On June 26, we visited Saint Petersburg State University. The campus was beautiful and had many historic and splendid buildings.

First, we had the opportunity to meet with professors of psychology. I was interested in the research environment in Russia. Today, as in Japan, competitive budgets are larger than the basic budget from the university. However, in soviet time, they could obtain not an abundant research budget, but enough to conduct research stably. It must have been a fortunate and attractive environment for people who wanted to devote themselves to their research. It was also impressive to me that professors in the meeting, including the Dean of the Department, were women. I thought that female researchers played an important role in the university.

After that, we participated in an international symposium and I gave a poster presentation. It was a little bit difficult for me to explain details of the study and its significance briefly and concisely. I realized the importance of skills of explaining my own research to people who were not experts in this field.

In Saint Petersburg, the landscape was very beautiful and the food was also delicious. Actually, I had some anxiety before going Russia. However, now I feel a strong familiarity with them. My image of Russia was totally changed. The most important thing I learned from my visit to Russia might be the importance of direct experience of a culture.

Smolny Cathedral

Saint Isaac’s Cathedral

Poster presentation

Borscht

Beef stroganoff and Pelmeni