Materials Science and Matsuri | 材料技術と祭
an experiential report
September 2018 to April 2019

Nagma Mathur

University of Ottawa
Department of Mechanical Engineering
161 Louis Pasteur, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Tokyo Gas Co., Ltd.
Fundamental Technology Research Institute1-7-7 Suehiro-cho, Tsurumi-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa, JapanApril 24, 2019

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2Introduction | 序論
I knew before I even entered university that I wanted my undergraduate career to include some
sort of experience abroad. But with the strict requirements of engineering courses and the nonstandard co-op term sequence, an international exchange would be very difficult to accomplish. Onthe other hand, obtaining a paid foreign co-op position was also near-impossible on my own, as I did
not have an international network or know where to look.
That’s why, when I heard of the Canada-Japan Co-op Program (CJCP) through a friend, in which
students are connected with employers willing to hire Canadian interns, I decided that I would apply
as I was completing my third year. After several months of self-guided Japanese lessons, application
forms, interviews, and phone calls, I was matched with my first-choice internship at Tokyo Gas, whereI would be conducting research on the degradation of solar panel materials. A few more months ofpaperwork and emails later, I was off on a plane to live and work in Japan for eight months.

Tokyo Gas, established in 1885, is the largest city gas provider in Japan, operating in Tokyo andthe surrounding Kanto area. In an effort to stay competitive within Japan’s deregulated energy
market, Tokyo Gas has been expanding its businesses to include related or supplemental forms ofenergy storage and production, such as fuel cell co-generation systems and, soon, solar panels.
Research and development for new technologies is mainly based at the Yokohama ResearchInstitute, which is further divided between the Application Technology and Fundamental Technology
Research Institutes. The latter deals with the sciences, such as thermodynamics, chemistry, andstructural engineering, and their applications in Tokyo Gas’ various operations. The team I wasassigned with, Materials Science and Engineering, mainly conducts research on the lifetimes ofmaterials used in any of the energy technologies.

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3First impressions | 第一印象
Tokyo Gas set me and the other CJCP student up with an “acceptance owner” (i.e. life supervisor)and our own “team leaders” (i.e. work supervisors). Our acceptance owner picked us up from theairport and helped us settle in to our apartments. They were small, but comfortable, stocked with all
the appliances and utilities we would need (save for eating utensils). We had to pay the flat-rate
utility bill every month, but it was reasonable for everything provided to us. In addition, myapartment had a balcony with a stunning view of the neighbourhood, presented below in Figure 1.

Figure 1. View from my apartment balcony on my first morning in Japan

Here I was in the south of Tokyo, thrown into a world I had only ever seen through animated TV
shows and video games. One of the most difficult parts of adjusting was going grocery shopping — I
spent at least an hour on my first trip to the store just translating the labels. Everything wasoverwhelming and distinctly Japanese, but not drastically different from what I was used to. Of course
there were differences, including the language (I was nowhere near fluent), left-hand driving, and lackof sidewalks, but this wasn’t the first time I was on my own in a big city.

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4Work | 職
We started work after a few days of organizing our residence cards and bank accounts. Not longafter meeting our teams, receiving our uniforms, and being presented an overview of the company, I
was given my initial laboratory task. I was taught to use the Fourier-Transform Infrared (FTIR)
spectrometer, which is widely used for chemical analysis, in order to investigate the difference indegradation behaviour between thermally- and UV-aged polyurethane.
Over the next few months, I also evaluated the degradation behaviour of other materials. I
conducted a literature study on the thermo-oxidative deterioration of cross-linked polyethylene pipes
under pressure, research on thermally-aged acrylonitrile butadiene rubber, and began my main
project analyzing the degradation of materials in aged photovoltaic modules, often juggling severalof these projects at the same time. In the process I learned about Raman Spectroscopy, Differential
Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), Thermo-Gravimetric Analysis (TGA), UV-Visible Range Spectrophotometry (UV-Vis), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and Energy-Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy(EDX).

My mechanical engineering knowledge was useful for understanding the physical characteristics
associated with degradation of materials (e.g. differences in fracture phenomena due tomicrostructural changes), or for knowing how to troubleshoot laboratory equipment issues (e.g.
adding a seal to stop leaks in a humidifier). However, much of my work built on my foundations ofhigh school and first year chemistry, and while I hadn’t worked with such topics as organic moleculeoxidation or stoichiometric analysis in a few years, I could recall them after some quick review.
On the other hand, the major aspects of research proved to be a challenge. My academic
background is based in mostly macroscopic, applied science and mathematics, and my experiencehad consisted of actively designing things and solving problems. Conducting literature studies andreading papers to passively find information was not something I was very familiar with, andM A T ERI A L S S CI E NC E A ND M A T SU R I | 材 料 技術 と 祭

5compiling and summarizing material to guide my experiments took some time to get used to.
Keeping track of all this information was also difficult initially, though eventually I learned bestpractices for maintaining an effective database, such as referencing adequately, writing brief outlines,and saving PDF files of papers to a specific folder.

Another matter that required strong organization skills was the data from my experiments.
Almost all of the analysis methods had outputs in the form of data tables and graphs, and it was up
to me to interpret this numerical information as qualitative changes in the materials. In order to doso, I needed to compare results between samples, by generating graphs and/or analyzing trends ofcertain values over time. Organizing data into spreadsheets was time-consuming and involved a lotof cross-referencing, but it developed my ability to work with large amounts of data and preemptively improve efficiency.

If I ever obtained unexpected results, I needed to find an explanation why. For example, the DSC
results for the ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) encapsulant of the solar modules I was testing suggested
that crystal structures formed or unformed over the aging process. (DSC shows melting andcrystallization transitions of a polymer over changing temperatures.) After conducting more tests, myteam and I discovered that there were, in fact, several other polymer layers, and it was their melting
peaks that occasionally showed up in the EVA DSC data and were initially interpreted as EVA crystal
melting. Such situations allowed me to enhance my ability to problem solve, especially from a nonmathematical perspective.

Overall, my placement exposed me to a much more science-based aspect of materials. I learned
more chemistry and data analysis skills to supplement my engineering knowledge, which I believe is
an asset in a world where it is becoming increasingly important to have interdisciplinary perspectives.

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6The laboratory experience I gathered will most likely open up more opportunities for me in thefuture, such as other research-based jobs or graduate programs, which are possibilities that I may nothave seriously considered in the past.

Social | 社交Of course, I did not spend all of my time at the office working with spreadsheets. My team mademe feel welcome as soon as I started, and any preconceptions I had about Japanese people being shy
dissolved very quickly. I am still not sure if the people at the Yokohama Research Institute are anexception, but most coworkers I met, from the beginning to end of my term, were very social andopen (even if they didn’t speak much English).
That being said, I did not find formalities at work, including hierarchal relationships, to be asevident at Tokyo Gas as I know they can be at other companies. The work style was not very different
to what I was used to in Canada, as people still socialized while taking a break from their tasks, andcommunications between juniors and seniors seemed to be encouraged. In addition, partway
through my term, the office switched to a uniform-optional, casual dress code, supposedly to boost
comfort and creativity.

Conversations were slow at first due to the language barrier, which varied in intensity dependingon the person. I spoke slowly, letting others get used to my accent and style of speaking.
Explanations both ways were provided often, teaching each other vocabulary, pronunciation, figuresof speech. I supplemented my immersion with brief, daily lessons (with the help of the app
Lingodeer), so that I could properly learn grammar and sentence structure.
With time came comfort between the two languages. Before long, my coworkers were able tounderstand my English at a faster pace, and I was able to comprehend parts of their Japaneseconversations. I became the resident English expert, helping a variety of colleagues with their papers,

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7presentations, and tests. I also sharpened my ability to gather the meanings of certain words andphrases without receiving a full translation or explanation — I am from a very multicultural part ofToronto, so I am used to less-than-fluent English — and this earned me the title of “bestcommunicator in the world”, according to one of my team members.

On occasion, I was invited to dinners, industry expos, and day trips. We discussed differences
between Canada and Japan — work environments, schooling, celebrations, activities, food, and pop
culture, among many other topics. We shared stories from our lives, and found similarities. I
developed friendships with those around me very quickly, and discovered that cultural bridges aren’t
hard to build once you can find an initial connection with someone.

Travel | 旅行
When I wasn’t spending time at work or with my colleagues, I was mostly on my own. In an effort
to make the most of living in Japan, I decided to spend every weekend exploring a new area within
the country I hadn’t been to.
I wanted my stay to include distinctly Japanese experiences, and so I centred many of my travels
on matsuri, or festivals often based in Buddhist and Shinto traditions, something that evidently
doesn’t happen in North America. In fact, for my first weekend after settling in, before even exploring
Tokyo, I decided to go to Osaka for the Kishiwada Danjiri Matsuri. Other festivals I attended were theNihonmatsu Chochin Matsuri (Fukushima), Ikegami Honmonji Oeshiki (Tokyo), Sawara Aki Taisai(Chiba), Kawagoe Hikawa Matsuri (Saitama), Chichibu Yomatsuri (Saitama), Saidaiji Eyo Hadaka
Matsuri (Okayama), and Omizutori (Nara), alongside more modern festivals such as the Sapporo Yuki
Matsuri and Shikotsuko Hyoto Matsuri (Hokkaido).

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8Overall, in the span of eight months, I visited places in the following prefectures, in order offirst visit: Osaka Yamagata

 Aichi Tokyo Okinawa Nara Fukushima

 Iwate Yamanashi Kanagawa

 Nagano Fukuoka

 Chiba Gunma Nagasaki

 Saitama Hokkaido

 Kumamoto

 Kyoto Ishikawa

 Tochigi

 Hiroshima Gifu Ibaraki Miyagi

 OkayamaThis was the first time I was organizing trips entirely by myself, and I must say that while sometrips went very smoothly, others were much more stressful. There were instances when I got on thewrong bus, booked a hotel in an inconvenient location, spent too much money on admission fees,
overlooked a major sightseeing spot, or bought a useless train ticket.
At the same time, however, I sought blessings from the most beautiful shrines and temples,walked back in time through castles and historic districts, tasted some incredibly delicious food,beheld a variety of traditional art forms, and visited places that touched my soul. I witnessed some of
the best parts of the country’s autumn, winter, and spring seasons, and observed subtle differences inJapanese regional cultures. Just a few of these experiences are captured in Figure 2.

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9Figure 2. Photos of some of my favourite places or experiences in Japan: a) Itsukushima Shrine, Hiroshima;b) Yamadera, Yamagata; c) Kawagoe Matsuri, Saitama; d) Dutch Slope, Nagasaki; e) Shitennoji, Osaka;f) Gotokuji, Tokyo; g) Nihonji, Chiba; h) Korakuen plum blossoms, Okayama; i) Urabandai, Fukushima;j) Nagatoro, Saitama; k) Hida Mountains, Nagano; l) Matsushima, Miyagi; m) Hedo Misaki, Okinawa

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10Perhaps one of my favourite things about traveling was the people I interacted with along myjourney. As I usually travelled by myself, Japanese people around me often took the opportunity toask me where I was from, and what I was doing in Japan. People were amazed at my Japanese accent(despite my limited speaking capabilities), the fact that I looked South Asian but was born in Canada,that I was living in Tokyo for eight months, or that I made the effort to visit their hometown.
Interactions included a kind old librarian who walked me partway to a train station, a restaurant
owner who gave me an origami sculpture along with my meal, a pastry chef-physiotherapist who
once did his clinical rotations in Toronto, a group of high school boys who half-included me in theirchat over dinner, and a little kid who wanted to practice the few phrases he knew in English. Alongwith countless other conversations, pieces of guidance, and random acts of kindness, these reasons
are why I now think that the common notion of Japanese people being shy is a myth.

Conclusion | 結論
Eight months is a perfect amount of time to get acclimatized to a country like Japan. Before long,
I became accustomed to the mannerisms of the people around me, started thinking partially inJapanese, learned to cook simple local meals, and found myself giving advice to other CJCP students,
both familiar and unfamiliar with the ways of the land.

Occasionally, we would meet up (like the time pictured in Figure 3) and share anecdotes andconcerns with each other. It was interesting to see how different our experiences were, in terms ofwhat our work placements were like, who we interacted with, what we did in our free time, and what
we wanted out of this internship program.

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11Figure 3. CJCP get-together in September 2018

For any future CJCP students, my advice is this: you are going to come across challenges, but you
will overcome them as long as you have an open mind and positive outlook. Learn from everythingaround you, but more importantly, learn from your mistakes. Use your support system when you
need it, but set your own goals and aspirations. Ultimately, your experience in Japan is entirely what
you make of it — and I hope it’s as wonderful (whatever your definition of wonderful is) as my timehere was.