My overall experience in Japan was nothing short of life-changing. It was my first international experience and that too being completely alone. Initially, I was very scared but quickly it turned into a lot of fun. I wholeheartedly embraced the culture of Japan and quickly learnt how to eat with chopsticks, efficiently use the train system, and even a bit of Japanese (after taking Japanese classes at the University of Tokyo). It was a lot of fun to be able to speak a bit in Japanese and many people were surprised at how fast I had picked it up!

I also travelled to lots of places in Tokyo during my free time, mainly to attend ‘Matsuris’ on the weekend. They were a fantastic experience. I also travelled to some other cities like Kyoto, Osaka, and Hiroshima on the weekend. After my internship, I also visited Hokkaido!

Talking about my internship, it was a great experience being in such a supportive lab environment where such high-quality research on such a wide variety of topics was being done simultaneously. Sensei also used to conduct weekly lab meetings where everyone would give presentations about their research work. This way, we were able to learn a lot about different research fields! I learnt a lot working on the project that Sensei gave me, in association with the International Association of Ports and Harbors (IAPH). I feel I could make a good contribution to the project and the people at IAPH were quite impressed with how much progress I could make in such a short time. The project taught me a lot of valuable aspects about maritime logistics and in particular, green shipping.

I am grateful to Honda Foundation for providing me with such a positively life changing experience. I definitely wish to come back to Japan once again in the future!