Home away from Home: NAIST Student Dormitory

Graduate schools are often located several miles away from home, and sometimes demand long laboratory hours. NAIST is no different, and its on-campus dormitory is the perfect students’ haven.

There are eight student dormitory buildings at NAIST. Two are dedicated for married couples and families, while six are for single occupants. Among the six single-occupant dormitory buildings, half are male-exclusive. For the other half, some upper floors are allotted for female students. In total, there are 559 single, 50 couple and 10 family rooms available for occupation.

Every single room has a single bed, a desk with chair, and often an air conditioning unit
It is also equipped with a closet, as well as a telephone, which can be used to contact the room from a telephone unit outside the dormitory building.

A single room is about 13 m2, which includes a bed, a desk with chair, a closet, a kitchenette, a toilet and a small veranda. Shared spaces are also available in each single-occupant dormitory building. Combined bathroom and laundry areas are situated at every floor, which contains three shower rooms, three washing machines, and a coin dryer. There is also a lounge at every dormitory building, where student parties and casual hangouts are often held.

A small veranda for getting a breath of fresh air.
A toilet of your own can also be found inside.
A kitchenette with sink and gas stove is also installed. Gas supply, though, needs to be outsourced.
Laundry and bathroom areas are placed at every floor.

Rooms for married couples and families, on the other hand, are around 40 to 50 m2 large, and additionally include their own laundry space, bathroom, shoe cupboard, and a dining table. However, there are no shared spaces.   

Parking spaces are also available in all dormitory buildings. Available slots cover roughly 75% of the residents.

For the duration of their master’s or doctoral program, full-time regular course students are eligible for a slot in these NAIST on-campus dormitories. Students who can avail of a dormitory slot are mainly selected based on entrance examination results, but other factors such as distance from the students’ hometowns are also considered. Significantly priced cheaper than accommodations outside campus, the NAIST dormitory is definitely both affordable and convenient for international and Japanese students alike.

In April 2021, NAIST is set to open a shared apartment-type dormitory for Japanese and international students. Its aim is to develop mutual understanding of various cultures, which can prepare the students for entering a global society that awaits them after graduation.

NAIST Division of Materials Science Holds 11th Mid-term Evaluation Symposium

The Mid-term Evaluation Symposium 2019 was held in NAIST, last Nov 26 and 27. It is an annual event where a large portion of Materials Science course students present their research in conference-style oral and poster sessions. Now on its 11th year, it is one of the biggest internal events in the MS Division.

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A Trip Back to Ancient Japan: Tamba Sasayama International Students Excursion

Old and new NAIST international students were in for a treat as the International Student Affairs brought them to Tamba-Sasayama, an old castle town located in the heart of Hyogo, on May 12, 2019. A group of 41 eager students, from all three divisions of NAIST, joins us today! The event opens with soba-making lessons, followed by a refreshing afternoon walk around the garden, all conveniently located at Eitakuji.

We tried our hand at soba-making at Eitakuji Soba Dojo, under the guidance of a master soba maker. We were taught that traditional soba-making follows a rigorous procedure, which can be categorized into three major steps: (1) dough-making (水回し, mizumawashi), (2) flattening (丸出し, marudashi), and (3) cutting (切り, kiri).

Step 1: mizumawashi — thoroughly mixing buckwheat flour and water to make a dough.
Step 2: marudashi — rolling out the dough to make a large thin sheet.
Step 3: kiri – cutting the sheet evenly into thin soba noodles.

As a reward for our hard work, for making fresh soba from scratch–a hearty soba and tempura lunch!

Students enjoying the soba that they have just made themselves, along with some tempura and rice.

After lunch time, the group then went to the Sasayama Castle Great Lecture Hall (篠山城大書院), which is said to be comparable to Kyoto’s Nijo castle in terms of architecture. It was built on the orders of the 16th century shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu. Inside the structure are replicas of samurai armor, which are said to weigh around ten kilos each. Although this already sounds heavy, the original ones used in the ancient times are believed to be twice or thrice this weight.

Samurai armor replicas displayed in the Sasayama Castle Oshoin.

Following this is a stroll around the Aoyama Historical Village. Housed in this area is the Tamba Sasayama Dekansho Museum, where students got to enjoy a VR experience featuring a dance to the “Tamba Sasayama Dekansho Song – The Memory of One’s Home Sung with Folk Song,” which became a heritage of Japan in April 2015.

An attendee tests out the VR experience at the museum.

The last stop was the Samurai Residence Anma Family Historical Archive Hall, where the participants took a glimpse of a samurai’s humble abode. Descendants of the samurai are said to still reside in some of the houses within the vicinity.

An old samurai head gear displayed at the Samurai Residence Anma Family Historical Archive Hall.

To cap off the informative and enjoyable excursion, the students enjoyed some ice cream made from the popular Tamba Sasayama black soybeans.

Tamba Sasayama black soybean ice cream being enjoyed by the students.

This excursion is one of the many activities organized by the International Student Affairs for the NAIST international students. Such activities are aimed towards promoting camaraderie among international students while deepening their knowledge of the Japanese culture. Come join us next time!

Learning English at UC Davis

From January 7 to February 2, 2019, some doctoral course students from the Division of Materials Science of the Nara Institute of Science and Technology went to University of California Davis (UC Davis) to participate in the “NAIST Materials Science English and Science Program.” The main goal of this program is to hone the English communication skills of the NAIST students, specifically for oral scientific presentations.

NAIST Materials Science students who participated in the UC Davis-NAIST English and Science Program.

Under the Division of Continuing and Professional Education of UC Davis, the four-week program includes four classes taught by UC Davis faculty – Professional Presentation Workshop (Destiny Davis), Public Speaking Skills (Ellen Lange), Listening and Pronunciation (Angela Foin) and Hot Topics in Science and Technology (Suzanne Bardasz). In some of these classes, UC Davis students were also invited to join as student conversation partners, to allow the NAIST students to mingle with native-speaking students. At the end of the program, a mini-symposium showcasing the research of the students was held, where they were given an opportunity to apply what they have learned for the month-long training, through oral presentations.

Xudongfang Wang from Information Device Science Laboratory gives an oral presentation as a final requirement for the course.
Yasumichi Takase from Complex Molecular Science Laboratory is happy to receive his certificate of completion.

The students also had a great immersion experience even outside of class. Throughout their stay, all of the students lived with host families, so they were given a lot of opportunities to speak in English— not only for scientific purposes, but also in casual settings. During weekends, the students did not forget to have fun by touring around California. They visited famous tourist attractions such as Yosemite, San Francisco, Sacramento, and Lake Tahoe.

The NAIST group at Yosemite, one of the most popular tourist attraction sites in Northern California.
The NAIST students take a selfie with the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

This NAIST-UC Davis partnership program is held annually as part of the doctoral course curriculum of the Division of Materials Science. Year after year, it helps the NAIST students not only to improve their oral presentation skills in English, but also their ability to engage in scientific and casual discussions.

One Groovy Afternoon: Mahoroba Dance Festival 2018

Culture and dance met onstage during the Mahoroba Dance Festival 2018, which was held last November 25th at the Nara Centennial Hall. This three-hour annual event started in 2009 as a pre-event for the 1300th anniversary of the Heijō transition capital, with an aim to showcase traditional Japanese culture, particularly during the Tenpyo era, through various types of dances.

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NAIST International Student Ambassador Program

Just in time for leaves to slowly turn from green to orange, another fall term starts afresh. This year, NAIST is all set to welcome new international students as the Center for International Students and Scholars (CISS) steps up in making them feel at home by launching the International Student Ambassador Program.  Continue reading NAIST International Student Ambassador Program