Training period for getting back to school

A small shrine on the way to my current work place

For the past three weeks, I have been working in the lab for about 8 hours a day, from 8:30 to 18:00 on average. "Isn't that too much?", as some expressed their concern about my physical ability to work as an average young person. I like to believe that I am physically back to what I used to be, but I also had to remind myself that I had not been working for the past 6+ months or so. The result was that I started to feel fatigue and slight nausea when I worked for about 8 hours, so I go back home quickly when my body sends me that sort of signal that "your body can't work anymore." Recently I'm starting to think of my time at Shinshu University as a training period before getting back to school. It's nice to know beforehand about what I can handle at current state.

Other than that, I've been enjoying my time in Nagano. Many cities in this prefecture have histories from back in the 16th century, so it has been very enjoyable to walk around in such historic towns. Also, hanging out and working with people from my age group has also been fun, since I haven't had much interaction with people in general for the past few months.

Matsumoto Castle

What I've been up to

There hasn't been new posts because I was traveling and I have been quite healthy. On the last post I mentioned that my WBC# was low, but when I took the blood test again few days later, my WBC# was 4600, the number I haven't seen in months!! Although I had a light fever and felt tired by the end of the day usually even then, it was really nice to know my body's recovery.

Plum flowers in Ueda, Nagano

What have I been up to?

So the day after I went to check my blood for the second time, I went back to Taiwan with my mom and my friend Mary for one week. It was really great that my grandparents and I got to see each other after all the treatments.  They were definitely more worried about me than I was worried about myself, so I hope I was able to bring some relief to their mind.

The day after I came back from Taiwan, I was in Tokyo for a concert and had lunch with my uncle from Dallas. I had great time with my uncle, cherry blossoms were blooming.

Asakusa, Tokyo

Then few days after my trip to Taiwan, I packed up one suitcase and moved to Ueda city, Nagano prefecture, which is about 200 km northwest of Tokyo. I will be here until beginning of June, to begin again the research from I left at UW. I really appreciate my professor, my department, and Kimura lab at Shinshu University for providing me such opportunity. I have been pretty busy, a lot to be done everyday, and I've been enjoying it so far. I've been working about 8 hours a day, but I haven't felt fatigue or sick. I think this experience will not only be valuable to my academic learning, but also to recover fully before I go back to the life I left in Seattle.