〈留学生レポート〉

Two French Students in Japan
Alexandra Doncieux and Stagnol Damien*

Welcome in JapanOne day in March, we take plane for Nagoya. Let’s
go to Japan!
At the airport, we meet professors Ota and Hashimoto
and after 1 hour and a half, we discover CRL andthe guesthouse. The jet lag is difficult but we go withprofessors and students to a traditional Japaneserestaurant and a first contact with the Japanesetraditional food is done. French and Japanese foods
are so different but before to eat we have to use ourjoystick correctly. Even if we trained us in France it’sdifficult for us to follow professionals. Japanese foodis unknown in our country and we can only eat Sushiand Sashimi. So this evening, we try lot of new tastes!
After this “oishi” lunch we spend our first night in Japan.
During the first week, we meet lot of new people:
Professors, students and employees. Our first work is tomemorize the name of everybody. This is a very hardjob because very often we inverse some letters …
Sumimasen!!!

In April, it is the beautiful season of cherry blossom!
As we need to go to Nitech we go through Tsurumai
Park with professor Ota. After our registration as
students of Nitech, we go to a picnic under the treesof the park.
Few days after we arrived, we have to try another＊ 07 年 3 月 31 日 〜 10 月 19 日、フ ラ ン ス ENSCI か ら FIRE
program に よ り 来 日 し、“Thermomechanical properties ofmodel refractory materials, influence of microstructure
evolutions and CTE mismatch between phases” に関して研究を行った。

famous activity in Japan: Barbecue Party! This party
is very nice to discuss with lot of people! Everybody
is here, professors and students. We spend a very niceand fun evening and thanks to professor Adachi; thanks
to him, we discover different kinds of sake! The tasteof sake changes with its origin.
Takayama

Our first trip is Takayama, an old and traditional town
in Hida district. In April there is a famous Matsouri. It’s
our first Japanese festival and we observe everything.
The floats are so beautiful with red and gold colour.
More than 500000 people are present! We can see
musicians and dancers who walk in procession. Theywear traditional clothes and they have lot of flags andplay old music instruments.
We visit the Takayama-Jinya, a post office built on1816. In fact, we walk everywhere to see the old houses
and temples as Hida Kokubun-Ji which has been built― 63 ―

Two French Students in Japanon the 8th century. A very nice day with only 6 hours
by train.
Kyoto and Osaka

Then there is a forum where students present their work
thanks to poster.
After it’s time to try onsen and to discover the Japanese
way of life! The water is very hot and it’s quite difficult
to go in but after you are in the onsen you are peaceful.
After a good night, the meeting continues the morning.
On the afternoon we visit Arai with Kosuke Tamaki
and especially its check point office and its old hotel.
Then we go to unagi-pie Company and we learn how
they are made. Oishi!
Tokyo

The second step of our travel in Japan is Kyoto! We
go there with Kentaro Sugimoto and another student
in this famous place during the golden week. It’sdifficult to choose where we want to go because there
are too much of things to see! Fortunately, we stay
two days even if we sleep in Osaka due to the amountof tourists who come to Kyoto.
We visit many temples as Ginkaku-Ji, Kimizu, RokuonJi, Ryoan-Ji, To-Ji, etc. They are so beautiful…
To finish this travel, we go to the aquarium of Osaka.
There are lot of fishes like manta ray and whale shark.
Unfortunately, the wale shark died few weeks after
we seen him…Near this aquarium there is a 3D cinema
which is very impressive!
Hanamatsu, Arai and Unagi-Pie company
One month after Kyoto we go with professors andstudents to Hanamatsu for a meeting of ceramics. Themeeting takes place in a hotel where we send one night.
We listen people who explain their work in…. Japanese!
Muzukashi sugimasu! On the evening, a big barbecue
party is organised. There is a lot of atmosphere.
Everybody speak with everybody during the meal.

We are in Japan since 4 months and now we wantto visit Tokyo, the main city of Japan. We use thebus during a night and when we arrive to Shinjuku
station, it’s only 5 a.m. We go in Tsukiji to see thefamous fish market. We find a coffee shop to havebreakfast! Even if it’s early, there is lot of people!
But we can’t eat sushi at this time; we will wait for
the lunch … Fish sellers and customers work and wecan observe the activity of the Tokyo’s seaport. Atsui!
During these three days, the temperature is around 35℃ … Each 300 meters we need to buy something todrink.
Nevertheless we continue our travel and we go
everywhere: Ginza, Asakusa, Ueno, Shinjuku, Shibuya,Marunouchi, etc. We love Tokyo! There is lot of things
to see and the atmosphere in the street depends onthe place you are. You can have an old and traditional
atmosphere or high tech atmospheres; you just haveto change of area! We visit temples, building, zoo,
government building, sushi bar, etc! Then we buy lotof souvenirs as Kimono and we take too much ofpictures! Tokyo is a very nice place for tourism!
Gifu
In August, there are big fireworks in Gifu! So we decideto go and to see it. After one hour by train with so― 64 ―Alexandra Doncieux, Stagnol Damien

many people, we arrive to Gifu station. Everywhere
we can see Japanese people who wear their traditional
clothes. We go near the river where the fireworks must
be shooting. It’s easy to find our way because wejust have to follow the swarm. After 40 minutes, wearrive and we buy foods and drinks. We find a goodplace where we can sit down. During two hours wecan observe fireworks. It’s very beautiful.
Kamikochi

trip continues and we are quite surprised by thelandscape. There are several mountains and lot ofvegetations similar to jungle! We make another briefstop in this area to see a beautiful waterfall. Near it
we discover a wasabi grove and professor Ota buys
us a very very good wasabi ice-cream!!! So strange…
Then we arrive to the hotel and we discover our room
which is very beautiful and big! Before having thelunch, everybody go to onsen to relax themselves.
For lunch a room with tatamis has been reserved for
us. This is a traditional Japanese lunch. We wear akimono and we sit down on the floor. How to say about
the food… There is lot of different dishes and we eat
until we can t (onaka ipai!). To digest we go outside
the hotel to a little onsen for foot. After a good nightin futon we go to a zoo with lot of crocodiles andlot of different plants. Then we go back to Tajimi
and we make a last brief stop in a restaurant to eat
soba!
Inuyama

On September we go we Professor Hayakawa and his
family to Kamikochi! This famous place is locatedin the Japanese Alps around the Azusa River. We walkslowly during this excursion to appreciate the peacefulatmosphere! We walk near the river through marshland
thanks to several little wood pontoons. Finally we arrive
to the famous bridge: Kappa-Bashi. There we buy soba
and grape juice for the dinner in Tajimi! Unfortunately
we can only stay 4 hours before to go back home …
So it is a very short afternoon but we keep lot ofgood memories.
Laboratory trip
At the end of September, a laboratory trip is organised!
We need 6 hours to do this trip by car. At the middle
we have a brief stop to observe Fuji-San!!! But there
are too much of clouds and we can’t see it … The

Now we are in October and our last trip we go toInuyama! As Kamikochi, Professor Hayakawa and his
family come with us. First we go down the Kiso-gawaRiver with a ship. It is a 13km long trip with some rocks
which look like an animal. There are few speed areas
which are very impressive! Then we visit the Inuyama― 65 ―

Two French Students in Japan

castle which is the oldest castle of Japan. On the topof the castle you can see a very beautiful landscapewith mountains and river. The evening we go to abarbecue restaurant and as usual we eat lot of goodthings but this time we drink French wine…

Tradition is very important in this sport and we havebeen very happy to see it!
This the end of our training period and we have to go
back to France

NagoyaWell, there is too much of things to tell about Nagoya!
This is a nice city with many shrines, museums,
karaoke, pubs, etc. We go each week end to Nagoya
to visit, to do shopping (Sakae, Osu kannon), to drink
and to eat something (like Red Rock Cafe!). We likevery much this city, people are very kind and theevening there is many animated place with lot of people.
Like we see so different things in Nagoya, we decideto put a picture of a famous and original thing wesaw: championship of Sumo! This is very impressive.

On October this is the end of our adventure in Japan!
We have been very enjoyed to come to CRL and towork about Itacolumite. But now we have to go backto France… So this is the time of the last dinners: a final
barbecue party with professors and students, a final
lunch with the Chinese people of the guesthouse anda sayonara party with Ms Hayashi and others women!
Time is over and if we are glad to go back to see
our family and friends we are very sad to leave eachpeople we met! We hope to see you again in Japanor in France (In fact, everywhere…)!

Thank you very much Ishizawa sanse, Ota sanse and Adachi sanse
Thank you Ms Hayashi and others womenThank you Japanese and Foreign students

ありがとつ ございますした― 66 ―