![\"IMG_83871-200x150\"](\"http:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/fsci\/assets\/uploads\/2016\/03\/IMG_83871-200x150.jpg\")
<\/a>I had the opportunity to have an experience with 2 supervisors so far.\u00a0 My supervisors are both very good people and give to their labs a friendly atmosphere, but I would say that they are quite different.\u00a0 One is older and has many years of experience.\u00a0 The other one is younger and spends a lot of time with us.\u00a0 He is always around.\u00a0 My previous supervisor left the best impressions to me, and the current one is already one of my favorite people in Japan.\u00a0 He is very nice.I love my lab members.\u00a0 They are all very cool people.\u00a0 Maybe it’s an engineering thing to be a very good person, but all the people I’ve met in engineering schools so far, are very nice people.\u00a0 I still see my previous lab members and go out for drinks or dinner with them.\u00a0 With my current lab members, I have spent a lot of time together already and even went out for many nomikai (drinking party).\u00a0 They are mostly Japanese, but I like the fact that they want to speak English too.\u00a0 So when we are with the other international students who do not speak Japanese, we also speak in English.<\/p>\nOutline of the research<\/h3>\n
The population in cities all around the world keeps increasing by the day, and it is estimated that the greatest part of our planet’s population will be living in urban areas in the a few decades.\u00a0 Of course the increasing population in the urban areas keeps adding pressure on their system, threatening their sustainability and resilience.\u00a0 Two of the most trending strategies of the past decades in defending the urban sustainability are the \u201cCompact City\u201d and the \u201cSustainable Urban Mobility\u201d (SUM) strategies.<\/p>\n
My research will focus on understanding the effects of the Compact City and Sustainable Urban Mobility (SUM) planning on urban resiliency.\u00a0 In other words, aim to find out if the prevention of city’s expansion by raising the population density, mixing the land uses, and providing better transportation system, can also create a sustainable community and a safer city to live in.\u00a0 So the main question of my research to be answered would be:<\/p>\n
Compact city=Resilient City=Sustainable city? And how can we create this triple equality?<\/p>\n
In order to achieve my research goal and answer the above question I will examine both Greek and Japanese cities that are clamed to have developed or are developing under the compact city principals, in search for good or bad practices, evaluating the current resiliency and sustainability levels as well as the potential for enhancement through transportation and land use planning.<\/p>\n
Even though Japanese proficiency is not required in this English-based program, you are fluent in Japanese. Is there anything special you did to really improve your Japanese?<\/h3>\n
I had studied Japanese before I come here but my Japanese was not good enough at that time.\u00a0 So I really tried in the first year to learn Japanese as much as I could.\u00a0 I was participating in the lab meetings and trying to present my research in Japanese.\u00a0 I was taking Japanese lessons only the first 6 months at Waseda, but then I thought I learned better through life, through my everyday communication with other people.\u00a0 So I usually learn from friends everyday phrases and informal way of speaking, and then I go to the lab meetings and see the formal way of speaking and presenting.\u00a0 These experiences become very useful later.\u00a0 I started taking notes every time I go to the meetings and sometimes I interrupt the professor and ask the meaning of words or phrases he just used.\u00a0 It is good that he does not mind me interrupting him and he likes the fact that I want to learn.\u00a0 He is always happy to explain.\u00a0 His English is very good so he can explain very clearly.<\/p>\n
I have only been in the current lab for a short time, and the presentations I have done so far are in English because we have other international students, but I am hoping to present my final thesis in Japanese in the end.<\/p>\n
What is your career goal after your degree completion?<\/h3>\n
If we had done this interview like 4 days ago, I would have said I would like to start working in Japan for some years or maybe go to Europe. However, right now I am not sure if I want to go straight to job hunting or continue for a PhD, because my relationship with my professor is going really well and I like my research.\u00a0 If I can find a scholarship to cover my expenses, I am considering continuing to the doctoral course.<\/p>\n
Short message to the prospective students<\/h3>\nin English<\/h4>\n
Hey everyone!
\nIf you are reading this message, you are probably considering coming to Japan and Waseda University to study.\u00a0 I am going to be honest with you as I always try to be with people.\u00a0 Life in Japan is not easy if you’re planning to come here as a regular, full time student.\u00a0 There are difficulties and obstacles in both your University and every day life that many times will have to overcome.\u00a0 But let me tell you what, it’s TOTALLY worth it!\u00a0 I think that the good experiences, the knowledge and the memories that you will acquire totally beat the difficulties that you will face.\u00a0 The culture, the food, the people, the transportation system (my favorite aspect of Tokyo) and so many more aspects of Japan are simply amazing and quite different from your country (especially if you come from Greece).<\/p>\n
As for Waseda University, I think that wouldn’t have been able to overcome many of the above-mentioned difficulties if it wasn’t for this University and the people I have met here.\u00a0 Waseda is great place to study, but most importantly it is a big multicultural community that welcomes people from all over the world, an aspect that not many Japanese universities have.<\/p>\n
in Greek<\/h4>\n
![\"IMG_8155-copy1-200x241\"](\"http:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/fsci\/assets\/uploads\/2016\/03\/IMG_8155-copy1-200x241.jpg\")
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[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3412,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[94,123],"class_list":["post-3411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-en","tag-general-en","tag-voice-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/fsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/fsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/fsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/fsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/fsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3411"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/fsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3418,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/fsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3411\/revisions\/3418"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/fsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/fsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/fsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/fsci\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"P1010069-200x150\"](\"http:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/fsci\/assets\/uploads\/2016\/03\/P1010069-200x150.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"2013-09-05-16.13.59-200x150\"](\"http:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/fsci\/assets\/uploads\/2016\/03\/2013-09-05-16.13.59-200x150.jpg\")
<\/a>I had my friend’s recommendation and also found out on your website that the faculties you have here in engineering, also include the one I wanted to study.\u00a0 When I contacted Waseda, I was amazed by their fast response, and by how kind and helpful with all the procedures.\u00a0 I also applied for several universities in Tokyo, but they answered too slow and were not helpful.\u00a0 So, all the reasons came together.\u00a0 I had already made up my mind for Waseda even after the other Universities contacted me.<\/p>\n![\"P10100681-200x150\"](\"http:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/fsci\/assets\/uploads\/2016\/03\/P10100681-200x150.jpg\")
<\/a>The greatest difficulty was communication, because my Japanese level was not enough when I arrived here.\u00a0 I experienced some difficulties with bureaucracy and the paperwork, like the residence card etc.\u00a0 These things are always kind of difficult, but now I am used to it.\u00a0 I can fill out those forms easily and even write my address in Japanese really fast.\u00a0 This is actually the only thing I can write fast in Japanese, because I’ve written it so many times.Finding a place to live could have been difficult but was relatively easy for me.\u00a0 I had the help of a friend of mine from my previous lab.\u00a0 He called some real estate agents and made the arrangements.\u00a0 When I actually visited the agents, I could talk in person in Japanese, so it was ok.\u00a0 It only took about a week to find an apartment with the help of my friend.\u00a0 It was pretty fast compared to other people.\u00a0 They search for apartments for 2 to 3 weeks.I actually love Japanese food.\u00a0 The first 2 months I was here, I lost 5 kg because Japanese food is very healthy.\u00a0 It is really different from Greek food.\u00a0 We use a lot of olive oil and eat bread every day.\u00a0 Japanese food is cleaner and lighter, I think.\u00a0 I had no problem switching to Japanese diet.<\/p>\n![\"IMG_83861-200x150\"](\"http:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/fsci\/assets\/uploads\/2016\/03\/IMG_83861-200x150.jpg\")
<\/a>I usually try to be as Greek as I can and take Sundays off, because Sundays for Greek people are sacred.\u00a0 It is a rest day, no matter what.\u00a0 So I try to have my Sundays off, or even maybe sometimes Saturdays as well, except for the times I have to come to the lab.\u00a0 But usually I am quite free on weekends.\u00a0 I like going out for food with my friends and exploring new places in Tokyo.\u00a0 Tokyo is such a vast city that 2 years are not enough to explore everything.\u00a0 So occasionally, a friend of mine takes me to a place I have never been before, and I get really amazed. It is a totally new experience.\u00a0 I like Shimo-Kitazawa and Shibuya a lot.\u00a0 I like the differences between these two places.\u00a0 So many different places in the same city.\u00a0 If I speak like a planner, first of all, the street sizes and building proportions are totally different.\u00a0 In Shimo-Kitazawa, you have small sized, buildings and neighborhood-like atmosphere with many second-hand shops and small cafes where you can drink your coffee outside.\u00a0 In Shibuya, you have to go up to lets say the fifteenth floor of a building for the same activities.\u00a0 I also like Iidabashi for the beautiful riverside.\u00a0 There you can see tall buildings combined with nature, as the river running between them.\u00a0 I always try to observe the places I go both as a tourist and as a planner.\u00a0 I also like going to the gym, trying to keep both mind and body healthy.\u00a0 I like playing video games, especially the strategy and role-playing ones.\u00a0 Japan is very good at making these kind of games.\u00a0I try to cook every day.\u00a0 I bring my own bento (home-packed meal) with some meat and vegetables and buy some salad, juice, and onigiri (rice balls) from Seikyo (University Co-op Shop).\u00a0 With my food, I usually like to eat Feta cheese but it is kind of expensive here so l had my parents bring some when they came for a visit, and I also brought some when I came back from Greece in summer.<\/p>\n