藥學系四年級姚乃慈

Student Exchange Program Report

99003026  Nai-Tzu, Yao

Country: Japan (Tokyo&Osaka)

Date: 2013/8/05~2013/8/26

SEP(Student exchange program) is a program of IPSF(International Pharmaceutical Students' Federation). It’s an activity for students to exchange to different country to experience the difference not only between the pharmacy field but also the culture and history. I am so glad I got this opportunity to being accepted by the country that I’ve been always dreaming for.

As a pharmacy student, I’ve been plan to go to Japan for Master’s degree and work so this program will be an absolutely a great chance to know more so that’s why I chose Japan as my priority. Guided by the students from Tokyo Pharmaceutical University, we visited the drug store, pharmacy, hospital pharmacy, laboratory and etc. We also had a lot of great time for some special events and sightseeing, I experienced Japan’s culture and learned a lot history of ancient Japan and all of this really fascinated me!

The following are what I’ve learned and felt from this SEP :

About hospital visit

It’s definitely very nice! I understood “ what a pharmacist do” in Japan’s hospital since those pharmacists are truly nice to answer and teach us whatever we ask. I like the way of hospital visit: we are taken to different departments and are taught by different pharmacists who are specialized in their field so we can understand deeper into. After the visit, I realized that what pharmacists do in Japan is kind of different to Taiwan and I think it might due to the difference of education system.

I admired the pharmacist in Japan since they study six years to get the bachelor degree and they emphasize the clinical training so every pharmacist can competence for the clinical work, it means :every pharmacist can also be the clinical pharmacist. In Taiwan, it might not happen, only the most outstanding pharmacist can do.

We visited Showa University hospital	We visited Yokohama Residential Care and Medical Center

About pharmacy visit

Last year I had a practical training in Taiwan’s pharmacy for two months so during the pharmacy visit this time I was happy for I can figure out the difference more detailed. I think it’s almost the same but the way of packaging. In Japan’s pharmacy, being efficient in packaging must be more important since I can see big packaging machine everywhere in Japan’s pharmacy even the pharmacy is really small. It’s really cool, not only save time but also lower the risk of mistake. But in Taiwan, most pharmacy still rely on pharmacist in the way of packaging.

In Japan, they are doing the successful pharmaceutical care and they have the insurance especially for pharmaceutical care but in Taiwan we are just started and we have pay for it on our own. They explain a interesting reason for me: most young people won’t spend time take care of their parents and they tend to work cross the city so that’s why pharmaceutical care is so successful in Japan.

We visited the Cocokarafine drug store. It’s a kind of store combined the drugs and the cosmetics and it is similar to the “WATSONS’ in Taiwan.	The big packaging machine in the small dispensing room

We visit the市川 pharmacy.	We and the pharmacist in 市川 pharmacy.

The dispensing room is small but it offer more than one thousand kinds of drugs.	I am impressed by so much traditional chinese medicine in the 市川pharmacy because in Taiwan we seldom dispense it in the pharmacy . That means Japan has a good development in the this field .

About Lab visit

We visited the pharmaceutical laboratory of Musashino University in Tokyo. I’ve been always tended to get the Master’s degree in Japan after I graduated so this is really a great opportunity to know more about this. First, the professor and students introduce their laboratory and talk about their research recently and I was really impressed by their laboratory because I haven’t seen so many large and newest instruments before and even some of those I learned from no more than text book.

During the laboratory visit, we also discuss some example of the experiment, that’s really great! We also visit the laboratory for their undergraduate student and it’s really amazing! Some small instrument for the experiment can be distributed to almost every student during the class while we whole class have to share with just a few instruments and waste a lot of time.

 Besides this, we also visit the classroom and campus of the undergraduate and I’m surprised by medicinal plant garden near their classroom! I think it’s really nice to learn the real one during the course of medicinal plant, still less the garden is there near next door. I really admire them since we have to go up the mountain for it or we can just see it from the text book.

Above all, I can say they really put in a lot of fund for student to offer a good learning environment.

The medicinal plant garden	We observed those plants and had a discussion.

This is the laboratory for undergraduate pharmacy student.	This is a special instrument I’ve never seen which is a NMR spectrometer for mouse!!!

This is the classroom for undergraduate pharmacy student.	I and the pharmacy students from Musashino University.

About sightseeing day

We visited “Edo Tokyo museum”, ”Tokyo international museum” ,”Kabuki museum” and also went to some famous temple.

I really love the museum because I’ve always interested in the ancient Japan especially the”Edo era” and the performance of kabuki. I took a lot of pictures and read the introduction carefully and I even took the note for it! It’s a pity that we didn’t buy the ticket for kabuki performance not only because it’s too expensive but also hard to get it. Some even said we have to order it few months ago to obtain it. After we visit the kabuki museum, I wish one day I can really watch the show, I think I’ll really love it!

We also visit some temples and learned how to pray as Japanese ways. It’s really fun and we also try to know the meaning of some action.

We visited the famous temple in Giyugaoka.	We visited the drug museum!

We visited the Meiji temple and washed hands in typical style.	Edo Tokyo Mesuem is really great!

About presentation

Students from each country should prepare a 30 minutes presentation to talk about the system of pharmacy education and the work of pharmacist according to each country. We also have to introduce our country and culture to all. I was in charge of Taiwan’s introduction and I was so happy that many students tell me they would like to visit Taiwan some day!

Indonesia students introduced their country.	Same.

We didn’t take the picture of ourselves but the situation is similar.

About special events

Besides those schedules about pharmacy, we also have a lot great time with the student in Japan. I think the most special one is that we attend the vampire campaign. Vampire campaign is an activity that we wear some special costumes to attract people for donating blood. On the day, we wore the yukata, a clothes what the Japanese usually wear in summer, stood under the direct sunshine for 3 hours and kept yelling “献血お願いします!!”. I remember it was really tired on that day but we were really happy to finish such a big mission.

We also had some parties which I made a lot of friends and had a great time. The most impressive one is the “Sushi party”, all of the students from other countries and the Japanese staffs have to make some food stood for their country. We decided to make the pearl milk tea to represent as Taiwanese food since one of the students brought the” pearl “from Taiwan! They really like it and I also taste some sushi, egg roll, miso soup, which were all typical Japanese food! Quite happy that day!

We also had the touching farewell party on the end of our SEP. I was really sad to say goodbye and couldn’t let it go. That day we students from Taiwan, Indonesia, Hungary and also the Japanese staffs talked a lot and took a lot pictures. I’ll always remember that beautiful night.

We made 26 cups of pearl milk tea!	Everyone enjoy drinking our pearl milk tea!
The vampire campaign.And we all wear yukata !	Preparing for our “sushi party”.
Farewell party was really touched. I won’t remember them!	Yeah! I “graduated” from the SEP !

Conclusion

There is truly a lot sweet memory during SEP, and I got a lot great experience. I think the best experience might be some way we experience Japanese life style. Like we should say”いただきます! “before we start to having a meal, that’s really interesting! In firework festival, lot’s of people wear yukata and have a picnic, I have never experience this kind of activity in Taiwan and I only seen it on Japanese drama so I am really excited to experience this! The tea ceremony is really cool too since it’s a really traditional practice in Japan and I remember I was amazed by so many beautiful motions. I really love those special experiences

It’s really wonderful that I’ve learned I want during SEP ! Apart from a lot I learned in pharmacy and hospital, I also learned Japanese culture and history during sightseeing and these really fascinated me! I also love those parties and I made a lot of friends! I think that’s why I chose to attend SEP , we chatting a lot to know more about each other’s country and exchanging some idea. Thanks a lot to all APS-Japan staffs, I really had a great time and I will absolutely visit Japan again!