Martin um die Welt: 2) Okinawa - EMBO course in computational biology

Donnerstag, 23. April 2015

2) Okinawa - EMBO course in computational biology

Friday (17.04.) morning I flew from Tokio Narita airport to Naha airport on Okinawa. A taxi picked me and two other attendees of the EMBO course from the airport up and brought us to the Seaside House of the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST). 19 young researchers and 8 professors - a great group! We enjoyed the views from the Seaside House every day... though we didn't have much time to go out as the course schedule was packed and we got a lot to learn. We had shared double rooms right in the Seaside House, while the professors stayed in a nearby hotel. That made socializing with the professors during beers difficult... so we young researchers enjoyed the beers without the profs.
On Sunday (19.04.) we visited the Okinawa Aquarium. The first time that I saw whale sharks! They have three of them in the huge aquarium. Along with them different rays including three huge manta rays. Amazing to see these majestic animals to float above you. The Okinawa Aquarium offered plenty more small species in their own little aquariums too. But the big tank was the major attraction. Outside the main area, I finally saw dugongs for the first time! Since I heard about them during our Florida trip, I wanted to see them^^
On Monday (20.04.) we visited the main campus of OIST. Massive buildings in the middle of the jungle. They explained us that they built self-supporting bridge to lower their environmental impact... well... if they cared about that they wouldn't have built that huge place in the middle of the jungle at all! Somehow I don't really like such super artificial places. Same reason that Dubai didn't appeal to me. But OIST is still massively expanding - good opportunities to get a faculty position ;)
The course finished Wednesday (22.04.) evening and I felt really exhausted after all these 12h days... and because I got drunk the evening before when discussing with an Indian about the US introducing diseases to Africa (yea, some people actually believe such bullshit) and ended up with only 1.5h of sleep^^ We then used the last evening to walk from the Seaside House along the beach. A few hotel and spa complexes along the long coast and a beautiful little light house :)