields of engineering and technology, so I felt that getting work experience here would be invaluable.
Personal Development
I was very lucky in my internship to be placed in a host company where the bosses were extremely considerate and wanting to give us many positive experiences of Japan. I was also very fortunate to work with other international interns from all around Australia and America. I explored so many new places, tried so many new foods, and made so many new friends both locally and internationally. The highlight of the trip was our bosses taking all of the interns to their hometown, Kagawa, to show us all their favourite local spots growing up and teaching us how to make the famous (Kagawa) udon by hand. I was extremely grateful to be able to experience so much of Japan, including many of the cultural summer festivals occurring during this period (June-July), and meet so many intelligent and thoughtful people.
Academic Development
The company I was placed with in Japan is called PITTAN, and it is a biomedical start-up company which focuses on skin analytics. The bosses of this company have both completed related PhD's in different fields of biomedical study and were extremely knowledgeable and willing to help with any task or questions the interns had. I was also given the opportunity to travel to Tokyo University and meet Professor Tsunoda, who has published many successful research papers focusing on analytical chemistry. My task in the internship, along with several other engineers of different disciplines, was to build and design a chromatography machine the size of a gamecube. This utilises many micro-fluidic techniques, as well as many mechanical and electrical techniques that I was not familiar with at the beginning of the internship. After the 5 weeks, however, our group of interns were able to produce a successful product by utilising all of our individual skills and doing extensive research. From this, I have greatly expanded my knowledge in this field, and I'm extremely grateful to the bosses, as well as the other workers in the lab, who were able to thoroughly explain any topics and clear up any uncertainties. The challenges definitely came from the amount of interns (around 8) from different countries and backgrounds needing to work together for multiple hours a day. This was due to one intern in particular being extremely difficult to work with, as he constantly dismissed everyones ideas and put people down if their thoughts did not align with his own. From multiple conversations with this intern, as well as with the bosses, this issue was relatively quickly resolved. In relation to study load, I worked less hours in this workplace. Since the concepts were completely foreign, however, as well as there being a lot of hands on work and group communication, it definitely felt more mentally heavy and draining.
Professional Development
This internship taught me how to work well in a large group of people, from many different disciplines and backgrounds. We were able to use everyone's strengths in the different fields of mechanical, biomedical, chemical, and electrical engineering to create a final, operating product. At times, the different leadership and communication styles of each intern made it difficult to convey and implement everyone's ideas. We were able to overcome this however, through setting up daily meetings (around 15 minutes) at the start and end of each working day where everyone could talk about their goals for the day, and then say what they achieved throughout the day at the end. This made the work flow a lot more smoothly and we were able to collectively decide what ideas may or may not work for the project.
Budget
I didn't go into this trip with much of a budgeting breakdown, however I was more just cautious on saving where I could and not spending unnecessarily on eating out and shopping. The main issue that I didn't account for (to this extent) was the cost of transport. Since my workplace was fairly far away from my accommodation (which was allocated by CRCC Asia), the cost of transport by train was around $13 a day, which over a span of 5 weeks, added up very quickly. Therefore, in future, I would put aside a lot more money for transport. The food in Japan, however, is very cheap and accessible and you can eat quite well even if you are just getting food from the convenience stores - provide a lot more "healthy" options than those in Australia.
I received the New Colombo Mobility Grant, which went directly towards the fees I had to pay to CRCC Asia's program. This was $8k in total, where $4k was sent directly to the program. This was extremely helpful, as without this grant, I likely would not have been able to undertake the internship. Since this went directly toward the program fees however, I did need to be a lot more cautious on how I spent my money overseas (on food, travel, etc).
Accommodation
My accommodation was allocated to me through CRCC Asia directly, and the students did not have any input on where we were placed. We got placed in a share-house with private rooms, but with shared living facilities and bathrooms. I liked the accommodation we got allocated, and I also liked how many other students within the program were placed in the same accommodation so that we could make friends and travel/do things together in our free time.
Highlight
My highlights of the trip included: visiting my boss's hometown in Kagawa (while also stopping off and exploring Awaji Island), visiting Tokyo University and Enoshima Island, as well as the Kyoto temples and Nara deer park (highlights in order from high to low). These were all thoroughly enjoyable experiences and gave us the opportunity to experience have many cultural experiences and try all the local foods.
