＜概要／目的＞
Experiencing the atmosphere of international exchange program in University of Seoul and expanding the knowledge of Biology through communication in English.

＜方法／企画としての特徴＞
1.Exchanging the knowledge and research experience between Tokyo Metropolitan University (TMU) and University of Seoul (UOS) by joining the laboratory in UOS for few days, doing experiment together, and participate in the UOS-TMU life science conference.

2. Learning Korean culture and experiencing the beauty of Korea by going to the several sightseeing places in Seoul.

＜活動内容／具体的成果＞
02/02
We arrived at Gimpo International Airport, Seoul around noon. The UOS organizer picked up us at the airport and we went together to the dormitory by train and bus.The UOS dormitory was quite far from the airport, so we arrived at the dormitory just before sunset. After took a rest for a while, they invited us to eat Dinner together. It was a very good place, I can experience real Korean food for the first time.

02/03
We started our activity from 10 am. First, we enjoying the campus tour, the UOS organizer introduce their university building and facility to US. They have a museum that collects comics of Korean artists from long time ago until nowadays. their building style was also interesting, they growing vine plant on the wall of the building.
After lunch we have chance to visit the lab that we chose before coming. The organizer from the lab that I chose introduced me to his professor. It was a very great opportunity to met and had conversation with the professor. He was very kind and cheerful. We talk about my impression about Korea and Japan since I am a foreign student in TMU, about research in his lab and research that i am doing in TMU and about our plan in the future.
In laboratory, the organizer introduced me to their basic work in laboratory briefly, since we did not have enough time to do any experiment at that day.
In the evening we had a very warm welcoming party from the UOS organizer and students. They introduced their lab and main research in their lab, We (TMU students) also had chance to introduce our lab and our main research topic in laboratory. We had good conversation each other between TMU students and UOS students. It was a very good timing to make a friend each other.



02/04
I started doing my experiment at this day. The UOS student in the lab, give me a protocol to do experiment and teach me how to do the experiment. I learn about senescence process in the human fibroblast cells and anti aging treatment as well. It was a very interesting topic, they used the tomato extract to rescue the cells from aging process, and the treatment was totally work. I could see that the aging cell became enlarge and flat when we treated the cell with a chemical called adr to induce the senescence, and when we treated the cells with adr + tomato extract, the cells showed similar morphology with the normal cell again. I think I could confirm that tomato is one of a very good fruit or vegetable to consume to delay the aging process in our body.



In the evening, the laboratory member and professor invited me to eat dinner together. We had a lot of conversation each other. It was fun, we share about our experience, about life about research and about study life as well.



02/05
This day we continued our experiment, it was the same topic but different method to observe senescence and anti aging process. we use spectrofotometer to measure the ROS level inside the normal cell, senescence cell and the senescence cell with anti aging treatment. we can see that ROS level is very high in senescence cell.



In this day, I had a chance to discuss with one laboratory member which work on similar topic with me. It was about mitochondrial dynamics in the cell, but the object and the research purpose was different. I work on rice gametes and zygotes, he work on human HeLa cell. I got some new Idea for my own research from our discussion. It was very nice to sharing our knowledge each other through this exchange program.

02/06
The UOS organizer invited us to enjoy Korean culture and traditional food this day. We went to some sightseeing place, enjoy the traditional ceremony and traditional cloth (hanbook). Walking around the traditional village (Bukchon Hanok Village), drinking Korean tea and eating Korean noodle, looked at the view of the traditional village from the second floor of the traditional house. It was very good for relaxing our mind. I have enjoy so much that day.



02/07
This day we have UOS-TMU life science conference. We started this conference from morning. One of lecturer from our university (TMU) had honor to present her research and team about extra embryonic tissue role during embryonic development of the chicken. One TMU students and one UOS student also present their research in the 2nd section.



In the afternoon, I had a chance to present my own research through poster presentation. I got some question and comment from the conference participant about my research. I also visited UOS student poster and listened to their research. All of the topic was very interesting.




After the conference, we took a rest for a while, and the organizers arranged a farewell party for us.

02/08
This day was our last day in Seoul. The organizer help us to send our luggage to the Incheon international airport and check in our flight as well in Seoul station. We received our boarding pass in the station and after that we can freely enjoying the tour in several place in Seoul before going back to Japan, because our flight was at night. We arrived at Haneda airport around 22.30 pm and went back home safely.

＜感想／課題など（企画力／評価力／自主性等の向上を含む）＞
This International exchange program is a very wonderful program to share knowledge and make friends through two university, UOS and TMU. This program is very important to be maintain. Since based on my experience, both of us, UOS and TMU, can get a lot of benefit through this program. We can learn different topic, share our knowledge and research experience by using English as international language. It is awesome, because  English is not our mother language but we were able to communicate and understand each other. It is not only about scientific knowledge but also about increasing our confidence when we speak or explain our research and interest. We have a lot of time to practice our English and learn how to pronounce some word or sentence which probably we do not know before from our interlocutors through the conversation.
This program has a very good impression for me. Thank you very much for UOS and TMU.

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