My immediate supervisor, Dr. Takashi Kurihara, treated me with genuine hospitality and kindness, offering personal friendship in addition to a wonderful work environment. He involved me immediately in the group's scientific endeavors. Together, we constructed my summer project, which was to perform a differential display between mice with induced neuropathic pain, and control mice. Initially unfamiliar with this branch of neuroscience, over the summer I grew more conversant with the literature and current hot topics of research, and, gratifyingly, I accomplished a good part of the research goals set at the beginning. In the NSF orientation to Japan, we were advised of cultural traits to help in our acculturation.
Personal advancement is secondary to cooperation and success of the group.
Interaction in a group is itself highly regulated. As for gender dynamics, Japan is ostensibly modern and egalitarian, but in reality traditionally subservient roles for women persist. What I discovered was that these and other social memes manifest themselves in the laboratory environment. The laboratory was composed of several divisions that investigated different aspects of the same topic and yet were so intertwined that they relied on each other to advance. This led to laudable cooperation and inveighed against detrimental selfishness and oppressive egos.