First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to NITech for giving me a chance to share my personal experience in Japan. I would like to start my article from about myself and the story of why I came to Japan. I grew up in Yangon, Myanmar, and received my bachelor and master degrees in computer technology from University of Computer Studies, Yangon (UCSY) in 2003 and 2008, respectively. When I was in middle school, I watched a TV program about children who participated in the Asian-Pacific Children's Convention held in Fukuoka as young peace ambassadors. Eleven-year-old me was very inspired by the children who were the same age as me. I was also fascinated by the culture of Japanese people and spectacular scenery of Japan which were introduced in the TV program. From that time, I wished I could visit Japan one day. In one rainy day of 2011, when I was doing experiment in my lab, UCSY informed me that I was eligible to apply MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) scholarship provided by Japanese government. After passing a few written and oral exams, my dream came true and I received the scholarship. Before coming to Japan, my research had focused on virtualized data center. I thought that continuing the same topic of research is good, but studying a new topic or technology may be better. By taking the challenge, I hope that I can bring something new to UCSY in my future. Therefore, I was eager to learn about haptics communication in Prof. Ishibashi’s laboratory.

I am now a third year doctoral student, and study QoS control in haptic media communications. Let me mention my work with a few words here. Networked virtual environments provide a user an illusion of sharing a 3D virtual space with other users who are in geographically separated areas. In the environments, the user can get feeling of telepresence because he/she gets haptic feedback in addition to vision and sound by touching a virtual object with a haptic interface device. There are a wide spectrum of applications that incorporate haptic technology in the fields of music performance, arts, telerobotics, teleoperations, remote education and training, medical surgery and rehabilitation, and so on. When such applications are used over a network like the Internet, the output quality of media such as voice, video, and haptic media may be disturbed owing to the network delay, delay jitter, and packet loss. Therefore, it is important to carry out QoS (Quality of Service) control. My first work was the investigation of the influence of network delay on synchronization quality of sound and interactivity in networked haptic drum performance. I proposed new QoS control called the dynamic local lag control to keep the quality of sound and interactivity high in networked musical performance. Then, I focused on the trade-off relationship between the operability and fairness among players for networked real-time games. Currently, I am studying the effects of olfactory and audio senses for object recognition in networked virtual environment with haptic sense.

My first days in NITech were with full of excitements. I was nervous and curious about what was going to happen during the next three or four years. I also felt like I had come out of my shell. Also, I was a little worried for my poor Japanese language skills. However, my worries were cleared once I had enrolled for Japanese language class provided by NITech for six months as a part of my scholarship program. These first six months were the greatest memories in my life with making life-long friends, meeting people from diverse backgrounds and cultures, and participating in social activities. In the language class, teachers were using only Japanese and gestures to communicate with us. At first, I thought that it was difficult to understand the lectures. But, I realized it was the best way to speed up our Japanese skills in a short period. I must say “Thank you” to Prof. Yamamoto and Prof. Iwatsu from here for their care, help, patience, and kindness. I also want to extend my heartfelt thanks for the best support of international student center of NITech. Even though I am only one Myanmar student in NITech, I never feel lonely because I have a very friendly atmosphere.

I have always felt more than satisfied with the facilities I received at NITech. With the best support of NITech, I have received two best paper awards, IEICE young researcher award, research encouragement award of NITech, and a patent. A journal article has been published and a book chapter is now under publishing process. I have participated in seven international conferences and seven domestic conferences. These accomplishments are the great milestones on my research road. Thanks to my teachers, I would not have come this far without their constructive suggestions and guidance. I also really thank my colleagues and friends in my lab for their prompt help and advices whenever I need.

After finishing my study, I will go back to my country and resume my work as an assistant lecturer in UCSY. I believe that I can continue my research work enthusiastically as I am doing in NITech. The knowledge and experiences I got in Japan made me more confident and strong enough to be able to overcome any difficulties not only in work but also in daily life. A new lifestyle in Nagoya broadened my perspective, and allowed me to understand myself more and realize what I want to achieve in my future.

Before concluding my article, I would like to warmly welcome the international students who are considering to study at NITech. I want to encourage them to try taking challenges of studying abroad and get the achievements. I believe that they all can get a great campus life as international students here.

In conclusion, I can say that Nagoya, Japan is my second home, and this beautiful city makes me happy and safety. Words can never express how truly grateful I am to the teachers, my friends, colleagues, seniors and juniors, and all of the people who I have met here. Thank you very much.