I participated in “Training Program for Russia-Japan Innovative Leaders of Tomorrow” and visited Pavlov First State Medical University of St. Petersburg.

This is my first overseas trip, so everything is great and exciting.

The tour of University of St. Petersburg was interesting. I was impressed by the differences in culture between Japan and Russia.

I participated in the symposium and heard about the research conducted at each university. I heard research that I didn’t know about in Japan and realized a new perspective.

I made preparations for the poster presentation, but there was no time to present it because discussion on each session was so active. We present our research simply without poster. It was a little unfortunate, but it was a good opportunity to present my research in English.

I have practiced reading and writing English papers but had few opportunities to communicate in English. At this symposium, I realized my inexperience in English. When I tried to make an English sentence quickly, I panicked and the words didn't come out well. Even if the words came out, my pronunciation was bad and I couldn't communicate well. I felt that it would be necessary to improve my English conversation skills in the future in order to gain knowledge of people overseas and spread knowledge of my research. I would like to try to actively interact with people overseas without fear of failure.

The city of St. Petersburg was very large, clean and impressive. The cityscape of the daytime and the museum were also very beautiful, and I was impressed by the cultural differences from Japan.

I would like to thank Kanazawa University for giving me this opportunity, the teachers of University of St. Petersburg who guided me, and Marina, who carefully guided us and interpreted in St. Petersburg.