Anniken here, a master student from UiT, currently in the middle of an internship in Tokyo. I’m visiting Tokyo Institute of Technology, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, where I take part in a laboratory group. In the group we are bachelor to Ph.D. students working with geochemistry. I have brought rock samples with me from Norway and are now preparing them for mass spectrometer analysis. The concentrations of osmium and other highly siderophile elements will be determined using TIMS and ICP-MS which they have here at the institute.

Many days have been spent in the lab. The pre-analytical chemistry work takes more time than I expected. Several steps must be done before the samples are ready for the machines and with close to 40 samples, every small step takes time. Even just labeling tubes and vails adds up. But I learn a lot during the work and feel that I really need to dig deep into my chemistry knowledge from my bachelor courses. Also, during this work I need to be precise and very careful working with small volumes, a contrast to the fieldwork and earlier stages of sample preparation. I like these contrasts!

There are clearly differences from university back home and here at Tokyo Tech. The structure and organization are of course different, but here the approach to the scientific work is much closer related to lab work and analysis then what I am used to. All students are members and actively take part in the laboratories, therefor they become familiar with this way of working. For me this is quite new, so lots to learn! In addition, the geology section here is smaller, and most laboratories focus on the planetary studies.

The other lab members have been very welcoming to me and help me out wherever there is a language or cultural barrier. Getting to know these local people is so wonderful and would not be possible as a normal tourist. Now that I am travelling alone for 8 weeks, they are also important as a social network and have become friends. But the level of English is varying, which is very understandable because Japanese is so different from our western languages! I really get use of my social skills, being openminded and curious. Also, body language and mimicking are much helpful I realized!

In addition to the work at the institute, I was lucky to join a trip to the marine research organization JAMSTEC. We had a tour around some of the lab facilities and to their exhibition room. At JAMSTEC they have many years of deep-sea research experience and operate their one submarine which can go down to 6500m depth. Many of the other student’s rock samples were sampled with such a submarine from expeditions to the Pacific Ocean! JAMSTEC’s localities are in the outskirts of Tokyo, so we used the opportunity to drive out to the city’s nearest outcrop, an uplifted section of the accretionary wedge. The rocks were fresh and beautiful showing turbidite sequences, flame structures, folding and reverse faults.

Staying in Japan is very exiting since it is so different to where I come from. Several days I have walked around Tokyo being amazed and overwhelmed about how huge this city is! Just taking the trains on my own has been an adventure with many train stations acting as large mazes over several stories. Luckily Google Maps and sporadically Wi-Fi exists!

The one other girl from my lab group, Yuka, and I also went one weekend sightseeing in Kyoto. The city has preserved more of the older architecture, temples, and shrines. We experienced temple after temple, drinking matcha tea in a Buddhist garden, listening to traditional flute playing by a river, seeing the first cherry blossoms of the season, and following the stream of tourists competing for the best picture of a golden temple. Yuka thought me the rituals of how to make a prayer, which added to the experience at the religious places. So thankful to be experiencing this unique, rich, and old culture!

Japan’s tectonic setting is of course different than what I’m used to from Norway, and I have experienced that the earthquake warning system on my phone works. This is exotic and exiting both as a geologist and as a tourist. Luckily, I still have some more weeks of the internship left and with the Japanese holiday, golden week coming up, I have made planes of visiting some volcanoes and hot springs. The surface expressions of my surroundings being a tectonically active area!