Nishihara Laboratory

I went to Jeju University, because we extended a number of exchange programs for another five years or so. We got to visit the new president of the university, Prof. H-J Huh, as well as the International Exchange dean, the den of the College of Ocean Sciences, and the vice dean as well. We had a good discussion, regarding our visit and how we can improve our exchange programs. One of the key objectives of these programs is to encourage our students to interact internationally. I think we all agreed to that. The task for them now is to find a good liaison officer, who will be interested in coordinating activity on their side. Hope they can find someone. Anyways, large parts of the campus are being renovated and new building are popping up all over the place. The Nagasaki University Liaison Office was also moved, and is next to their public relations department. Afterwards, we had dinner at a restaurant where they serve Jeju's famous pork. You can see Prof. Matsuok...

Ok I am in Jeju now. It is very hot and humid here, and it makes muggy Nagasaki look like paradise. There are a lot of tourists from China here, and not many from Japan. Well at least in the flight from Fukuoka to Jeju, the seats were more than 70% empty. Infact, I was the only passenger in the mid-section of the aircraft! So I figured out how to catch the city bus to the hotel,and bought myself a T-Money card, which is just a rechargeable prepaid bus fare card. All I needed to do was take the 500 toward Halla University, but I went the opposite direction by mistake. Just got off and caught another bus back. Prof. Matsuoka will be meeting up with me tomorrow, and so I got us some rooms in the cheaper hotels. The one the Jeju staff suggested was > 14,000 yen a night. I found place under 10,000. But it is in the back-alleys and looks like a renovated love-hotel . At least it has free wifi and good food is nearby.

Our Kagoshima fieldwork ended in a hurry, because we heard some thunder out in the distance. It never really rained though, which was good since it took a while to rinse and cleanup all of the equipment. We went back to the hotel, where the students spent a few hours downloading all of the data off the data-loggers. We put a few gopros in the water, so hopefully I can show some videos later. As usually, we took the time to go have some gyoza and soft-serve icecream. Anyways I am now off to Jeju University for a few days to visit the Chancellor and get him to autograph a few documents. We have a MOU to conduct student exchange programs and to provide a double-degree program (you can get a degree from Jeju and Nagasaki) for the MS students.

The Kagoshima University rowboat racing team is practicing with a Mt. Sakurajima erupting in the background .

We're going to take measurements all day today.

We're in Kagoshima for some fieldwork. One of my students is trying to measure mixing in seagrass meadows and sargassum beds using fluorescent dyes. Since most of our earlier experiments were during the winter, we completely forgot about the stratification that can occur in these ecosystems. We will need to adjust our dye injection technique so that dye is as neutrally bouyant as possible.

Typhoon is going to pass through southern Nagasaki tonight or so. Inside the port is still somewhat calm.